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Children's National Hospital
District of Columbia

Art Therapist

CounselorFull-Time

Listed compensation

$58k-$97k

The week · per this posting · weekdays assumed

Ask the employer about the work setting, call expectations, weekend coverage and time off.

Posted 7m ago · Verified live

Job Description

111 Michigan Avenue Northwest Washington, DC 20010

Kids Are Our Everything.

Department: 10286 Child Life and Integrated Care

Pay Range

$57,969.60 - $96,616.00

The Art Therapist will develop, implement, and evaluate an art therapy program for children and adolescents in clinic-based and medical inpatient settings. Foster positive and professional interpersonal relationships with patients/families, physicians, hospital staff, community representatives and visitors. Use interpersonal communication skills to promote a healing environment.

Minimum Education

Master's Degree Art Therapy or a related field with an emphasis in Art Therapy. (Required)

  • Required Skills/Knowledge
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Ability to relate to diverse patient populations.
  • Sensitivity to individuals from varied backgrounds and cultures.
  • Competency with age-specific needs from childhood through young adulthood.

Required Licenses and Certifications

Registered Art Therapist (ATR) or Board-Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC) issued by the Art Therapy Credentials Board. (Preferred)

Registered Art Therapist Provisional (ATR-P) (Required)

Functional Accountabilities

Program Development

Work with patients, families, and staff to understand the needs of assigned inpatient and outpatient population in relation to an art therapy program.

Develop a vision, set goals and priorities; help to develop appropriate documentation standards to reflect art therapy assessments and interventions; help develop materials to explain and promote the Program; help design measures to evaluate effectiveness of the Program.

Work with CNH Foundation and other hospital departments to promote the Program internally and externally as appropriate.

  • Assist with activities to fund the Program (grant writing, support for fund raising activities).
  • Maintain organized records, statistics, and surveys of the program.
  • Participate in development of student training program.

Art Therapy Patient Services

  • Meet individual patients and parents/guardians to explain art therapy program, invite participation, and answer questions.
  • Assess individual and/or group needs and identify goals based on assessment.
  • Develop and implement art therapy interventions for individuals and groups as appropriate to promote emotional well-being and provide a healing environment.
  • Design and provide individual and group art activities and evaluate outcome.

Document interventions in patient medical records according to standards developed for art therapy documentation

Obtain and maintain an age appropriate and safe selection and quantity of art supplies, equipment, and other materials for the program.

Collaboration

Participate as an active member of Patient and Family Support Program to integrate art therapy programs with other psychosocial services.

Participate actively in departmental rounds and psychosocial rounds to insure coordinated care for patients and families.

Foster communication with hospital staff and collaborate in staff support efforts

Collaborate with relevant departmental and hospital staff to address patient or systemic problems that arise.

Training and Research

  • Orient, train, supervise, and evaluate art therapy graduate students, interns and volunteers, as appropriate.
  • Safety
  • Speak up when team members appear to exhibit unsafe behavior or performance
  • Continuously validate and verify information needed for decision making or documentation
  • Stop in the face of uncertainty and takes time to resolve the situation
  • Demonstrate accurate, clear and timely verbal and written communication
  • Actively promote safety for patients, families, visitors and co-workers

Attend carefully to important details - practicing Stop, Think, Act and Review in order to self-check behavior and performance.

The disclosed salary range includes the minimum and maximum rates within which Children’s National believes an individual’s base pay rate will fall for this position. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the maximum of the pay range.

The exact pay rate for this position will be based on a variety of factors in alignment with the Children’s National compensation philosophy.

These factors are legitimate and non-discriminatory including, but not limited to, the current market conditions; organizational needs; the individual’s combination of prior work experience, level of education, knowledge, skills, and other qualifications.

Children’s National is committed to providing a fair and competitive total rewards package to each of our employees. This base salary range does not include our comprehensive benefits package or any additional compensation for which this position may be eligible.

Childrens National Hospital is an equal opportunity employer that evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, identity, or other characteristics protected by law. The “Know Your Rights” poster is available here: and the pay transparency policy is available here: Know Your RightsPay Transparency Nondiscrimination Poster.

Please note that it is the policy of Children's National Hospital to ensure a “drug-free” work environment: a workplace free from the illegal use, possession or distribution of controlled substances (as defined in the Controlled Substances Act), or the misuse of legal substances, by all staff (management, employees and contractors). Though recreational and medical marijuana are now legal in the District of Columbia, Children's National and its affiliates maintain the right, in accordance with our policy, to enforce a drug-free workplace, including prohibiting recreational or prescribed marijuana.

Key Responsibilities

The Art Therapist will develop, implement, and evaluate an art therapy program for children and adolescents in clinic-based and medical inpatient settings. They will also collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to provide psychosocial support and coordinate care for patients and families.

Requirements

Candidates must hold a Master's degree in Art Therapy or a related field and possess a Registered Art Therapist Provisional (ATR-P) credential. Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with diverse patient populations are required.

Qualifications

Education
Master's degree (postgraduate degree)
Experience
2+ years of experience

Certifications

Board Certification (preferred)

Key Skills

Patient assessmentCrisis interventionEmotional supportClinical researchStudent supervisionMultidisciplinary collaborationAge-specific careCultural sensitivityRecord keeping

Counselor Career Context

Of the 50 active Mental Health Therapy listings this role was benchmarked against, 72% are remote, 32% have no call, 68% require no weekends.

Mental Health Therapy pay on WeekdayDoc is up 2.4% vs. the prior quarter (through Sep 2026).

The cost-of-living index for District of Columbia is 109.9 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)), so the posted ~$77k midpoint carries the purchasing power of roughly $70k in an average-cost state. 64.3% of District of Columbia clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

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Annual compensation range

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401k / retirement match
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CME allowance
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Sign-on bonus
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Loan repayment
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PSLF eligible
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Work-life snapshot

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Listing-based score, 0–10, across 8,061 comparable listings. Shaded area = the share scoring below this one.

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About Children's National Hospital

Hospitals and Health Care
Washington, DC
5,001-10,000 employees

Benefits & Perks

Comprehensive benefits package