Art Therapy

Entry requirements

An honours degree in Art and Design. This means any art and design discipline; Fine Art, Textiles, Ceramics, Film etc.

All candidates will be expected to provide evidence of a minimum of 1000 hours of relevant work experience in order to be eligible for the course. These hours need to have been accrued by the date of application and do not include hours within the period of acceptance and the start of the academic year. This work may be paid employment and/or voluntary work, gained in the UK or abroad. The work should provide experience of working with the kinds of vulnerable and special needs clients a student may encounter on clinical placement during the MA training. The work should take place in health, education or community settings.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

Join a vocational course, comprising of campus and placement-based learning. We’ll teach you through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops, to bring together theory and practice. We offer a stimulating learning environment, teaching through role play, visual art practice, peer participation and experiential group work.

You’ll complete 96 days of supervised placement learning to give you valuable experience in practicing art therapy in real-life settings. This experience will help guide you to become a mindful, relational and ethical art therapist.

Every step of the way, we’ll encourage you to be an active learner. To be creative. Art making lies at the heart of this course, so you’ll have lots of opportunities to develop strong practical skills. Plus, you’ll reflect on how to use your own art making as therapy practice.

Outside of the course, we’ll require you to explore your own therapeutic journey. To engage with personal therapy to gain self-awareness and to see the approaches used to facilitate honesty of expression.

The course is offered on a full-time (2 years) and part-time (4 years) basis. With students on each pathway studying together. Both pathways are equally weighted in terms of practice-based and campus-based learning.

We welcome creative and psychologically minded students from a wide range of cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds.

Information for international students

In addition to fees, it is necessary to budget for personal therapy. (See ‘Personal Therapy’ section below). Travel expenses to placements are also the responsibility of trainees. Wherever possible, placements are arranged within a reasonable distance of the trainee’s home in order to minimise costs.