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Children who display restrained behavior often receive less attention than children with conspicuously loud behavior. This creates the risk that the needs of quietly acting children may be overlooked or insufficiently taken into account, including those of children with selective mutism. Against this background, the following research question gains importance: What potential does art-therapeutic work offer for children with selective mutism? The study examines the particularities, possibilities, and advantages that art therapy may provide for selectively mute children. The database was generated within a group art therapy setting conducted as part of a research project at the Institute for Research in Arts Therapies (IRAT). A single-case study of an eight-year-old girl with selective mutism was undertaken. It comprises 19 art therapy sessions carried out over a period of seven months. The analysis draws on protocols from the group art therapy sessions. Data evaluation was conducted by means of qualitative content analysis, supplemented by quantitative findings from the Beck Youth Inventories-Second Edition (BYI-2) and an anamnesis questionnaire. The results illustrate, based on five main categories and additional subcategories, the potential of art therapy for children with selective mutism. Central to these are nonverbal processes through which art-therapeutic work opens a space for self-expression, nonverbal communication, and the development of relationships through the artistic medium. The analysis suggests that art-therapeutic interventions can offer a supportive developmental space, particularly in the areas of nonverbal communication, self-expression, and resource strengthening. Artistic processes may support emotional opening, self-efficacy, and the formation of trusting relationships. As this is a single-case study with limitations in generalizability, the findings call for further investigation. Future research should compare the effects of different art therapy settings – group and individual therapy – within the context of selective mutism in order to identify potential differences in therapeutic processes and relationship formation. It would also be valuable to examine more extensively how self-strengthening through art-therapeutic work may promote the development of verbal communication in selectively mute children.