CreativeArtsPsychotherapy.co.uk

The role of the therapist has grown as the traditional ways of finding support and self validation have shifted. The therapist fills the role of the listener and observer who helps people to hear, see and feel themselves and the things around them and strives to be as present as possible with clients.

The arts have been used by most ancient cultures in their rituals and their ceremonies, over thousands of years, for healing and self-expression. They have formed a central part of people's lives. In a therapeutic context, they can help to:

facilitate the expression of inner chaos and pain through the provision of structure and form.
penetrate previously inexpressible places in people, particularly from a pre-verbal age.
allow clients to communicate with their emotions in their own language, i.e. some people are visual, some kinaesthetic, some are more verbal. This provides a valuable addition to the discursive language in psychotherapy.
enable the therapist to respond to the clients emotional state in its fullest, most direct way by having a full range of arts for different expressive styles.
take action within therapy. e.g. draw how it feels, express it with the body. This emphasizes the fundamental flow of life. Expression can often flow from one form to another

“The arts in therapy allows for the cathartic expression of anger, fear and painful memories through all the senses and is particularly useful for the person who cannot directly communicate threatening feeling through language”
Shaun McNiff – the Arts and Psychotherapy