The Perfect Art Therapist Resume Writing Tips

Do you want to apply for an Art Therapist position to help you get closer to your career goals? Applying for jobs on Seek, LinkedIn, and other job boards can be a time-consuming process, however, to streamline the process, you can ensure your resume writing helps you to stand out from the crowd, and your online profile helps you to get an interview!

If a recruiter or hiring manager are looking for an Art Therapist, they are searching for specific transferable skills. With less than ten people being interviewed for the job and hundreds of people, just like you, applying, The Perfect Resume team have created Resume Writing Tips to help you stand out from the others.

What do recruiters look for in an Art Therapist resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to an Art Therapist position is mandatory today to ensure that your application will pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). In doing so, your resume will be read by the prospective employer. Then, fingers crossed, you will be shortlisted as a potential candidate and be called for not one, but multiple job interviews!

Firstly, before you apply to be an Art Therapist, you need to be acquainted with what an Art Therapist does!

Art Therapists handle the underlying feelings and emotional conflicts that impair patient's physical, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing. They teach patients how to use artwork as a means of releasing or expressing their feelings and use counseling techniques to help patients develop coping skills.

Hiring Managers are looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and responsible Art Therapist to assist in evaluating patients’ reactions and behaviors during art therapy sessions, attending multi-disciplinary treatment team meetings, as well as ensuring that art supplies and equipment are adequately stocked. You should also be able to encourage patients to reflect on the artwork produced during art therapy sessions.

To be successful as an Art Therapist, you should have knowledge of necessary healthcare and medical procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Art Therapist should be able to achieve a strong understanding of visual art and encourage patients to reflect on the artwork produced during art therapy sessions.

Knowing this, your resume and online profile should include the hard and soft skills that the recruiter or hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.

The Art Therapist position description template will also contain pivotal information about what the candidate will need to do daily. Such as:

• Consulting with patients to discuss their medical histories and identify the problems or conditions they wish to overcome.
• Conducting art therapy sessions with patients using various types of visual art, including drawing, sculpting, painting, ceramics, and clay modeling.
• Discussing patients’ artworks with them to evaluate the meaning and emotions behind the artworks.
• Collaborating with other healthcare practitioners to develop or integrate personalized treatment plans.
• Developing suitable art therapy programs for patients based on their needs, objectives, and preferred forms of artistic expression.
• Teaching patients coping skills and strategies to enable them to deal with challenging and traumatic experiences.
• Conducting group or family art therapy sessions as required.
• Supervising art therapy students and interns.
• Maintaining detailed records of patients' progress as well as observations made during art therapy sessions.


You will also have some requirements and personal attributes that you will need to demonstrate in your resume to ensure your potential employer will take your application seriously, such as:

• Master's degree in art therapy or counseling with additional coursework in art therapy.
• Certified by the art therapy credentials board (ATCB).
• Appropriate state licensure.
• Sound knowledge of visual art.
• Excellent observational and counseling skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Effective communication skills.
• Patient, empathetic, and creative.
• A passion for art.


You may also want to do some industry research to find out what other companies want in their Art Therapists.