Hosting Art Therapy Placements

Thinking about having art therapy at your organization facilitated by TATI students? We’re offering some information below for you to decide whether an art therapy placement might be a good fit for your organization.

If you decide that your organization has the capacity to support an art therapy placement, and that hosting art therapy student(s) may be beneficial to your organization, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page to let us know more about your interest in setting up an art therapy placement, and our practicum coordinator will follow up with you shortly!

What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy involves the integration of the creative process with psychotherapy and/or other supportive, relational practices to facilitate healing, growth, and wholistic well-being. It can facilitate generative self-expression, emotional and embodied awareness, connections with and development of strengths and skills, as well as cultivation of mutual support and community-building in group settings.

Beyond simply combining psychotherapy and art-making, art therapy expands the accessibility of the therapeutic process by offering creative, alternative choices for expressions and communication. We facilitate connections with creativity and imagination for exploring the experiences of, and possibilities for, living and relating that are diverse, complex, and rich beyond words.

About TATI Placements

The Toronto Art Therapy Institute is registered as a career college under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005, and recognized by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (both academic and clinical experience) and the Canadian Art Therapy Association. To complete the graduate diploma in art therapy training program, students obtain 600 practicum hours from a range of practicum placements.

Art therapy can work well within a range of organizations and TATI placements can be structured in a variety of ways. Examples of our practicum settings include hospitals, public or private schools, children and adult mental health services, developmental services, hospices, long term care centres, supportive housing and shelters, private practice collectives, and community health centres.

Our placement program runs year round, so students can start practicum at any time during the year. While practicums are usually 3-6 months in length, they can be tailored to suit the specific scheduling needs of the agency.

Formats of Art Therapy Placements

Art therapy may be facilitated in person or virtually, in the following formats:

  • TATI students facilitating psychotherapy as defined by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), can be in one-to-one sessions or group formats.
  • TATI students facilitating arts-based support practices such as art hives, open studio, arts-for-wellness programs, single workshops, psychoeducation workshops, etc., not involving psychotherapy as defined by the CRPO, usually in group format.

Placement Host Requirements

Virtual placements: In compliance with standards of responsible and ethical therapeutic practices, the students will require PHIPA-compliant video conferencing and electronic communication platforms that are provided by the agency hosting the placement.

Group facilitation: If students are to facilitate groups, they will require a co-facilitator, who can be another student or an agency staff.

Onsite support: To host a TATI practicum, the agency would designate an onsite support staff (or onsite supervisor) who can support the student to integrate into the practicum site, connect them with other supporting staff, provide an orientation to the organization including safety protocols, and provide guidance to the student throughout the practicum in regular meetings and emergency consultations. Unless the onsite support staff meets the CRPO and CATA registration requirements for art therapy and psychotherapy supervision, the onsite support staff would not be providing clinical supervision to the TATI student(s) hosted at the placement.

Clinical Supervision

If the practicum involves direct client contact (psychotherapy or non-psychotherapy), TATI will assign an external clinical art therapy supervisor who meets the supervisor requirements for both the CRPO and CATA Education Standards, if there is no supervisor available at the Agency who meets these requirements. External clinical art therapy supervisors will meet with the student(s) for scheduled supervision sessions at a ratio of 0.5 supervision hour per 5 DCC hours, but may not be available for immediate consultation. The TATI office is available for time-sensitive student support by phone.

TATI Student Experience & Learning from Placements

Working with Seniors

By Luke Gastafson (April 2026)

I had a 10 month placement working with seniors. They generally had varying levels of dementia, mobility, vision and hearing. 

I always had a co-facilitator for group art therapy of 6 to 10 clients, once a week for 90 minute sessions. I learned by observing my co-facilitator how to communicate clearly, and with an upbeat manor. Clients with dementia seems to really respond positively to an upbeat, lilting tone of voice. 

