Art and the Brain: Implications for Art Therapy

The requirements for a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy and Counseling do not include education on neurology. This thesis explores how neurology that could be beneficial for art therapy education. To begin, basic understanding of brain regions, cell structure, memory storage, neurological equipment, and pathologies is explored. This information was used to further explore creativity in the brain, the neurology of viewing art, and psychological and neurological pathologies. This information is compared in relation to current research on art creation, and/or art therapy within healthy individuals or corresponding pathologies and compiled into organized tables. From the literature review, information was compiled to shape potential tools for future art therapy education, to explore benefits of combining neurology with art therapy education in order to establish common terms for communication in a medical field, as well as to inform students of areas for future research.