Anthroposophic art therapy and painting therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: the current definition and "Deepening" documents of anthroposophic painting, drawing and sculpture (modelling) therapy published by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, Dornach (IKAM/ICAAT), plus the ICAAT 2025 Orientation Guide. The two named painting schools (Hauschka; Collot d'Herbois) are described only as far as their publisher and biographical pages allow. Waldorf form drawing follows Henrik Thaulow's Living Lines (Floris). [source: S1, S2, S3, S4, S5]

Sources include: the six methods named by the Medical Section (English and German definitions); Altmaier's metal colour light therapy (one secondary press report); a typical course length in anthroposophic therapies (one cohort study abstract); wet-on-wet painting in anthroposophic art therapy (one secondary press report); and the UK training position (Tobias School directory entry; BAAT list of HCPC-approved courses). Not verified from a primary text: Hauschka's and Collot d'Herbois's own exercise sequences (their books are not drawn on beyond publisher pages), wet-on-wet as Hauschka's own technique, the Hauschka school's curriculum in Bad Boll, session length, and any procedure for Pütz's colour meditations, the Steiner training-sketch method or the "Stella Maris" method. Most "Steps" lists in section 4 therefore remain [synthesis]. [source: S1, S2, S14–S21]

What it is. The Medical Section calls anthroposophic painting and sculpture therapy "an artistic therapy of anthroposophic medicine". It is a family of methods, not one manualised therapy. It uses watercolour painting, drawing (charcoal, pigment powder, form drawing) and modelling in clay, beeswax, stone or wood. It is "action- and experience-orientated", and it rests on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophic anthropology and Goethe's phenomenology. [source: S1, S2, S3]

Named methods recognised by the Medical Section: painting therapy after Margarethe Hauschka-Stavenhagen; painting therapy after Liane Collot d'Herbois (light, darkness and colour); colour meditations after Rose Maria Pütz; painting therapy based on Steiner's training sketches; the "Stella Maris" method; metal colour light therapy after Marianne Altmaier. [source: S1, S2]

History.

Hauschka (1896–1980) was a physician. She worked at the Figino branch of Ita Wegman's clinic from 1927 to 1929. From 1929 she was responsible for artistic therapy at the Ita-Wegman-Klinik in Arlesheim. From 1950 she taught courses from Boll/Eckwälden, and in 1962 the School for Artistic Therapy and Massage opened in Boll. So the date of 1927 is the start of her work in Wegman's clinics, not a documented start of painting therapy. [source: S6, S8] [uncertain: exact founding year of the painting method]
Collot d'Herbois (1907–1999) was an English painter. Wegman saw her paintings at the Sunfield Homes (where she worked from 1927) and invited her to Arlesheim. With Wegman, Hilma Walter and Hauschka she developed a painting therapy for patients. She later taught in the Netherlands and trained painting therapists from 1978. [source: S7, S9]
Waldorf form drawing is a school-curriculum practice (Steiner-Waldorf Classes 1–5). The Medical Section also lists rhythmical form drawing, including Formenzeichnen after Elke Frieling, as a therapeutic method. [source: S3, S4, S12]

How change is thought to happen, in the school's own terms. The theory says artistic materials, colours and forms act on the person's "body-soul-spirit" constitution. Light and darkness, warm and cool colour, heaviness and lightness, and rhythm are used to rebalance tendencies that the therapist reads in the person and in their pictures. Collot d'Herbois built her approach on Steiner's remark that health and disease should be seen "in the light of the theory of colour". [source: S1, S9] These are anthroposophy's own concepts, not established physiology. Use the method as an experiential arts therapy alongside psychotherapy and medical care. It is never a treatment for physical disease, even though the sources list physical illnesses among their indications. [synthesis]

Professional frame.

Recognition and training: the methods are recognised by the Medical Section, Goetheanum. Accredited training follows the WHO/IVAA benchmarks for anthroposophic medicine. It is run part-time or full-time at private schools and at state universities and universities of applied sciences, and programmes can be accredited by the Medical Section (iARTe). Germany and the Netherlands offer state-accredited BSc/MSc degrees. In Switzerland the professional title is protected by a higher federal (state-regulated) examination. Therapists are asked to register with their national association, and further training is required. The international directory is IFAT (Medical Section). [source: S1, S2, S3, S4]
Associations named in sources: BVAKT (Germany; a credential cited in S4), SVAKT plus the EMR/ASCA lists (Switzerland), anthrohealth.org (USA), and the IFAT member directory for other countries. [source: S4, S5]
UK: "art therapist" and "art psychotherapist" are titles protected by law. Practising under them needs HCPC registration through an HCPC-approved MA/MSc. BAAT's 2022 list of the eleven approved UK courses includes no anthroposophic course. [source: S19] The Tobias School of Art and Therapy (East Grinstead) is an anthroposophic college, accredited by the British Accreditation Council since 2020. It offers a one-year Transpersonal Arts for Health and Wellbeing course (level 5) and a Transpersonal Art Counsellor course (level 7; two years full-time with a community clinical placement, or four years part-time). Both are City & Guilds professional recognition awards. Its directory entry mentions no BAAT or HCPC approval. [source: S18] So its graduates are not HCPC-registered art therapists unless they also qualify through an approved course. [synthesis from S18, S19] Whether the school holds Medical Section accreditation for anthroposophic art therapy is [uncertain]. [uncertain]
Do not use the named methods without training. ICAAT expects interventions to be delivered by qualified therapists with appropriate anthroposophic training. A psychotherapist without it may use simple arts tasks as their own adjunct, but must not call this anthroposophic painting therapy and should refer to a qualified therapist for the method itself. [source: S5] [synthesis]

