Creative Therapies
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Not all of counselling that is therapeutic and beneficial to the client needs to be navigated through the use of words or conversation only. There are a number of other therapies used together with the spoken medium that can be used to bring insight and healing to the client, particularly if the client and therapist are feeling "stuck". Counsellors practicing creative therapies do need to have had specialised training in such. Practitioners of Gestalt or Jungian influences tend to promote creativity or creative techniques as a route to healing. These types of therapies are not only creative but also expressive in nature.
It is generally understood that attributes of the right hemisphere of the brain are those of the creative and emotional; while the left hemisphere is that of words and logic. While one does not experience the "separateness" of such functions in our brain due to the connectedness of left and right hemispheres through the corpus collosum, we tend to practice the "dominance" of the left through the often used written word and speech. Hence, why a client may feel "stuck", and why a creative medium introduced, which is appropriate to the client, may be helpful. A creative technique can access emotions more readily than a therapy where speaking is the only medium. Creative or expressive therapies can take the form of art, music or dance.
Art therapy
This usually takes the form of visual arts and can be expressed through painting, drawing or sculpture with clay. Art as a form of therapy can be used to "solve conflicts, manage behaviour, improve self-esteem, develop self-awareness and insight, manage stress, and develop interpersonal skills" according to an article by Annie Heiderscheit, http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/creative-t.... It can be used with children through to adults, art can also be practiced in group therapy. Clients may wish to uses any of these mediums outside to the counselling session as a way processing their emotions once they have an understanding of the process.
Dance/movement therapy
This form of therapy can be used with groups or individuals, from children to adults. It most commonly involves dance and the analysis of feelings or thoughts expressed as movement, and is most often set to music. Movement is used as the medium for assessment and therapeutic interventions arise out of the assessment. Movement therapies can also be used as a form of relaxation or stress management.
Music therapy
"A music therapist utilizes music to address the emotional/psychological, cognitive, physical, and social needs of the client." Annie Heiderscheit, http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/creative-t.... Music therapy is usually introduced as a intervention once a client has been thoroughly assessed and their needs clearly understood.
Drama therapy
This therapy uses the form of drama to achieve a specific therapeutic goal. Drama therapy can include such practices as improvision, theater games, enactment, and storytelling, depending on the client's needs, interests, and abilities.
Caution needs to be heeded in the use of all creative or expressive therapies because they can induce or uncover very strong and overwhelming emotions and the therapist needs to be able to, and have the time in a session, guide the client in containment of emotions should this happen.
References:
http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/creative-t...