The Art Therapy Practice Research Network (ATPRN)

Current research implies that even with the counter-influence of resisting science or research-based methods, field of art therapy and research have begun to deepen their connection. One such area being the Art Therapy Practice Research Network (ATPRN) which developed in 2000. The article, “The Art Therapy Practice Research Network: Hurdles, pitfalls, and achievements,” (2014), discusses the difficult of implementing research in ways that would “change this culture and encourage art therapists to become practitioners/researchers” (p. 174, 2014). This article highlights the significance of moving past what art therapy research once consisted of, which was reporting observations based on a psychological framework that was learned by the specific

Art therapy has been labeled by many researchers as a “practice-based” theory; meaning that the methods or research created for the field of art therapy are generated for the usage and outcomes of that specific practice (2012). Practice-based research differs from evidence-based research, within the field of mental health because it allows for more weight to be placed on the practices or techniques and interventions (2012). According to author, Stephen Clift, (2012) if art therapy is going to transition from practice-based to evidence-based research, to “build a progressive body of knowledge,” then the creation of a “hierarchy of evidence” is needed. Once concrete measures are developed to better assess the value of creative methods, then will art therapy and other creative methods support health and well-being in hospital and clinical

172, 2014). The goal Moon and Hoffman had in mind was to create an alternative to academic expectations in regards to demonstrating “mastery” of learning, as well as develop ways incorporating art therapy education within a research lenses. (p. 172, 2014). This article offered an interesting perspective into arts-based research and the need for more quantitative data within the field of art therapy. Moon states, “…it is clinically beneficial to use all of our reasoning capabilities as art therapists, including a diversity of artistic ways of knowing, in order to understand clients’ creative expressions and to communicate those understandings” (2014). Moon and Hoffman’s article provides action steps into recognizing how research in art therapy needs to start at a graduate level and needs to be explained, in a nonobjective way, to students so that the importance of research and the benefit it provides will outweigh the anxiety it may cause the