Five years on: further thoughts on the issue of surviving as an art therapist

In a paper originally presented at the Eleventh Triennial Congress of the International Society for the study of Art and Psychopathology ¹ in 1985, I outlined some of the problems I faced when, as a recently qualified art therapist, I began working in a large psychiatric hospital in the north of England. In this revised version of my paper I intend to return to the issue of ‘surviving’ as an art therapist in a large institution or organization. However, while many of the problems art therapists face remain the same as those originally described, five years on it is I hope possible to offer some further insights into the nature of these difficulties and a more personal appreciation of the kind of strategies and resources available for beginning to resolve them.