Hello! And welcome to your online Art Therapy Exam Test Prep course. 

I call this course, “A Creative Way to Study,” because as art therapists, I can imagine the idea of chaining yourself to a desk for hours on end, reading book after book of lifeless material, hardly appeals. It didn’t appeal to me when I had to take this test either, and it also didn’t help that I have ADHD. So, I decided to put my knowledge as a teaching artist and literacy instructor, to good use.  

When it came to theorists, I would make up silly stories about how they got their ideas, and illustrate them. When it came to remembering who developed which art assessments, I would change the lyrics to holiday songs and commercial jingles, and sing them in the shower. When it came to art diagnosis, I would pretend to belong to various populations and cover my walls with images of distinguishing features. And when it came to pioneers in art therapy, I printed out photographs of each theorist, turned them into a deck of cards, and played a memory game with myself.  

On top of all that, I created tons of flashcards and would test myself on the train, between jobs, and before bed. The closer it came to the date of the exam, I would invite friends over and ask them to play trivia games with me, including “Art Therapy Jeopardy,” and “Developmental Stage Pictionary.” Standing in tree pose and reciting the correct answer—when I got one wrong—forced my brain to get it right, the next time. And, oh, you better believe, mock therapy sessions went down! 

On the day of the test, a bunch of friends and acquaintances turned up at the testing center. Afterwards, we all went out for a drink to decompress. One thing we all had in common, after four grueling hours?

Not one of us knew how well we had done. It’s just that kind of test. It covers mostly applied knowledge, and so often the answers you have to choose from could all arguably apply! You just have to figure out the BEST response. 

This course provides the nitty gritty (an outline of essential knowledge areas and plenty of practice test questions to measure retention), but it also provides fun and enjoyable ways to engage with your learning, so you will feel capable of identifying the “best” answers. It can be overwhelming if you try to tackle it all at once, however. Thus, I have broken it down, step-by step, into 6 sessions and specific topic areas.

Topic Areas Covered in This Course 

1. Ethical Principles for Art Therapists 
2. Suicide Prevention 
3. Crisis and Trauma 
4. Psychological and Psychotherapeutic Principles 
   1. Group Therapy 
   2. Family Therapy 
   3. Evaluation and Assessment 
5. Theory and application 
   1. Gestalt Theory 
   2. Complex Theory  
   3. Humanist and Existential Theory 
   4. Drive Theory 
   5. Ego Psychology 
   6. Object Relations Theory 
   7. Self Psychology 
6. Development 
   1. Cognitive development 
   2. Language Development 
   3. Perceptual Development 
   4. Social Development 
   5. Moral Development 
7. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT 
8. Pioneers in Art Therapy 
9. Special Populations 
10. Multiculturalism 
11. Creativity Theories 
12. Research 

Session Breakdown 

A. Sessions 1-5 will have: 

1. An agenda with experiential exercises and recommendations for supplemental readings and assignments, based on the specific session topics (viewable only)
2. Additional “cheat sheets” and other handouts to assist with studying (downloadable) 
3. A practice test (not downloadable) 

B. Session 6 contains a mock "final exam" practice test made up of all the questions you have previously reviewed, and should be treated as if it were a real testing situation. 

Recommendations 

My recommendations for proceeding through this course include the following: 

A. Set aside a consistent time and space to dedicate concentrated focus and attention to this material. 

B. Determine if you are a person who focuses better WITH noise, or WITHOUT. Believe it or not, this is different for everyone. Sometimes a TV humming in the background is just the ticket! 

C. In addition to studying alone, create a study group and meet at least once or twice per month (depending on how far in advance you start studying), to bounce ideas off of each other and incorporate human interaction into your study routine. This creates learning experiences that are embedded in more ways than one, in your brain. And if you can make each other laugh while doing it, even better! 

D. Make sure you are NOT hungry when you study, but also don’t study right after you have eaten something (both extremes impact attention, focus and retention). HOWEVER, if you can find a way to incorporate food into some of the experiential exercises, it will help stimulate your reward and pleasure centers while studying. 

E. Don’t skip over the creative, experiential exercises. When you activate your body and brain in multiple, affective ways, you are creating stronger connections between your limbic brain and neocortex, which allows for greater retention and recall, in a testing situation. 

F. Don’t skip making flashcards. In fact, I recommend NOT buying flashcards, even if they are available. Part of the utility of flashcards is the process of CREATING them, and preferably by hand. 

G. Don’t skimp on study materials or supplemental readings. These will help you enormously when confronted with questions pertaining to applied knowledge, on the test. Case examples are also important to study as well.  

H. Pace yourself between sessions (ideally allow 1-2 weeks between sessions). And continually review material you have already covered.