The visual arts serve as the foundation and central driving force of art therapy. A justification and delineation of contemporary art therapy that aims to meet these needs must therefore emerge from the visual arts. This publication brings together, for the first time in this form, fundamental concepts and application-oriented positions for the further development and updating of art-based art therapy. Various approaches to a practice oriented around artistic processes are complemented by interdisciplinary models and research findings regarding the functions of art in the context of mental illness. Innovative approaches to artistic research undergo a nuanced examination of their relevance for art therapy. The transformative potentials of art, which exist within the tension of subjective processes of understanding, are subjected to a reevaluation.