The phrase “art therapy” gets used loosely — by parents, by marketers, by well-meaning program descriptions that borrow the word for its positive connotations without understanding what it actually means. If you’ve seen a provider describe their art activities as “art therapy” and wondered whether that’s accurate, or if you’re trying to figure out what you can use scholarship funds for, this post is for you.
We’re going to be specific about definitions, because the difference matters — practically, professionally, and for scholarship purposes.
What Art Therapy Actually Is
Art therapy is a mental health profession. This is not a casual or marketing description — it is the profession’s own definition, established by the American Art Therapy Association and recognized within the mental health and rehabilitation fields.
Art therapy is delivered by a trained clinician — specifically a credentialed art therapist — who uses art-making within a therapeutic relationship to address clinical goals. Credentialed art therapists typically hold a master’s degree in art therapy, complete supervised clinical hours, and earn credentials through the Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB). The credential to look for is ATR-BC (Art Therapist Registered — Board Certified).
What makes something art therapy is not the medium (making art) — it’s the professional relationship, the clinical training, and the therapeutic intent behind how the art-making is structured and processed.
Art therapy can be used to address emotional regulation, trauma processing, anxiety, depression, and other mental health goals. It belongs in the same category as other mental health interventions — it’s a clinical service delivered by a licensed or credentialed clinician within a professional scope.
What Art Lessons Are
Art lessons are educational and enrichment activities focused on teaching skills and fostering creative expression. An art teacher teaches technique, introduces students to different media and art historical contexts, guides projects, and builds competency and confidence in visual art.
Art lessons are valuable on their own terms — not as a lesser substitute for therapy, but as a distinct kind of activity with their own educational and developmental benefits.
Research on arts participation in early childhood suggests associations with social and emotional benefits — engagement, self-expression, confidence, and creativity. A literature review from the National Endowment for the Arts examines these connections in early childhood settings. These are real benefits worth pursuing.
But those benefits don’t make art lessons a clinical intervention. A child in an art lesson is being educated and enriched. A child in art therapy is receiving mental health services. Both can be good for a child; they are not the same service.
Why This Distinction Matters for Scholarship Families
Step Up for Students includes a category called “music and art therapy” in its FES-UA purchasing guidance. This category has credential requirements attached to it — specifically, it ties coverage to services delivered by appropriately credentialed professionals (such as ATCB-credentialed art therapists and CBMT-certified music therapists).
That means if a provider is calling their art activities “art therapy” without having credentialed art therapists on staff delivering those services in a clinical context, those services would not legitimately qualify under that scholarship category — regardless of what the provider calls them.
If you’re evaluating a provider and want to know whether their art offering would qualify as “art therapy” for scholarship purposes, the right question is: “Are your art therapists credentialed through the Art Therapy Credentials Board, and are they delivering services in a clinical, therapeutic context?” Not: “Do you offer art therapy?”
The name is easy to attach. The credential is not.
What We Offer: Art Lessons as Enrichment
At Speech and Language Connection Services, we offer art lessons. Not art therapy.
Our art classes are enrichment electives — structured creative activities that build artistic skills, self-expression, and confidence. They can be part of a student’s home education plan as an elective, and they’re a meaningful part of a well-rounded learning day.
We do not have credentialed art therapists on staff delivering clinical mental health services, and we do not represent our art offerings as art therapy. We believe in being clear about this because:
- Parents deserve to know exactly what they’re enrolling their child in
- Misrepresenting enrichment as therapy misleads families about what they’re getting
- Scholarship families need accurate category information to make correct purchasing decisions
Art lessons are a legitimate and valuable enrichment service. They don’t need to be called something they’re not.
What This Means When Reading Provider Descriptions
When you read a program description that says “art therapy,” here are the right questions to ask before assuming that means what you think it means:
- Are the people delivering the service credentialed art therapists (ATR or ATR-BC)?
- Is the service structured as a clinical intervention with goals, progress monitoring, and a therapeutic relationship — or is it a class or group activity?
- If the provider is claiming this qualifies under a scholarship’s “music and art therapy” category, have they confirmed this with the scholarship program?
“We use art therapeutically” is different from “we provide art therapy.” The first is a teaching philosophy. The second is a clinical service claim. Only one of them is regulated.
Enrichment Has Real Value
None of this is to say that art lessons are not worthwhile. They are. Creative electives are a meaningful part of a balanced learning program, and the research on arts participation in childhood is genuinely positive — it’s just more modest and nuanced than marketing sometimes suggests.
At Speech and Language Connection Services, we include art lessons in our program because we believe that creative expression, skill-building in a non-academic domain, and the experience of making something with your hands are valuable parts of a child’s development. That’s enough — we don’t need to call it therapy to justify it.
If your child is on FES-UA and you’re wondering how art lessons fit into your scholarship spending, the right category is likely different from “music and art therapy” — reach out to Step Up directly to confirm what categories apply to enrichment services under your scholarship type.
If you want to talk about our art lessons program and whether it’s a good fit for your child, we’d love to tell you more.