2. Framework

The Medical Section documents name no formal phases or fixed session count. [source: S3, S4] The structure below links the elements they do name; how those elements are put in order is my synthesis.

Elements named in the sources

Referral and anamnesis. Anamnesis, therapeutic diagnosis and therapeutic goals form the basis of treatment. Indications and contraindications come from the clinical or psychotherapeutic diagnosis together with the art-therapy diagnosis. In anthroposophic settings the referrer is usually a physician; the ICAAT guide is written for physicians who prescribe. [source: S1, S5]
Art-therapeutic diagnosis. The therapist assesses the work with a "three- or four-part view" that relates it to the person's physical-vital and mental-spiritual expression (anthroposophic threefold/fourfold model). For clay work, S4 names an additional fourfold and threefold "Wesensglieder" diagnosis. The Collot d'Herbois school analyses charcoal and colour drawings. [source: S1, S4, S10] No reliability or validity data were found. Treat this as the school's formulation, never as diagnostic evidence. [uncertain]
Setting a goal and choosing the medium and exercise. The Deepening document groups exercises by four stated aims. Use these as your treatment directions:
- (a) "Inspiration, structure, concentration, certitude" and precise instructions
- (b) "Lightening, breathing, originating rhythm"
- (c) "Immersion and impulsing, warming thoroughly"
- (d) "Relaxation and appeasing" Modelling has its own set: structuring and regulation; light and lightness; exploring soul gestures; gravity and settling; movement and transformation. [source: S3]
Active or receptive work. Willingness to create artistically is a requirement. A client too weak to work actively receives receptive therapy instead: the therapist paints or draws in their place, or they look at a picture together. [source: S3]
The process itself. Searching, experimenting, adventure, overturning, beginning again, internalising, perceiving and acting. [source: S3, S4]
Settings: inpatient and outpatient studios, clinics, rehabilitation, curative and special education, social therapy, prisons and disaster relief. Work is individual or in groups. [source: S1, S2]

Session count and format. The Medical Section documents give no session count, length or frequency. [source: S3, S4, S21] The one figure found comes from routine anthroposophic outpatient care of children with chronic disease. There, the median number of sessions was 12 (IQR 10–20) for eurythmy, art therapy and rhythmical massage taken together, and the median therapy duration was 118 days (IQR 78–189). Art therapy was used by 11.3% of the children, and no figure for art therapy alone was reported. [source: S20] An adult depression cohort included painting, drawing and clay courses, but the page gave no session details. [source: S13] As a working format: weekly individual sessions of about 50–60 minutes, in a block of roughly 12 sessions over 3–4 months, then review with the referrer. [synthesis, in line with S20] Session length is still [uncertain].

Moving between steps. No transition criteria were found. [uncertain] Use these instead. [synthesis]

Go from receptive to active work once the client can tolerate 10–15 minutes of making.
Go from structuring tasks (aim a) to freer, warming or immersive tasks (aims c and d) once the client can follow an instruction, stay with the material and leave the session settled.
Close or re-refer when the agreed goal is met, when nothing changes over a block, or when a mental-health need arises that needs a different treatment.

