Creativity in Therapy

Inspiring therapists and counselors to be more creative

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Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques help someone to come back into their body and the present moment when they are feeling overwhelmed with distress. I recently heard it described as helping your brain get “back online” after it’s been overwhelmed. When clients have trauma memories, have panic attacks, or feel overcome by strong emotions, I find that grounding can be an essential tool for helping them to take control of their mind and emotions. There are a few things that can help grounding be more … [Read more...]

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Process Art in Therapy

Although most people think about art as pictures or sculptures that look like something or communicate a particular meaning, there can be a lot of benefit to process art. Art therapists will often remind clients that it’s the process that’s important, not the final product. Process art means that the focus of the art is on the experience of making the art, not the resulting art piece, and may even be thrown away afterwards. As the mother of a toddler, I’ve been immersed in the world of … [Read more...]

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Salt & Watercolor Painting

This week I’ve been playing with another fun art technique – sprinkling salt on a wet watercolor painting. Like the last blog post – Watercolor & Oil Pastel Resist Painting – this technique encourages a more process-oriented focus in the art-making or art therapy. It’s also a lot of fun! It’s fascinating to watch the wet watercolor react to the salt. There is some immediate effect that you see as you add the salt (more noticeable with larger crystals), but when you come back and brush off … [Read more...]

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Watercolor & Oil Pastel Resist Painting in Art Therapy

Watercolor and oil pastel resists create beautiful, interesting works of art. They are also a great activity for process-oriented art therapy. Therapeutic art can work on a lot of levels, such as a soothing activity for an anxious client, as a means of communicating something that is hard to find the words for, or as an experience that can reveal things about ourselves or help us practice a new way of being. Process-oriented art therapy directives focuses more on the creative process and what … [Read more...]

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Intention Word Doodles

Doodles and “tangle” drawings are great art activities to just play around as an artist or to engage people who do not consider themselves artistic or creative. The continued popularity of “adult coloring books” and fascination with zentangles reflect the desire of so many people to make beautiful pictures and enjoy the stress-relieving benefits of art. But as an art therapist, I also want to push people to go a step further and create something original, not just color in the designs of someone … [Read more...]

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