How Local Professional Organizations Can Support Members

I’m in a consultation group with fellow art therapists in private practice. One of those therapists recently told our group that she is becoming the president of the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) state chapter in her state. Our consultation group is spread across the country, and she asked us for feedback about our AATA chapters. She wanted to know what our chapters do and what we would like them to do.

This is an admirable question considering AATA state chapters are run entirely by volunteer art therapists. They are people who are stepping up to further the art therapy field and art therapists.

Given that the board consists of volunteers, many state chapters struggle to provide benefits to local members (If you think your AATA state chapter is doing well, please let me know either in the comments or an email. I want to uplift the hard work people are doing).

Many therapists think the primary purpose of AATA on a national and local level is to work toward legislation that promotes licensure for art therapists. While this is certainly one purpose (and a controversial one that I have written about in my essay “The Great Debate Around Art Therapy Licensure”), I think state chapters can assist art therapists in multiple other ways that take far less effort.

Newsletters

State chapters can produce a monthly or quarterly newsletter that lets members know what actions the chapter is taking, upcoming events…