Arts-Based Approaches in Occupational Therapy
Use creativity with purpose
Creative occupations can offer powerful ways to support participation, communication, identity, regulation, reflection and skill development.
But meaningful arts-based practice involves more than choosing an activity.
It requires thoughtful clinical reasoning: understanding why a creative approach may suit this person, how it connects with their occupational goals, what will make it accessible and how its usefulness will be evaluated beyond the therapy session.
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These professional learning resources have been created to help occupational therapists use arts-based approaches safely, intentionally and within the scope of occupational therapy.
Clinical reasoning through a deeper lens
OUR MINDFUL ETHOS
Thoughtful occupational therapy practice is not built through scripts or fixed answers, but through reflection, clinical reasoning, and a deeper understanding of the person, their occupations, and their environment.Â
These three resources are offered as accessible tools that you can integrate into your own practice, professional development, or supervision. They are designed to respect your existing expertise while offering new avenues for exploration. Please feel free to access whichever feels most relevant to your current focus.
Introduction to Arts Based Occupational Therapy
30 page workbook
The introductory course that will help you begin integrating arts-based approaches into your OT practice
Best for: Occupational therapists who want an introduction, but aren't ready to implement art based OT intervention strategies or plan around OT goals.
Arts Based Approaches in Occupational Therapy
77 page workbook
designed for occupational therapists who want a structured framework for selecting, planning, facilitating, adapting and evaluating arts-based interventions in psychosocial practice.
Best for: For occupational therapists who are ready to go deeper with their practice.
Professional learning grounded in clinical reasoning
Across both resources, you will learn how to:
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Connect creative activities with meaningful occupational goals
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Distinguish arts-based occupational therapy from creative arts therapy
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Use occupation-focused clinical reasoning to select and adapt an approach
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Protect the client’s authority over the meaning and privacy of their creative work
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Facilitate without interpreting imagery or pressuring disclosure
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Consider sensory, physical, cognitive, cultural and communication access
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Use ongoing consent and provide meaningful non-art alternatives
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Apply neuroaffirming and trauma-aware principles
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Document observable participation using the client’s own language
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Evaluate whether learning transfers into everyday life
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Recognise when supervision, collaboration or referral may be appropriate
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You do not need to consider yourself artistic to use these resources. The focus is not artistic performance—it is thoughtful, ethical and occupation-centred practice.
Option 1: Introduction to Arts-Based Occupational Therapy
A practical foundation for using creative occupations safely and purposefully
This 30-page introductory workbook is for occupational therapists who are new to arts-based approaches, curious about bringing more creativity into their work or wanting to strengthen the foundations of their existing practice. It introduces the clinical reasoning, professional language and ethical considerations that sit behind meaningful arts-based occupational therapy.
You will explore:
- Creativity as meaningful occupation
- Occupation as an end, a means and a context for assessment
- The difference between creative occupation, arts-based OT and creative arts therapy
- Process, product and collaborative meaning-making
- The creative roots of occupational therapy
- Contemporary arts and health evidence
- Selecting an approach from an occupational goal
- Arts-based practice through the Model of Human Occupation
- Consent, accessibility and cultural responsiveness
- Trauma-aware facilitation
- Artwork ownership, privacy and documentation
- Professional scope, supervision and referral
The introductory workbook includes:
- Five foundational modules
- Four experiential activities
- A fictional case example demonstrating clinical reasoning
- A clinical reasoning worksheet
- MOHO-informed reflection
- A before, during and after facilitation checklist
- A reflective practice plan
- Documentation examples
- Professional references
The four experiential activities are:
- Creative process check-in
- Mapping an emotion or body state
- Occupation and identity collage
- Layers of my occupational life
Each activity includes opportunities for choice, adaptation and non-interpretive reflection. They are not presented as universal protocols and should always be adapted to the individual person and context.
This workbook may suit you if you:
- Want an accessible introduction to arts-based OT
- Feel uncertain about the boundaries between arts-based OT and art therapy
- Already use creative activities but want stronger clinical reasoning
- Want to examine consent, access, documentation and professional scope
- Would like a foundation before progressing to more comprehensive training
2. Arts-Based Approaches in Occupational Therapy
Comprehensive training for psychosocial occupational therapy practice
This 77-page comprehensive course takes the foundational concepts further. It is designed for occupational therapists who want a structured framework for selecting, planning, facilitating, adapting and evaluating arts-based interventions in psychosocial practice. The course moves beyond what happens during an activity to consider whether the approach creates meaningful and sustainable change in the person’s everyday participation.
You will learn how to:
- Develop an occupational formulation before selecting an intervention
- Identify why an arts-based approach may be appropriate
- Choose and adapt creative modalities according to the person’s preferences and needs
- Develop outcomes that extend beyond completing an artwork
- Distinguish an immediate session response from occupational change
- Support transfer into the person’s everyday environments
- Evaluate effort, recovery needs and sustainability
- Facilitate using ongoing consent and genuine choice
- Protect client authorship, privacy and ownership
- Document without assigning symbolic or diagnostic meaning
- Adapt approaches for individuals, groups, families, support people and telehealth
- Integrate arts-based approaches without making every therapy session creative
The comprehensive course includes:
- Six detailed learning modules
- Four experiential learning activities
- Seventeen adaptable intervention examples
- MOHO-informed clinical reasoning
- Clinical reasoning and intervention-planning templates
- Outcome-design and evaluation guidance
- A worked case example
- Guidance for individual, group, family and telehealth contexts
- Facilitation and professional-integration checklists
- Questions to support reflective supervision
- A post-course knowledge assessment
- Professional references
- A practical intervention library
The comprehensive course includes intervention examples relating to:
- Perfectionism and task participation
- Strengths and environmental supports
- Occupational identity and life transitions
- Sensory preferences and environments
- Regulation and recovery
- Communication and self-advocacy
- Relationships, consent and boundaries
- Restorative occupations
- Values and meaningful action
Each intervention example includes:
- A clear occupational purpose
- Possible creative modalities
- Facilitation guidance
- Choice, access and safety considerations
- An occupational evaluation question
- A non-art or lower-demand alternative
The examples are starting points for clinical reasoning—not diagnosis-based activities or standardised treatment protocols.
This course may suit you if you:
- Want to integrate arts-based approaches more consistently into your practice
- Need a clearer framework for intervention planning and evaluation
- Want practical ideas without losing sight of clinical reasoning
- Work in mental health, psychosocial or neurodivergent-affirming settings
- Want to strengthen how you document and evaluate creative interventions
- Are ready for more comprehensive and practice-focused learning