3. Guiding principles

Orient fully to the person's needs [source: S3, S4]: choose the task for this client today, not from a fixed curriculum.
Diagnosis first, then goals, then materials [source: S1]: write down the goal before you pick the paper, colour or clay.
The material is part of the intervention (school theory) [source: S1]: choose wet or dry, colour or charcoal, clay or wax on purpose and record why.
Action and experience over talk [source: S1]: let the doing carry the session, and keep verbal processing short and grounded in what was made.
Phenomenological looking (Goethe) [source: S1, S3]: describe what is on the paper (colour, density, edges, direction) before any meaning, and invite the client to do the same. [synthesis: the practical wording]
Directive tasks, not free expression only [source: S3, S8]: many exercises come with precise instructions, given as a defined "therapeutic task".
Freedom to tear down and begin again, or to rest [source: S3]: a ruined sheet is information, not failure, so offer a fresh sheet without judgement.
Rhythm [source: S3]: rhythmical brushstrokes and rhythmical form drawing are used on purpose, so keep strokes steady and repeated.
Polarity and balance (light/dark, warm/cool, heavy/light) [source: S3, S9, S11]: if a picture or person leans heavily one way, offer the counter-quality gradually.
Readiness and receptive substitution [source: S3]: do not push someone who cannot create; paint for them or look at a picture together instead.
Caution in acute psychosis and trauma [source: S3]: in acute psychosis decide case by case whether structuring form drawing helps, and for PTSD refer to a therapist with trauma training.
Work alongside the physician [source: S5, S10]: keep the referrer informed, and never treat medical symptoms through art.
Attribute the cosmology [synthesis]: speak of colours and forms as what the client experiences, not as forces acting on organs.

4. Intervention inventory

How to read this section. The Medical Section documents (S3, S4, S21) and the ICAAT guide (S5) give each exercise's name and stated aim. They do not give step-by-step procedures. The method books (Hauschka 2015; Collot d'Herbois 2000 and the SchneiderEditionen edition) are not drawn on beyond their publisher pages, and no openly available step-by-step description is given in the sources either. So every "Steps" list below is a synthesis of ordinary art-therapy studio practice, built around the named exercise and its stated aim. It is not the school's protocol. [synthesis] The colour and form "effects" are anthroposophic theory, and the stated aims are given in the sources' words. Example language is illustrative throughout.

Materials and physical safety (applies to everything below). [synthesis]

Use non-toxic, student-grade watercolours and plant colours, and avoid pigments labelled with cadmium, cobalt or lead warnings. Keep brushes out of mouths.
Use charcoal and pigment powder over a damp cloth, and spray fixatives only outdoors or with extraction. Offer a dust mask to clients with asthma.
Clay: wet-wipe surfaces and never dry-sweep (silica dust). Wash hands. Check for broken skin and latex or wax allergies.
Beeswax: warm it in the hands or in warm water, never over a flame.
Stone and wood: carving tools need eye protection and a stable bench. Do not use them with clients at risk of self-harm or aggression, or with young children.
Water and boards: keep floors dry against slips, and provide seating for frail clients.

Watercolour layering (veil painting, Schichtmalerei)

Purpose: the Deepening document puts "watercolour layering" under structure and concentration. It says diluted watercolour applied with rhythmical strokes lets form develop "very slowly" through translucent layers. ICAAT lists veil or layering techniques for trauma/PTSD. [source: S3, S5] Use it for agitated, scattered or overwhelmed clients who need slowness and containment. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Stretch heavy watercolour paper on a board and let it dry.
2. Mix one very dilute colour.
3. Apply a single even layer with broad, parallel, rhythmical strokes, without going back over it.
4. Let it dry fully. Use the waiting time for quiet looking or breathing.
5. Add the next layer, in the same or another colour, slightly smaller or shifted.
6. Repeat over one or several sessions until a form emerges from the layers rather than being drawn.
Example language (illustrative): "Just one thin layer today, like a breath. We'll wait for it to dry before the next one."
Watch for: frustration with the waiting (shorten the gaps or use a hairdryer), and scrubbing that tears the paper. It is working if the strokes become steadier and the client tolerates the pauses and reports calm.

Painting therapy after Hauschka (colour-based tasks)

Purpose: a colour-centred painting therapy. Her book's chapters cover the formative process, the rainbow, "the soul's inner rainbow", the individual colours, indications, and examples of therapeutic tasks. [source: S8] The publisher says the book was written mainly for painting therapists and their training, and that it includes fifty colour examples from her course at the School for Artistic Therapy. [source: S15] The book's exercises and the curriculum of the Hauschka school in Bad Boll are not drawn on. [uncertain] Her method is often described as wet-on-wet watercolour. No source confirms this as her specific technique, so the wet-on-wet entry below is not attributed to her. [uncertain]
Steps (generic colour task) [synthesis]:
1. Choose a goal, for example warming or calming.
2. Offer two or three colours chosen for that goal.
3. Have the client lay the colours next to each other, then let them meet and mix at the edges.
4. Ask the client to notice how each colour feels to them.
5. Repeat the same task over several sessions, varying one element at a time.
Example language (illustrative): "Let the yellow spread from the middle and see where the blue wants to meet it."
Watch for: muddy over-mixing, which suggests too much water or too many colours. It is working if colour choices broaden and the client can describe mood shifts linked to colour.

