What is Art Therapy

Everyone is always asking me, what is art therapy? I always give relatively the same answer. The use of art in the counseling process, the use of creation of art for healing, communication, self-fulfillment, connection with others, etc. The creation of art in itself is healing, fulfilling, life enhancing, comforting, uplifting, terrifying, exhausting, unsettling. All the things needed to process feelings, issues, events, relationships, paths taken and not taken. So perhaps art therapy is more than art and more than therapy but can also address life, be a way of life, be a way of communicating with life, others, self. I wonder if because art therapy is more than art and more than therapy, that is why so many people (other therapists and artists) want to do art therapy, practice art therapy and yet don't really understand it because it is more than either of their fields. Psychology deals with healing the mind, art deals with expressing the soul, so perhaps art therapy deals with healing the soul along with the mind. It is ineffable I guess.