Common Ground of Two Paradigms: Incorporating Critical Theory Into Current Art Therapy Practices

Clinical art therapy and studio-based community art therapy represent two major paradigms in art therapy practice. This viewpoint explores how critical theory can be incorporated into both paradigms and result in common ground between them. Critical theory encompasses an understanding of oppression in psychological, social, and cultural contexts and one's liberation from it. An emancipatory approach requires awareness of the therapist's standpoint and values the rupture from dominant narratives and hybrid, in-between spaces where clinical and community may coexist.