Wet-on-wet painting (Nass-in-Nass)

Purpose: watercolour on wet paper, so that colours run into each other and hard lines disappear. A press report on an anthroposophic art therapy training school in Berlin (Artaban-Schule) says it is used with lonely, withdrawn clients: lines no longer appear and connections form again. The same report says drawing with firm lines and edges is used for insecure clients who find it hard to decide or say no. [source: S14, secondary] The Medical Section documents opened do not describe wet-on-wet. [source: S3, S21] The "connection" rationale is the school's own. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis]
- Soak the paper, lay it flat on a board, and smooth it with a damp sponge so that no pools remain.
- Offer one or two dilute colours. Lay the first in broad, light strokes and watch it spread.
- Bring in the second colour beside the first, so that they meet and blend at the edge. Do not outline anything.
- Stop before the paper dries or the colours turn muddy. Let the picture dry flat.
- For a client who needs firmness instead, switch to dry paper and drawing (light-dark grading, free-hand geometry).
Example language (illustrative): "Let the colour find its own way on the wet paper. You don't need to make a shape."
Watch for: distress at losing control of the colour (move to dry paper or layering), over-wet paper that cockles, and muddy over-mixing. It is working if a withdrawn client engages, lets the colours meet, and talks more easily about the picture. [synthesis]

Light-darkness-colour painting after Collot d'Herbois

Purpose: to balance light and darkness "in art and in the human constitution" (school theory). The school uses charcoal and colour drawings both diagnostically and in therapy, and is often linked with depression formulations. [source: S9, S10] Her own pictures were built from up to 80 layers of colour. [source: S7] One training syllabus starts with charcoal (boundaries and transitions), then moves to Goethe's prism experiments, the colour circle, warm and cool colours, and veil painting. [source: S11] The publisher pages of both editions (Floris 2000, now out of print; SchneiderEditionen, Stuttgart, 300 pages) describe only the light-darkness principle. They give no exercise sequence. [source: S9, S16, S22] So veil (layered) painting as her school's technique rests on S7 and S11, not on her own text. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis, ordered after S11]
1. Charcoal: shade from deep dark to the white of the paper, with no outline, so that light "appears" where charcoal is left out.
2. Explore a boundary that is soft and a boundary that is sharp.
3. In later sessions, bring in colour as thin layers over or beside the light-dark structure.
4. Look together at where the picture is darkest and where it is lightest.
Example language (illustrative): "Don't draw the light; leave it. Let the dark gather around it."
Watch for: pictures sinking into dark (offer more light areas), and charcoal dust (see safety above). Do not use the school's diagnostic reading as evidence of a disorder. [synthesis] Requires training in this school.

Light-dark progression and hatching

Purpose: listed under "lightening, breathing, originating rhythm". [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. With a pencil, charcoal or a single colour, grade a strip or sheet from dark to light in even steps.
2. Alternatively, fill an area with parallel hatching, varying the density only.
3. Breathe out on each stroke.
Example language (illustrative): "Let each line be a little lighter than the last."
Watch for: pressing too hard or rushing. It is working if the transitions are even and breathing slows.

Complementary colour exercises

Purpose: lightening and rhythm. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Paint a patch of one colour.
2. Look at it for 20–30 seconds, then at white paper, and notice the after-image colour.
3. Paint that complementary colour next to the first patch, or around it.
Example language (illustrative): "What colour did your eye make by itself?"
Watch for: eye strain and migraine. Stop if there is headache.

Cloud pictures; painting the course of the day and the year

Purpose: lightening, breathing, rhythm. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Paint soft cloud forms with no hard edges.
2. Or paint a sequence such as dawn, midday, dusk and night, or the four seasons, one sheet each, over a session or a block.
Example language (illustrative): "Paint morning first. Next week we'll go to midday."
Watch for: grief or trauma linked to a season or time of day. It is working if the client can hold the sequence through change.

Objective drawing; plant development with light and shade

Purpose: inspiration, structure, concentration. [source: S3] ICAAT suggests observational drawing of plant development for depression, and judgement-free nature studies (a plant's annual cycle) for fears. [source: S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Place a real plant or object in front of the client.
2. Draw only what is seen, including the shading.
3. Repeat with the same plant weeks later to track its growth.
Example language (illustrative): "Draw what's really there, not what a leaf should look like."
Watch for: perfectionism. It is working if attention is sustained and self-criticism softens.

Copying of tableaus (master pictures)

Purpose: structure, concentration, certitude. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Choose a calm reproduction of a painting.
2. Copy its main areas of colour, not its details.
Example language (illustrative): "We're borrowing the painter's order for a while."
Watch for: comparison and shame. Frame the task as practice, not performance.

Free-hand geometry

Purpose: structure and certitude. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Draw circles, triangles and squares freehand.
2. Build to a star or an inscribed figure.
Example language (illustrative): "Close the circle slowly; it doesn't need to be perfect."
Watch for: obsessional correcting. Limit the number of tries.

