The theory of art therapy has its roots both in art and in the studies of creativity, and in psychodynamic studies. 

It started between the 1940s and 1950s in Great Britain and the United States as a treatment for traumatized war veterans, used in psychiatric hospitals. It was initially practiced by artists who were sensitive to the communicative potential of art and by psychologists and psychiatrists attracted by pictorial language. 

Later it developed as a discipline in its own, which aims to develop an understanding based on the uniqueness of what happens in the setting between a person who creates and one who participates in this process as a user, a witness and sometimes a co-author. 

Over the years, the range of applications have extended and we can find art therapy in many fields of personal development, social, educational as well as rehabilitation.