A Creative Approach

Hi, and welcome to the blog. This is the space where you get to ask your questions about using A Creative Approach to counselling and psychotherapy.

As you have already made the decision to introduce a creative dimension to your therapeutic work, I’d like to say, well done! It will bring a new and exciting layer to whichever modality you are professionally trained in. You do not need to be ‘good’ at art, nor do your clients; it is the process that is important, not the product. Coming into relationship with creative energy will enrich the therapeutic process for both you and your client. Fundamental to that happening is that you begin by developing a Creative Practice yourself. Just like any practice, be that Yoga, Meditation or Tai Chi, the reward of the practice is the practice itself. So, it has to start there.

 A Creative Practice facilitates a deeper connection to the Self, and that connection is what you invite into the therapy room when you suggest your clients engage with the creative process. To understand the creative process from an experiential point of view, you must develop your own Creative Practice so you will have some sense of what the client might be experiencing. So, before you bring any art-making tool offered here into your therapy room, you will need to have experienced it yourself.

Developing your own Creative Practice is the first step towards introducing A Creative Approach to your clients, and it is only when you feel competent using images as a point of reflection that your clients are in safer hands doing so for themselves. All your professional training to date will help build the containment and safe boundaries you will need to hold the client safely. Trust the authority of your own experience with holding a client, which is why you need to have the experience of your Creative Practice first.

Enjoy the creative process.