The Higher Professional Examination (HFP) to become an art therapist with a federal diploma can currently be taken in five different specializations, which include music therapy, intermedial therapy, design and painting therapy, drama and speech therapy as well as movement and dance therapy. If you would like to train as a movement therapist, the advanced specialist examination is an interesting and highly regarded further training course at a high level.

Within these individual sub-disciplines of art therapy, there is a whole range of interesting training and further education opportunities in Switzerland, both in the form of short seminars lasting several days, intensive basic or advanced courses or full courses leading to the higher professional examination. People who are not sure whether training to become an art therapist is really the right decision can, for example, first attend an introductory course or a basic course to get an idea of whether this professional field actually corresponds to their own interests and inclinations. People who are already sure that they would like to pursue a career in the educational or social field, or would like to expand their current work in these areas, have the opportunity to train in basic training, for example as a painting therapist, in body-oriented music or in movement therapy. Such training courses are basic training courses that last around two to three years and provide participants with the knowledge they need to work as an art therapist in an institution or in their own painting studio. It is then possible to continue training in this specialist area and obtain recognition from one of the professional associations (GPK, FIAC, SVAKT, VDT, ARAET, APSAT, BTK), which enables them to be recognized by health insurance companies. This can be a corresponding further training course with professional experience, or a higher professional examination with a corresponding specialization - such as art therapy.