Becoming a profession : the history of art therapy in Britain, 1940-82

Part I. Background to art therapy -- part II. The role of individual artists and psychotherapists in the development of art therapy from the 1940s to the formation of BAAT -- part III. Beginning of organised activity : the first working parties in art therapy -- part IV. The campaign to establish art therapy in the NHS -- part V. Training in art therapy -- part VI. Concluding thoughts.

"Becoming a Profession" provides the first comprehensive historical account of the struggle by art therapists to gain recognition and validation for their work within the British state health and education system. It covers the period 1938 to 1982 - from the time when the term was first used in Britain to the assimilation of art therapy by the Whitley Council, with its own career and salary structure. Diane Waller draws on a vast amount of original documentation, on interviews with art therapists, and on a wide range of British art therapy literature in telling the story. By putting the profession of art therapy into an historical context she shows how the profession can be viewed as a living process which can change, rather than a static object liable to become fossilized.