First Patient. Salary: $30,000 or less

Your first patient after getting licensed as an art therapist is a four-year-old who douses your white Prada suit in black paint and laughs hysterically. Oh well, maybe it'll look avant garde that way.

First Year. Salary: $35,000

You've been working as an art therapist in your own private practice, however you're having difficulty finding clients in your area. You're pounding the pavement to team up with other therapists but nobody's interested. The only job offer you've snagged so far is an elementary school looking for a part-time art teacher. At least it's something.

Art Therapist. Salary: $40,000

You get a job as an art therapist at the local university hospital's Alzheimer's clinic. You enjoy working with your patients, even though none of them ever remember you. Let's just hope they remember to pay you.

Resident Art Therapist at a hospital. Salary: $60,000

You get a job at a children's hospital working with terminally ill children. Through art, the children express their fears and bottled up anxiety about death and dealing with a life-threatening illness. It's a difficult job because you get very attached to your patients, but you know you're doing them a world of good.

Celebrated Art Therapist. Salary $80,000
 

You're an art therapist in demand. You've worked for twenty years in clinical settings and done extensive research on the benefits of art therapy for all different segments of the population. You've helped autistic children, kids in trauma, Alzheimer's patients, cancer patients, schizophrenics—the gamut. People ask you to speak about art therapy all over the world.