Painting along colour theory (colour circle, warm and cool)

Purpose: structure (S3). The S11 syllabus covers the rainbow and colour circle, warm and cool colours, colour mixing and split primaries. [source: S3, S11]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Mix the colour circle from the primaries.
2. Paint a warm field and a cool field.
3. Talk about how each one feels.
Example language (illustrative): "Where does your hand want to go, warm or cool?"
Watch for: it is working if the client notices their own preferences and can choose between them.

Colour choice by indication (ICAAT starting points)

Purpose: ICAAT gives colour suggestions as "starting points", not prescriptions [source: S5]:
- Burnout: flowing colours, with carmine and magenta to connect lightness and heaviness.
- Fears: cobalt blue "for protection".
- ADHD: blue-green landscapes; carmine or magenta for nurturing; turquoise and cobalt for stability.
- Sleep problems: viridian or turquoise to wake up, blue for spaciousness, alternating with magenta.
- Old age: blue for calm, warming reds to invigorate. These are the school's own correspondences. [uncertain: no outcome data in source]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Offer the suggested colour as one option among others.
2. Ask what the client experiences with it.
3. Follow the client's report rather than the chart.
Example language (illustrative): "Some people find this blue sheltering. How is it for you?"
Watch for: the client rejecting the colour. Respect that, and do not insist.

Abstract large-format painting

Purpose: immersion and impulsing, warming thoroughly. [source: S3] Use it for flat, withdrawn or over-controlled clients. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Fix a large sheet on a wall or floor.
2. Give large brushes and two or three colours.
3. Ask for whole-arm movements.
Example language (illustrative): "Use your whole arm, from the shoulder."
Watch for: disinhibition or agitation. Switch to a smaller format or a structuring task.

Metamorphic forms and plant metamorphosis

Purpose: immersion and warming (S3). ICAAT lists plant metamorphosis for trauma. [source: S3, S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Draw or paint a sequence in which one form gradually changes step by step, for example seed, leaf forms, flower.
Example language (illustrative): "Change it just a little each time."
Watch for: it is working if the client can tolerate gradual change rather than jumping to an end point.

Fairy-tale illustrations

Purpose: immersion and warming. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Read or tell a short traditional tale.
2. The client paints one image from it, for example the moment of turning.
Example language (illustrative): "Paint the part of the story that stayed with you."
Watch for: tales with violence or abandonment themes that touch the client's history. Choose the tale carefully, especially with children.

Dreaming studies; slowly intensifying colour into form; smooth brushwork

Purpose: relaxation and appeasing, warming. [source: S3] Use for tension, insomnia and over-arousal. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Lay soft colour without any plan.
2. Intensify it slowly in one area until a form suggests itself.
3. Keep strokes smooth and slow throughout.
Example language (illustrative): "No plan. Let the colour get a little stronger here and see what appears."
Watch for: dissociation or drowsiness in trauma clients. Keep them oriented to the room.

Layering with plant colours

Purpose: relaxation and appeasing. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis] As for watercolour layering, using plant-based colours.
Example language (illustrative): "These colours come from plants; notice how soft they are."
Watch for: allergies to plant dyes.

Closed-eyes flow forms

Purpose: relaxation and appeasing. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. With eyes closed, draw flowing, looping lines on a large sheet, guided by the movement rather than the image.
2. Open the eyes and look at the result.
Example language (illustrative): "Let your hand flow like water; you can open your eyes at any time."
Watch for: distress with eyes closed in trauma clients. Always offer eyes-open as the default alternative. [synthesis]

Pigment-powder drawing on absorbent card

Purpose: soft pigment-powder drawings on absorbent cardboard give "dreamlike sensual impressions" through slow colouring, which warms. [source: S3] The German version calls this pastel work. [source: S4]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Rub powder pigment or soft pastel in with a cloth or fingertip.
2. Build colour slowly in soft fields.
Example language (illustrative): "Rub the colour in gently, as if warming the paper."
Watch for: dust (see safety above), and sensory aversion to the texture.

Collage

Purpose: collage is named as a possible picture form. [source: S4] No aim was stated. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Tear or cut coloured papers.
2. Arrange them before gluing.
Example language (illustrative): "Try a few arrangements before anything sticks."
Watch for: scissors (see safety above).

Receptive painting or drawing

Purpose: for clients "too weak for active action". The therapist paints or draws in their place, or reviews a picture with them. [source: S3] Use it in severe illness, palliative care or acute exhaustion. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. The therapist paints slowly beside the client, describing aloud what they are doing.
2. Alternatively, sit with a chosen picture for a few minutes of quiet looking.
3. Ask briefly what the client noticed.
Example language (illustrative): "I'll paint and you just watch. Tell me if you'd like more blue."
Watch for: passivity being reinforced. Offer one small active step when energy returns.

