Art Therapy is an integrated mental health and human services profession that enhances the lives of individuals, families and communities through a combination of therapeutic art-making, creative process work and applied psychological theories. It focuses on the human experience by engaging in a psychotherapeutic relationship, facilitated by a practitioner who is professionally trained in the field.

Historically speaking, the first stirrings of arts therapy was felt in the 1990s with the return of early pioneers like Tripura Kashyap in the field of dance movement therapy and Oihika Chakrabarti in the field of Art Therapy (Chakrabarti, 2018) comprising of the first small wave to bring arts therapy to Indian shores. From its inception at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, which translated into the first Art Psychotherapy service in 1999 for children faced with behavioural and emotional difficulties, historically positioning it at the first Child Guidance Clinic in India at the Wadia Children’s Hospital in Mumbai, art therapy has traversed a fairly long journey spanning the last two decades. The second bigger wave that came in the following decade witnessed the return of a number of trained creative arts therapists in different parts of India. Amongst them were a select group of trained art therapists including Krupa Jhaveri, Sruthi Sriram, Disha Dutt. In recent times, there are other sojourners who have returned to India after completing their training and we now have a critical mass to take the field forward in myriad ways. Therefore, despite its many complexities and challenges, art therapy seeks to locate itself within the sphere of training, clinical practice and community care in India today.

Find a TATAI verified art therapist to suit your requirements. A list of trained art therapists and their cities will soon be provided in the Directory.

Find a TATAI verified art therapy supervisor to suit your requirements. A list of trained art therapy supervisors and their cities will soon be updated in the Directory.