Developmentally, image �language� comes before verbal language. Play, metaphoric and symbolic thinking seem to be universal human behaviours, and have a powerful adaptive advantage as problem solving strategies.

Art making helps people tell their stories, express themselves, contain feelings, improve self esteem, and find new solutions to old problems, in other words to improve the 'Autobiographical Competence' and �Affective Processing� identified as the aims of psychotherapy.

Making images means going between being very involved with them and standing back. This can help people find new ways of dealing with feelings. Therapeutic art making develops and models emotional regulation.

Art Therapy is part of a spectrum of opportunities making links between art and health. No one owns the creative part of human nature. But there are real skills involved in maximising these benefits where there is deep distress or disturbance. Art Therapists are trained to do this. Art Therapy Training is two years full time postgraduate level.

Therapy is another word for treatment and art therapy is a psychological treatment.

It should always be provided by specially trained and Health Professions Council accredited arts therapists. Art Therapy differs from art groups run by other professionals or volunteers. Although these groups are often enriching and enjoyable experiences and can aid self confidence, they are not psychological treatments. They are not attempting to help people understand their deeper feelings or find ways of coping more effectively with their difficulties.

Pictures don�t have a set �meaning� that therapists secretly or openly �interpret�. Pictures are really helpful parts of conversations, often seen as a three way conversation between client, image and therapist, from which meaning emerges. One of the beauties of images is that they can �mean� many things simultaneously. Working with this improves cognitive fluidity, and often brings into question negative core beliefs.

These factors work best when there is a helping relationship with someone who is: experienced in art making - all art therapists are artists first; aware of its psychological and emotional implications, who understands therapeutic relationship and are aware of its psychological and emotional implications.