Art Therapy was first practiced in the years between the 1940 and 1950s in the United Kingdom and the United States of America as a therapeutic method with which to cure psychological disturbances of war survivors and psychiatric ward patients. Practiced by artists with a sensitivity towards the communicative potential of art or by psychologists and psychiatrists interested in the pictorial language, Art Therapy soon developed as an autonomous discipline expanding its field of application towards the prevention and rehabilitation of all major psychological and social illnesses.

The theory behind Art Therapy has its roots on one hand in art and in creative studies, and on the other in psychodynamic studies: works of art constitute a means for the expression and communication of the internal world- images, thoughts, emotions and fantasies- and provide a means through which a visible and sharable form is given to an individual's reality.

Art Therapy Italiana's approach underlines the importance of the creative process in the therapeutic relationship by taking into consideration its relationship and evolutionary aspects.

The use of artistic material, Art Therapy's main form of language, is of most importance for the promotion and the channelling of expression and communication: the language of the artwork constitutes the fundamental element of the dialogue, verbal and non-verbal, which happens between the patient and his/her therapist.

Every artistic object that is created becomes a presence within the therapeutic setting which influences its creator and its user: both patient and therapist share a potential aesthetic experience that cannot be put into words or explained through its meaning, but whose aim lies in the expansion of one's experience, of one's self-knowledge and of the world around us.
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