The aim of this literature review was to compile the state of knowledge of the value of art therapy as an occupational therapeutic agent in the rehabilitation of adults with mental illness. The literature search was conducted in several databases of published scientific papers and by a secondary search in the reference lists of the articles found through the database search. In analyzing the results, the value of creative activities by Creek (2008a) was used as a classification. The results will first describe briefly the nature of the studies, and then the probative value of the studies and the effects of art therapy are described. After this, the value of art therapy describes as the results of this analysis. The results showed that the value which was most common in the studies was “Increasing satisfaction and self-esteem”. It was found in the results that art therapy had a value for clients, as well as art therapy was useful to occupational therapists as an intervention for people with mental illness.Keywords: Occupational therapy, art therapy, mental health