The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of art therapy program for the improvement of self-confidence and motivation for middle school students with special needs. The subjects of the study included six middle school students in a special class, and the program consisted of one 100-minute weekly class during school year and one such biweekly class during vacations, totaling 30 classes. Self-confidence and motivation tests were utilized in the study, with four sub-categories including general self-confidence, social self-confidence, in-class self-confidence and domestic self-confidence. They were administered prior to and after the program, and the changes in results were analyzed. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS/WIN 12.0 program, with a paired sample t-test. Students’ behaviors during each class were observed, recorded and analyzed as part of qualitative analysis. The conclusions from the study are as follows. First, there were statistically significant differences resulting from the art therapy in overall self-confidence as well as general, social, in-class and domestic self-confidence of the middle school students with special needs. Second, the art therapy had a statistically significant positive impact on the motivation of the middle school students with special needs. Therefore, the study found evidence that art therapy program is effective in improving self-confidence and motivation for middle school students with special needs.