Named methods requiring specific training (no procedure given)

Colour meditations after Rose Maria Pütz; painting therapy based on Steiner's training sketches (Schulungsskizzen); the "Stella Maris" method. The English and German Medical Section definitions both list these as recognised methods but describe none of them. [source: S1, S2, S21] No other description was found. Refer to therapists trained in them, and do not improvise them. [uncertain] Metal colour light therapy after Marianne Altmaier has its own entry below.

Metal colour light therapy after Marianne Altmaier (specialist method)

Purpose: a receptive colour-light method recognised by the Medical Section. [source: S1, S21] A press report describes it as follows. Altmaier, an anthroposophic art therapist, made 12 large coloured-glass panels, each infused with a different metal oxide (for example cobalt, copper, gold, iron or silver) and etched with a motif. The client sits in front of a lit panel. The school's claim is that the light conveys "the qualities of the metal transformed into color"; that is anthroposophic theory, not established physiology. The practitioner described uses it with people going through crises such as illness, divorce or bereavement. [source: S17, secondary]
Steps: no session procedure was found (length, choice of panel, what the client does beyond looking). [uncertain] The method needs the original panels and specific training, so do not improvise it; refer to a trained practitioner.
Example language (illustrative): "You only need to sit and look. Tell me whatever you notice."
Watch for: never present it as a treatment for physical illness. Clients in crisis may become tearful while looking, so leave time to talk afterwards. [synthesis]

Rhythmical (therapeutic) form drawing

Purpose: rhythmical form drawing is listed under "lightening, breathing, originating rhythm". The school says it acts directly on heartbeat and breathing; that is school theory. [source: S3] Formenzeichnen after Elke Frieling® is a separate method that includes a "rhythm series" in which a form is transformed continuously. [source: S4] ICAAT suggests:
- Depression: dynamic forms moving upward through warm colours.
- ADHD: centring exercises in a circle.
- Trauma: "form-drawing with reversing bindings". [source: S5] In acute psychosis, decide case by case. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Demonstrate one simple form, such as a wave, a loop or a lemniscate (figure-of-eight).
2. The client traces it in the air with the whole arm.
3. They draw it in one continuous line with a thick crayon, repeating it across the sheet in a steady rhythm.
4. In later sessions, vary one element at a time: size, direction, crossing points.
5. For a centring task, spiral in towards the centre of a circle and back out.
Example language (illustrative): "Draw it in the air first. Now let the crayon follow that same swing, again and again."
Watch for: rigid repetition or perseveration; break it with a variation. Crossing-over forms can be confusing for clients with dyspraxia. In psychosis, prefer simple, closed, symmetrical forms and stop if the client gets confused. [synthesis] It is working if the line becomes smoother and more even and the client reports steadier breathing.

Waldorf form drawing: mirroring (symmetry)

Purpose: in Steiner-Waldorf schools, form drawing builds problem-solving at graded difficulty and an understanding of symmetry. Living Lines (Thaulow) has more than 100 exercises for Classes 2–5. [source: S12] Use it with children, and with adults who need structure and orientation. [synthesis]
Steps [source: S12, paraphrased]:
1. Draw a vertical line as the "mirror". The teacher draws a form on one side, and the child draws its reflection on the other (reverse the sides for left-handers).
2. Later the child proposes forms, alone or in pairs or threes, and they set each other tasks.
3. Variations: forms drawn outside one another; leave out the mirror line so they overlap; grow patterns across a whole sheet; work outdoors in sand, mud or snow, or lay the form out with soft rope.
Example language (illustrative): "Whatever my side does, yours does the same, like a mirror."
Watch for: left-right confusion and frustration; reduce the complexity. Walking the form on the floor and drawing it in the air are common Waldorf practice, but are not confirmed in the sources. [uncertain] It is working if mirroring becomes more accurate and the child begins to invent forms.

Clay: sphere and Platonic solids

Purpose: "structuring, stimulation of formative potency, regulation". [source: S3] For fears, ICAAT suggests transforming Platonic solids into polar forms. [source: S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Warm a fist-sized piece of clay.
2. Roll it into a sphere between the palms until it is even.
3. Tap it with flat palms into a cube; in later sessions try a tetrahedron and other solids.
4. For polarity work, change a sharp form gradually into a round one, or the reverse.
Example language (illustrative): "Let the ball get rounder until your hands can't find a bump."
Watch for: physical weakness (fatigue in the hands). It is working if the client becomes calm and focused and the forms become clearer.

Clay: smoothing surfaces; large sculptures; interlace (tracery) motifs in relief

Purpose: structuring and regulation. [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Smooth a surface with a damp sponge or the palm, slowly.
2. For large work, build a large form standing up, using the whole body.
3. For relief, press a clay slab flat and model an interlacing band in low relief.
Example language (illustrative): "Follow the band under and over, without lifting your attention."
Watch for: back strain with large work; provide a table at the right height.

