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Independent Practitioner

Independent practitioners are art therapists who are practicing independently or responsible for the service they are providing to paying clients. This section covers the credentials for independent practitioners.

Independent practitioners must provide a safe and functional environment to conduct art therapy sessions (ATCB 2005). According to ATCB, "this includes but is not limited to: proper ventilation, adequate lighting, access to water supply, knowledge of hazards or toxicity of art materials and the effort need to safeguard the health of clients, storage space for art projects and secured areas for any hazardous materials, monitored use of sharp objects, allowance for privacy and confidentiality, and compliance with any other health and safety requirements according to state and federal agencies which regulate comparable businesses" (2005).

This section also establishes the standards for independent practitioners to follow when dealing with financial arrangements (ATCB 2005). Basically it states that the art therapist must provide a straight forward contract to the payer of the therapy sessions (ATCB 2005). It also states that the art therapist must not deceive the payers or exploit clients financially (ATCB 2005).