THE CASE FOR FORMAL ART THERAPY ASSESSMENTS

Volume 21, Issue 1, 01 January 2004, Pages 18 – 29 – ART THERAPY: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ART THERAPY ASSOCIATION
Author: Linda Gantt

This paper continues the debate about the merits of formal versus informal art therapy assessments. The author enumerates specific problems with projective drawings and makes suggestions to correct those problems. She contends that art therapists should study these problems carefully and learn from the mistakes of previous investigators. She maintains that art therapists can and must develop their own art-based assessments that meet the psychometric requirements of reliability and validity.