Clay: upright forms (human figure, vessels)

Purpose: "light and lightness". [source: S3] Use for heaviness, low mood and fatigue. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Model a standing figure or a tall vessel, drawing the clay upward from the base.
Example language (illustrative): "Let it rise; see what helps it stand."
Watch for: collapsing forms; use stiffer clay. In severe depression ICAAT advises against clay work. [source: S5]

Clay: animals, human figure groups, animal groups

Purpose: exploring "soul gestures". [source: S3]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Model one animal in a characteristic posture.
2. Later, model two or more figures in relation to each other, for example protecting, turning away, meeting.
3. Look at the gesture together.
Example language (illustrative): "What is this animal doing with its whole body?"
Watch for: projection of family conflict; handle it within the psychotherapy, not as a diagnosis. ICAAT suggests concrete forms such as a house or an animal for ADHD. [source: S5]

Clay: gravity forms (sleeping animals, jars, copying Barlach, Moore, Michelangelo)

Purpose: "gravity, settling down". [source: S3] Use for agitation and over-lightness. [synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Model a heavy, resting form, such as a sleeping animal or a squat jar.
2. Alternatively, copy the mass of a reproduction of a sculpture.
Example language (illustrative): "Let it get heavy and settle into the table."
Watch for: low mood deepening; balance with upright work.

Clay: metamorphosis series and flow forms in relief

Purpose: "movement, transformation". [source: S3] One training syllabus includes a seven-step metamorphic sequence (linked there to the seven planets, which is school cosmology), forms with centre and periphery, standing forms, two forms relating, and a Moebius form. [source: S11]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Make a row of three to seven small forms, each one changing a little from the last, for example closed to open.
2. Or model channels of flowing water in a relief slab.
Example language (illustrative): "Each one only changes a little from the one before."
Watch for: it is working if the client can stay with the process of change.

Clay: rhythmic kneading, contraction and expansion, double-curved surfaces

Purpose: ICAAT starting points:
- Depression: rhythmic kneading on a board, building structured shapes by contraction and expansion, double-bent surfaces (but not in severe depression).
- Sleep problems in old age: kneading to notice rhythm, and sphere-based developmental sculpting. [source: S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Knead in a steady count.
2. Press inward (contraction), then open the form outward (expansion), alternating.
3. Model a saddle-shaped surface.
Example language (illustrative): "Press in… and open out. Find your own pace."
Watch for: exhaustion; keep the work short.

Clay: lemniscate, bowls, closed-to-open series

Purpose: ICAAT starting points:
- Burnout: drawing lemniscates through water on the clay surface, and shaping bowls.
- Sleep problems: spreading clay and shaping a lemniscate with the palm, and a developmental series from closed to open forms. [source: S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Wet a flat slab.
2. Trace a figure-of-eight repeatedly with the palm or fingers.
3. Then open a sphere into a bowl by pressing with the thumbs.
Example language (illustrative): "Keep the eight moving, slow and even."
Watch for: it is working if the client relaxes and reports better sleep through the course (track this with a sleep diary). [synthesis]

Clay: hand forms; gradually shaping an impression of self

Purpose: S4 names hand forms (Handformen). For trauma, ICAAT suggests clear forms, repetition of shapes, and gradually shaping an impression of the self. It cautions that sculpture may overwhelm because it stimulates the "lower senses". [source: S4, S5]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Squeeze a piece of clay in a closed hand and look at the form it makes.
2. Repeat it.
3. Only later, if the client is stable, move to a simple head or figure "of me".
Example language (illustrative): "Just squeeze and see what your hand made."
Watch for: body-memory flashbacks; stop and ground the client. [synthesis]

Alternative materials: beeswax, stone, wood

Purpose: alternatives to clay. [source: S3] Beeswax suits small hands, frail clients, and work in bed. [synthesis] No aim was stated in the source. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Warm the beeswax in the hands.
2. Model small forms.
3. Stone and wood only with tools and supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "Let your hands warm it before you shape it."
Watch for: tool safety (see above).

Picture review (phenomenological looking and art-therapeutic assessment)

Purpose: the work is assessed with a "three- or four-part view" relating it to physical-vital and mental-spiritual expression. Clients may also review a picture with the therapist as a receptive intervention. [source: S1, S3] The school's diagnostic criteria are not drawn on, and no validity data are given. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis]
1. Prop the picture up at a distance.
2. Look in silence for a minute.
3. The client describes only what is visible: colours, light and dark, edges, direction, empty space.
4. Then ask what it is like to look at.
5. The therapist adds observations, never interpretations.
6. Date and photograph the picture so the series can be compared.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we say what it means, let's just say what's there."
Watch for: the client hearing your observation as a verdict. Never present a picture as evidence of abuse, illness or a diagnosis; there is no validated manual for that. [synthesis] It is working if the client can look at their work with curiosity rather than judgement.

