How to become a Creative Arts Therapist
At least once a month, via email or social media, I receive an inquiry from someone asking for advice on pathways to become a Creative Arts Therapist in Australia. If you're reading this, chances are you've stumbled across creative arts therapy somewhere and thought: that sounds like something I could do. Maybe you already have an arts background. Maybe you've been working in mental health or community services and want to bring something different to the table. Maybe you've experienced the power of art-making in your own life and want to understand how to hold that space for other people.
Whatever brought you here, the pathway to becoming a creative arts therapist in Australia is fairly specific. And the single most important thing I can tell you before you enrol in anything is this: check that your course will actually make you eligible for professional registration.
A quick note before you read on: this information is correct to the best of my knowledge at the time of publishing in 2026, however things like professional registration requirements, NDIS provider eligibility and program lengths can change. Embarking on study to become a therapist is an incredibly rewarding path - please just make sure you do your due-dilligence before making any big decisions!
What is a creative arts therapist, exactly?
Creative arts therapists use art-making processes within a therapeutic relationship to support people's mental health, emotional wellbeing and personal development. This can include visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture and collage, but also extends to other modalities like movement, music, drama and writing, depending on the therapist's training.
It's not art classes. It's not craft groups. It's not asking someone to draw their feelings and then telling them what it means. Creative arts therapy is a form of psychotherapy, grounded in theory and clinical training, where the art-making process itself becomes a way of exploring and making sense of lived experience. The focus is on the process of creating, the relationship between therapist and client, and what emerges through that, not on producing a nice-looking artwork.
In Australia, creative arts therapy is a self-regulated profession. That means it's not regulated by AHPRA (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) like psychology or occupational therapy. Instead, the profession is overseen by peak professional bodies ANZACATA and PACFA.
Professional bodies: ANZACATA & PACFA
ANZACATA stands for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. It is the peak professional body representing creative arts therapists across the Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific region.
ANZACATA sets the training standards, maintains a code of ethics, provides professional indemnity insurance access, publishes a peer-reviewed journal (JoCAT), and maintains a public directory where people can find a registered creative arts therapist.
Professional members of ANZACATA can use the post-nominal AThR (registered Arts Therapist). This is the recognised professional title in Australia and it tells clients, employers and funding bodies that the therapist has met specific training and practice standards.
PACFA (the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia), is a national peak body representing the self-regulating allied health professions of psychotherapy and counselling. PACFA has a dedicated division called the College of Creative and Experiential Therapies (C.CET) to provide a professional home for therapists who work using more than verbal methods including visual art, dance, drama and music. Both pathways represent a commitment to professional standards and ethical practice; they sit within different organisational structures and suit different practitioners depending on their training background and scope of practice.
Professional registration matters practically too. If you want to provide creative arts therapy through the NDIS, for example, you need to be a professional member of ANZACATA or PACFA. Following the Duckett Review in 2025, the NDIA confirmed that art therapy will continue to be funded under the NDIS, but only when delivered by a qualified therapist who is registered with a recognised professional association. For art therapy, that means ANZACATA or PACFA.
The qualification you need
To be eligible for ANZACATA professional membership (and to use the AThR title), you need to complete a Master's degree in art therapy or creative arts therapy that meets the following criteria:
It must be at AQF Level 9 (that's the Australian Qualifications Framework level for a Master's degree). It must include a minimum of 750 hours of supervised clinical placement. And it must be approved by ANZACATA.
This is a two-year full-time equivalent degree, though some programs offer part-time options.
There's an important change happening in July 2026. Up until that date, ANZACATA has offered a tiered membership structure that accepted graduates from courses at AQF levels 6 to 8 (things like Advanced Diplomas and Graduate Diplomas). From July 2026, ANZACATA will no longer accept qualifications below Master's level for new membership applications. If you're currently enrolled in one of those tier-level courses, you'll still be eligible, but anyone starting after that date will need a Master's.
The direction is clear: a Master's degree is now the standard pathway into the profession.
Which courses are approved?
ANZACATA maintains a list of approved Master's programs on their website, and this is the list you should check before you commit to anything. As of 2025, the approved Australian institutions for professional-level membership include universities in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
There are also approved programs in New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong for anyone considering studying outside Australia.
