Arts Therapies with Children and Youth: Traditional and Innovative Practice

Dear Colleagues,

Arts therapies are types of psychotherapy that use art media, creative processes, materials and their qualities (sounds, colors, movements, and more), and artworks as primary modes of expression, communication, and intervention, and to facilitate transformational processes.

The arts therapies include art therapy, music therapy, dance and movement therapy (DMT), drama therapy, psychodrama, and bibliotherapy. Although a growing number of studies demonstrate the effectiveness of arts therapies among children and youth (e.g., Björling et al., 2019), there is still a need for a more profound examination of processes of change in arts therapies for these age groups  (e.g., Bresler, Nardi, et al., 2022), as well as further research of arts-based assessments (e.g., Bat Or, et al., 2022), and community-based arts therapies projects (e.g., Bat Or, & Zusman-Bloch, 2022).

This Special Issue, entitled Arts Therapies with Children and Youth - Traditional and Innovative Practice, is dedicated to research and clinical articles relating to the practice of art therapies among children and youth in various settings, including community-based arts therapy programs.  Children and youth who may need art-based therapeutic interventions include refugees and at-risk populations coping with AD/HD, learning disabilities, mental health, social problems, poverty and marginalization, chronic health diseases, political violence, and more. Original research, (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, mix-methods) including reviews (systematic, scoping, literature, etc.), Participatory Action Research, and clinical case studies will be considered for publication.

The submission deadline for this Special Issue is 25 May 2023.

We look forward to receiving your inspiring contributions.

Dr. Michal Bat Or
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.