Shaun McNiff (1999) has “always perceived art therapy as the inclusive discipline for…varied media” (p. 197). For this reason, many art therapists have incorporated computers into their spaces. However, they have not all included its therapeutic tools into their repertoire. Some therapists are unwilling to understand or are unable to utilize the computer’s tools to benefit their settings. While defending the therapeutic use of computer art to her supervision group, A. Rios (personal communication, February 5, 2005) described how her fellow supervisees breathed sighs of relief whenever a child chose to work on the computer. Typically, these therapists would launch the application the child was interested in and leave them alone to play. Whenever Rios would attempt to discuss a specific therapeutic intervention with computer art or a child’ computer art process, her supervisor and peers alike would lose interest and quickly change the subject. These therapists comfortably perceived a child’s request to use the computer as an opportunity to take a break from their active roles as therapists. They have openly been resistant to learning about the therapeutic tools they have the ability of making available to their populations. Luckily, a handful of authors keep advocating for the beneficial uses of computer art in therapy. This literature spans the last eighteen years and is slowly still being produced.
