Creativity in Counseling

Iris Germanica (sepia)

Following is a description of some of the ways I use creativity in working with counseling clients. Perhaps some of you will find them useful. If you have experience of working with creativity in a counseling context, I'd love to hear of your experiences, either via e-mail or as a comment to this post.

More anon,
David
Writing Techniques

Memoirs of Addiction and Recovery (working with addicts, writing, and the Hero's Journey)

I often find that addicts are creative and sensitive people who grew up in the wrong place. Addiction is often a way of coping for them, one that leads, generally, to further trauma. Art, had they grown up in a different environment, might have been a way they had instead chosen to deal with their more sensitive take on the world.

I can help bring them back to the art and the energy that has been sidetracked into addiction: to redirect this energy into something that feeds rather than depletes them, heals rather than retraumatizes. A future they might not have had opens up because they learn to re-channel this energy. I see them as people who were, or could have been, on a creative or spiritual path who got diverted because of trauma, and I see addiction as the "spell" that held them there. I help them get back on their main path through letting them experience highs from being creative instead of from addictive, self-destructive behaviors.

One way I combine creativity and addiction is in writing groups I call "Memoirs of Addiction and Recovery." I create a temporary writing community that helps addicts feel accompanied on their recovery and broadens their ability to overcome discouragement and shame and to recover their true selves. I also sometimes work with clients individually, using writing in a similar way. The framework I often use is Joseph Campbell's monomyth of the Hero's Journey, which not only rescues from shame the dark period of the clients' lives, but gives them a path to go forward on where they will eventually obtain a true boon to themselves, others, or both.

Wounded Child/Inner Healer two-hands writing technique

Imagine yourself walking in a familiar place. In the distance you see someone walking toward you. When the person gets closer, you see it's a child. When still closer, you see that it is your younger self. Imagine that this child is feeling a confusing or disturbing feeling that you, yourself, are feeling. Notice how old the child is, how the child looks and acts. Imagine, as well, that you are feeling at your most compassionate and empathic. With your dominant hand, write what you would say to this child. With your non-dominant hand, imagining yourself to be this child, feeling what is bothering him or her, respond. Continue to go back and forth between dominant and non-dominant hands until you come to some resolution.

Visualization techniques

The Miracle Question (from Solution-Focused Therapy)

I have blogged about this before, but it is so helpful it seems worth repeating here.

After letting clients complain about their problems in their lives, I ask them to imagine this:

After our session, you go off and do whatever you do with the rest of the day. Tonight, you fall asleep. And while you're snoozing, a strange thing happens. The strange thing is that... a miracle occurs! The miracle is a very special one, tailored just to you. The miracle is that all your problems are solved and all your concerns are gone. Poof! But the thing is, the miracle happened while you were asleep, so you don't know anything about it. When you wake up tomorrow, you are solidly in the world of the miracle, but initially you are unaware that it has occurred. So the initial question is: Tomorrow morning, when you wake up and as you step through the day, what do you notice -- in yourself, in your surroundings, in other people -- that eventually gets you scratching your head, thinking, "Something's different about today. A miracle must have happened!"

Asking yourself this question is akin to the call to adventure on the hero's journey. It will take you into new territory, and there you will encounter struggles you might not otherwise have had to endure. But it is also the first step to finding your personal boon, and to making your miracle your reality.

The "Miracle Question" is based on the principle that we do have the answers, and it's a way to envision, while awake but in a kind of self-induced light trance, what life will be like, in great detail, when all our problems are solved. Some questions to ask yourself, after asking the Miracle Question:

- How do I feel when I open my eyes the next morning, the first morning of my miracle life?
- Am I in the same bedroom? The same house? With the same people?
- What's different as I get ready for the day?
- What's different as I walk through it, hour by hour?
- What do other people in my life notice about me that's different?
- What do I notice about them?

From the answers to these questions, which eventually give you the "Totto, we're not in Kansas anymore" feeling, a vision of life with all the problems solved is built. Then it's just a matter of working toward that "miracle," one doable step at a time.

Breaking the Trauma Re-enactment Triangle

Imagine three parts of yourself: the injured child (victim of abuse), the abuser, and a non-protecting bystander. Re-enact the trauma re-enactment triangle of abuser, victim, non-protecting bystander. Now, imagine a true protector who intervenes on your behalf, defending you against the internalized abuser. Work through this re-enactment, calling on whatever forces are needed to render the abuser harmless and the injured child self safe.

Psychodrama techniques

Sometimes I work with client to develop a "character" that is able to do or be or feel something that the client, in his or her everyday life, cannot. I work with the client to create the background, the voice, the mannerisms, the style of dress. We may even do a therapy session or part of a session with the client acting as that character. The goal is for the client to be that character in his or her life, allowing the client to do what, inside, he or she actually wants to do.

Splitting Ambivalence (a variation of Gestalt)

With a client ambivalent about something, I will often effectively divide the client into two parts (or more) and have the client move around the room, from chair to chair, speaking as first one part then the other. We treat this as a debate and it continues until all sides have fully had their say. Then, we imagine another part of has been watching this debate. That part reflects on the points each side has made, then sees if it can help the "others" come to a resolution that satisfies all sides.

Splitting Ambivalence (a variation of Focusing)

Here, the client divides into two parts, each of which has two halves -- one half that wants something for the client, the other half that doesn't want the client to have to experience something. We use Focusing to work each half of each part, until they come to a potential resolution.

Discussion:
Art, Healing, and Transformation group
Flower Mandalas Project group
Cultivating Creativity group

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© 2009, David J. Bookbinder
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