Each of these programs has its own character, theoretical orientation and structure. Some are more clinically oriented, some more research-focused, some more experiential and arts-based. It's worth looking into the specifics of each program rather than just picking the one closest to you. The approach to therapy you learn during your training shapes your practice in significant ways.
Why this matters: a note on non-approved courses
Here's where it gets tricky. There are courses in Australia that use words like "art therapy" or "creative arts therapy" in their name or marketing but are not approved by ANZACATA or PACFA. Some of these are perfectly good courses in their own right, which focus on specific styles or modalities of creative arts therapy but they won't make you eligible for professional membership. Without ANZACATA or PACFA membership, you won't meet the requirements to provide services through funding bodies like the NDIS.
Because creative arts therapy is a self-regulated profession in Australia, the title itself isn't legally protected in the way that "psychologist" is. Technically, anyone can call themselves an art therapist. This is actually one of the reasons professional registration matters so much. It's the mechanism that gives the public (and employers, and funding bodies) a way to verify that someone has met a genuine standard of training and practice.
So before you enrol: go to the ANZACATA and PACFA website, check their approved courses list, and make sure the program you're considering is on it. If it's not, contact them directly and ask. This one step can save you years of study and thousands of dollars in a course that won't get you where you want to go. And, once you have graduated and are practising, those great short courses that grow skills in specific modalities may be an option for continuing professional development (CPD).
What does the training actually involve?
The specifics vary by program, but broadly, a Master's in creative arts therapy will cover psychological theory, therapeutic frameworks, ethics, research methods and, critically, extensive supervised clinical practice.
Most programs also involve significant personal and experiential learning. Creative arts therapy training tends to ask a lot of you as a person, not just as a student. You'll be making art, reflecting on your own processes, and developing your capacity to be present with other people's material. It can be confronting. It can also be profoundly meaningful.
If you have an undergraduate degree already (in anything, not necessarily arts or psychology), you're generally eligible to apply for a Master's program. Some programs have specific prerequisites or selection processes, so check the entry requirements for each institution.
After you graduate
Once you've completed your Master's from an ANZACATA-approved program, you can apply for professional membership.
From there, maintaining your registration involves ongoing obligations. ANZACATA professional members are required to complete a minimum of 25 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year, maintain regular clinical supervision (the guideline is one hour of supervision for every 15 hours of client work), and practise a minimum of 150 hours per year (or 450 hours averaged over three years).
You'll also need to comply with the ANZACATA code of ethics and be prepared for potential audits of your CPD and supervision logs.
These requirements exist for a reason. Creative arts therapy is relational, often deeply personal work. Ongoing supervision and professional development aren't just boxes to tick. They're how you stay safe, ethical and effective as a practitioner.
A few other things worth knowing
Creative arts therapy in Australia is recognised as an allied health profession by Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA), which adds a layer of professional credibility and advocacy. ANZACATA is also an affiliated organisation of PACFA (the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia), and some graduates also pursue PACFA registration alongside ANZACATA membership.
The profession is still relatively young in Australia compared to places like the UK, where art therapist is a protected title regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council. That means there's both a challenge and an opportunity: the field is growing, recognition is increasing, and there's room for practitioners who are willing to contribute to building the profession as it develops.
Career settings for creative arts therapists are broad: private practice, community health, hospitals, mental health services, schools, aged care, disability services, palliative care, corrections, organisational settings. Some therapists specialise in particular populations or approaches, and many combine clinical work with community projects, research or teaching.
In summary
If you want to become a creative arts therapist in Australia: study a Master's degree that is approved by ANZACATA or PACFA. To secure work in hospitals or via NDIS this is non-negotiable. Everything else, the modality you're drawn to, the population you want to work with, the theoretical orientation that resonates with you, can be figured out along the way as you learn, practice and grow your skills. But the qualification pathway is specific, and getting it right from the start will make what comes next much easier.
Jessie Upton (AThR) is a Creative Arts Therapist and professional member of ANZACATA, based in Melbourne. They provide individual and group creative art therapy for adults, host a neurodivergent peer group for adults with ADHD & autism and offer creative capacity, organisational culture and reflective practice programs for organisations.
Here they are at their graduation with their Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice certificate.