ABSTRACT
This chapter’s aim is to shed light on the experience of fathers of toddlers within an art therapy setting. It explores fathers’ perceptions of parental gender-role issues in art therapy. The chapter focuses on the themes that relate most closely to perceived parenting-related gender roles. It likes specifically to juxtapose the themes initially raised by the fathers and the topics raised in response to specific gender-related questions posed by the interviewer at the end of the interviews. The chapter responses to the questions in three main categories: intergenerational transmissions and generational gaps, themes of social and personal expectations, and perceived gender roles in parenting and therapy. In the United States and Canada, women make up over 80% of art therapists, and about 75% of new psychology doctorates. The therapist, however, emphasized time and time again his importance to his daughter and to the process.