5. Handling problems

What the sources address: unwillingness to create is a contraindication (offer receptive work); physical weakness is a contraindication for modelling; acute psychosis needs case-by-case judgement; trauma needs trauma-trained therapists; no clay in severe depression; sculpture may overwhelm in PTSD; caution in acute migraine attacks and active inflammatory bowel flares. [source: S3, S5] Everything else below is my synthesis. [synthesis]

"I can't paint" / shame / perfectionism.
- Start with tasks that cannot be done wrong: a single wash, light-dark grading, kneading.
- Use paper you can throw away, or offer to paint receptively first.
- Name the source principle that one can "tear down everything and start anew". [source: S3]
- Never praise or criticise the aesthetics; describe instead.
Stuck: the same picture every session.
- Keep the same task, and change one variable (colour, size, wetness, or the sequence step).
- Or move the client to the counter-quality: from the structure aims (a) to warming (c), or from heavy forms to upright ones (S3 categories).
- Review the picture series with the client to make the repetition visible.
Resistance to directive tasks or to anthroposophy.
- Explain that tasks are offers. Give the client a choice between two tasks.
- Use plain experiential language, not anthroposophic terms.
- If the client objects on worldview or religious grounds, say openly that this is the school's framework and offer a non-anthroposophic art therapist instead. Do not proselytise.
Overwhelm, flashback, dissociation.
- Stop the material work. Ground the client: feet on the floor, name objects in the room, cold water on the hands.
- Move to structuring, eyes-open, small-format tasks: geometry, a mirroring form drawing, a sphere.
- Avoid closed-eyes, immersive and large-format work, and full-hand clay, until the client is stable.
- For PTSD, work within trauma-focused psychotherapy, or refer as S5 recommends.
Agitation or disinhibition (including hypomania).
- Use small formats, few colours, and structuring tasks.
- End the session early if needed, and inform the prescriber.
Psychosis.
- In acute states use only simple, clearly bounded form drawing, and only if the client is helped by it [source: S3].
- Avoid dream-like, eyes-closed or metamorphic tasks.
- Coordinate with the psychiatric team.
Low mood worsening; suicidality.
- Watch for heavy, dark, empty work, but assess risk directly through standard clinical risk assessment, not from the picture.
- Follow your service's safety-planning and lethal-means counselling procedures.
- Avoid clay in severe depression [source: S5].
Non-attendance and non-adherence.
- Agree a fixed block (for example 8–12 sessions) with a review date.
- Keep the work in the studio rather than setting homework; offer a simple home form-drawing sheet only if the client wants it.
- Ask about fatigue, illness or cost before you read it as resistance.
Ruptures. Typical causes:
- The client feels the therapist read too much into a picture.
- The client feels pushed into a task.
- The therapist "corrected" the work. Respond by naming it, apologising for the part that is yours, and returning to description and choice. Never alter a client's picture without asking.
Clients expecting a physical cure.
- State plainly that this is a supportive arts therapy and does not treat physical disease.
- Ask them to continue all medical treatment, and liaise with the physician.
Touch.
- Guiding the client's hand (for example to show a rhythm) only with explicit prior consent, an easy opt-out, and ideally demonstration on your own sheet instead.
- Be sensitive to culture and trauma history. Never any sexual or intimate touch.
Children and young people.
- Get parental or carer consent and the child's own assent, and explain what parents will be told.
- Follow your local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties if a disclosure occurs. A disclosure is acted on as a disclosure; a drawing alone is not evidence.
- Use short sessions, thick crayons, beeswax and mirroring form drawing, and choose fairy tales carefully.
- Avoid sharp tools.
Group settings.
- Set norms: no comments on others' pictures unless invited, and no sharing beyond the group.
- Close with tidying and a short verbal round to return to the everyday.
Scope of practice. If you are not trained in the named methods (Hauschka, Collot d'Herbois, Pütz and the others), use only simple adjunct tasks under your own professional title, and refer clients for the method itself through IFAT or the national associations. [source: S1, S5]

Sources

Sources:

Further reading (not drawn on beyond publisher pages):

Hauschka, M. (2015, English edition). Fundamentals of Artistic Therapy. Rudolf Steiner Press.
Collot d'Herbois, L. (2000, 2nd ed.). Light, Darkness and Colour in Painting Therapy. Floris Books (out of print). Current edition: SchneiderEditionen, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-943305-27-2 (year not stated). [source: S9, S16, S22]
Collot d'Herbois, L. (2006). Colour: A Textbook for Anthroposophical Painting Groups. Floris Books.
Thaulow, H. Living Lines. Floris Books (year not confirmed). [uncertain]

Not drawn on: the springermedizin.de full text of Hamre et al. 2006; PubMed Central; the Springer full text of Willich et al. 2009 (DOAJ abstract only).

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