ABSTRACT
The paradigm of evidence-based practice challenges the traditional, more intuitive stance that held training, expertise, and experience to be the basis on which diagnosis or treatment decisions should be made. Outcomes research calls attention to how art therapy works and the outcomes it produces. The Delphi method has been deployed in diverse research areas, from health-service policy to the design of clinical guidelines and outcomes research. Outcomes research aims to study the results of care or, more specifically, the effects of art therapy on the objectives clients want to achieve. We ask, "Are we really doing what we say we are doing here? Is there any evidence of what is and isn't working? Is there evidence supporting the need for and benefit of this care"? In a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCCT) the independent variable is called a "treatment" and dependent variables are described as "outcomes".