I learned from trial and error that seniors with mobility, hearing and vision impairments responded very enthusiastically to tactile materials like larger stickers, heavier fabrics, moldable materials, and invitations that were already begun. For example: I penciled a bare tree on card stock and invited the clients to decorate th trees using leaf and flower stamps.

When the clients were set up for success it was often very joyful. In fact the best theme for this group was a party atmosphere. As if a birthday was taking place or an anniversary. They clients responded so well to this. I would play music that suited this mood and have balloons sometimes. Once we made bunting and hung it up as we created it. 

Another great invitation was to bring in seasonal items from nature. Dried leaves in fall, spring flowers, and glue them to cards and decorate further with rhinestone stickers and some paint or markers. We would then write in names for the recipient and place them in envelopes we would decorate further with stamps and stickers. One 96 year old client said to me, “I have no one left, they’re all dead!” I said, “then it’s for you. Write your name on the envelope.” They do so. A few minutes later the client asked me why there was an envelope for them. I said, “it has your name on it. Would you like to open it?” They did. And they were overjoyed by their discovery. 

It was a true gift in many ways.

Eating Disorder Support Centre

By Caitlin MacLean (May 2026)

I co-facilitated both in-person and online art groups at a community-based eating disorder support organization for individuals 17+ (no referral or diagnosis required), where skills building, support, nutrition, body image & movement, and arts groups were offered.

The number of group participants ranged from 5 to 13, depending on the group and day. I facilitated 1-2 groups per season at this placement.

We used a range of materials! For online groups, many participants used what they have in their own spaces, and I try to offer substitutes if certain materials are unavailable to an individual. Participants in online groups can reach out to the organization if they don’t have access to materials. For in-person groups, there’s a wide variety – collage materials like magazines, stickers, letters; paints, air-dry clay, fabric, the list goes on. I’ll sometimes add new materials like picture frames, glass jars, and aprons to add some variety. Oftentimes, I let the participants choose what materials they wish to create with; however, sometimes an art invitation uses a certain material (i.e. picture frames), but still gives a choice for how the group goes about creating.

Collage materials are a favourite and commonly used material in groups. As for invitations that resonated with participants, a few come to mind: creating a compassionate guide, permission (and permission to say no) slips, as well as picture frames to reframe or capture a memory/experience.

I think adding the arts to programming gives variety in the types of groups offered. Many of the groups at the organization are talk-based, and the arts groups offer a different way of accessing support and exploring/working through recovery. The tactile nature of art therapy removes that verbal piece that can be a barrier for some; through art, participants can receive support in a way that suits their needs. 

The experience of facilitating groups at a non-profit made me really appreciate community-based spaces and how such spaces are needed in communities and cities. There aren’t nearly as many community-based support services as there should be, and being able to provide low-barrier support has made me appreciate the work we do even more.

Public School

By Julia Hunter (May 2026)

I facilitated individual in-person art therapy with students ages 7 to 14 years old at a TDSB public school.

I worked with 4-8 students (1-2 days a week) throughout the November to June placement.

We used drawing materials (markers, pencil crayons, pastels), watercolours, play dough, origami paper, etc. The art experiences that resonated the most with the students were identity exploration making paper puppets/character building, game making, and colour as a way to express and articulate feelings / emotions / experiences.

The benefits of the placement were having free therapeutic services for students who were unable to access care. Art therapy sessions are built into the students weekly schedule, therefore made it accessible.

This experience contribute to my art therapy training / overall learning immensely! Working at a school means that I work alongside students who are navigating many different experiences: grief, identity formation, family dynamics, transitional period of life, relationships, self confidence, etc. The ability to meet everyone where they are at, in their own unique point in life is such a gift that has contributed to my overall learnings.

*Photos are stock images for decorative purposes, not actual photos from placement sites.

Application to host TATI student placement

Agencies or organizations interested in hosting TATI student placements are welcomed to contact us by filling out this application form. Our practicum coordinator will follow up with you shortly!