From the author: The article is posted on the website of the Antis center ().Art therapy is a complex, multifaceted, extremely interesting and profound phenomenon in its impact. The evolution of the concept of “art therapy” reflects processes of synthesis of three independent directions: medical, social, pedagogical. These areas are united by the use of artistic creative activity as a therapeutic, distracting or harmonizing factor. The main goal of art therapeutic activities is to carry out therapeutic and corrective work in combination with indirect diagnostics. Working with a drawing or image is a special work associated with joy. Joy increases self-confidence and creates a positive attitude towards life. These are the qualities that people now need more and more to develop. In an art therapy context, visual arts activities are spontaneous. It is important that when using visual arts as a therapeutic tool, special training and artistic talents of the participants do not play a role. The creative act and features of the creator’s inner world are of great importance. Art materials have a direct impact on a person's creative self-expression. They encourage him to see and touch. They generate emotional uplift and awareness. By themselves, being particles of reality, these materials encourage a person to come into contact with reality. Thus, a dynamic interaction occurs between the creator and the artistic material. Thanks to the image, a person gets to know himself better and at the same time can rethink events. The act of bringing the inner into the outer world modifies the inner world, cleanses it to some extent from tension and energy statics, leads it out of inaction, closeness to meaningful action - this is the first and important point in art and image therapy. The image opens up the possibility of self-healing - this is the second an essential point inherent in art. The third point is that in the process of depiction and in the final product, the inner world of a person becomes visible and understandable to other people. In this way, material arising from the unconscious can be processed. [3]Each of us, having our own rich inner world, interacts with the external world. This interaction has its own patterns. Art is therefore universal because it can reveal and show us these patterns. In the art therapeutic process, the rich healing potential of spontaneous artistic activity is realized, positive changes occur in the intellectual, emotional and individual personal development of a person. The result of such work is genuine psychological and psychotherapeutic miracles. Five interacting components help these miracles happen [2]: The natural human need for self-expression, focused in art therapy on what bothers the person. Another component of the miracle is the attractiveness of art therapeutic methods. Intangible flat and three-dimensional figures have an amazing dual characteristic - they can simultaneously conceal and reveal. The third component concerns the human body and its capabilities. The structure of the figures in a simpler form reflects the structure of internal experiences thanks to the human capacity for isomorphism. And, of course, the most important component is artistic materials from the outside world that are attractive to humans. The structure of the material reflects the structure of emotional experience and thus influences the choice of artistic means of self-expression. The fifth component is the art therapy method itself. This method is a synthesis of the concepts of phenomenology and the principles of the Gestalt theory of perception. List of used literature: 1. Rudestam K. Group psychotherapy. St. Petersburg, 1999 2. Betensky M. What do you see? New methods of art therapy. M.: Publishing house.