Just wondering if any of you have ever had any experiences with creativity in therapy.
All of my ts have just used dialogue, I have always wanted to try art therapy.
My supervisor uses art and imagery and I find them fascinating.

[lucozader]

I've done a couple of sand trays, I found them to be quite powerful.

[stopdog]

Right now I am writing about my person and sending it to the second therapist. I would not be into art (can't draw) or sand (don't like it on my hands) or talking to chairs or anything. But the writing for grief is not going badly.

I have done sand trays quite a few times and really enjoy them. They tend to bring things out that I wasn't aware I'd been thinking about.

T has had me draw a couple times with pastels, and I do Active Imaginations out loud occasionally when we're working with a dream.

And last time she got out some clay, I'd never done that before but it was cool I guess, I wasn't sure what to do with it so I just made a blue butterfly.

I would really like to try sandtray, it’s supposed to be very powerful.
I guess I am at a loss. I don’t feel there is anything much to say anymore but I still feel so much.
I have tried writing in my journal and that was helpful but I would like to be able to show what I am feeling without using words. I would need a t to help me process it. I used to do lots of art when I was a teenager but then suddenly I stopped.

[Carmina]

I do art therapy

[winterblues17]

Sorry for the ignorance but can someone explain the sandtray. I've heard it a few times in here?!

Hi winter blues,
Here is a link to an article explaining a bit about it:
http://www.jungiansandplay.ie/sandpl...-why-it-works/

Originally Posted by Carmina

I do art therapy

How do you find it?

[1stepatatime]

Originally Posted by monalisasmile

I would really like to try sandtray, it’s supposed to be very powerful.
I guess I am at a loss. I don’t feel there is anything much to say anymore but I still feel so much.
I have tried writing in my journal and that was helpful but I would like to be able to show what I am feeling without using words. I would need a t to help me process it. I used to do lots of art when I was a teenager but then suddenly I stopped.

Hi Mona!
Have you heard of Bioenergetics or body psychotherapy. It’s pretty much psychodynamic therapy and body work used together. Sometimes when we can’t talk about something or we feel like talk therapy alone isn’t enough then sometimes incorporating the body is helpful. Google it. My therapist is certified in bioenergetic analysis .. I’m trying to be more open to it.. but I can tell you what little I’ve done of the body work seems to have helped.

Before Gestalt therapy, I had art therapy. I found it much less painful and less intense. Having an art object in the room was cushioning for me. My art therapist was very analytical and quite cold though so no doubt this contributed to the "removed" feeling. I miss that removed feeling. I had much more a relationship with the objects than I had with him and it was infinitely less complicated than the pain of my current therapy.

[lucozader]

You should ask your supervisor to recommend a creative therapist for you, Mona.

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by monalisasmile

How do you find it?

Excellent, my current art therapist is probably the best therapist I've had, I did also see a great art therapist in the 90's (and have had good experiences of gestalt therapy too)

For a long time I wanted t to do a sand tray with me. I asked her if she would, basically told her I was inviting her into my sand tray world not asking her to show me hers, she'd thought about it and said we would when the time was right, but she's continued to put if off for so long that now I've decided that I don't want to anymore... I haven't done one in awhile again. She has two like the above linked article talks about one with wet sand, one with dry. I always use the wet one. I like to mold the sand, make little rivers in it, I can pour water in it, and stuff. Never have used the dry one.

From the article: "The silent respectful acceptance of the images created during the Sandplay process allows the client to feel increasingly safe and free. As this happens, the images seem to come less from the ego and personal unconscious, and more from the deeper levels of the human psyche, or the collective unconscious." aha!! so that's why t stands there watching mostly silently while I create. Sometimes she goes "Mmm" or "Ahhh" or whatever but no talking. And when I finish, we stand side by side looking at it in silence for a couple minutes, then she'll ask me to name it. Then we sit down and talk about it. She waits until after I leave to take pictures of it and then takes it apart. She said it's very important that you don't take apart your own sand trays.

Originally Posted by 1stepatatime

Hi Mona!

Have you heard of Bioenergetics or body psychotherapy. It’s pretty much psychodynamic therapy and body work used together. Sometimes when we can’t talk about something or we feel like talk therapy alone isn’t enough then sometimes incorporating the body is helpful. Google it. My therapist is certified in bioenergetic analysis .. I’m trying to be more open to it.. but I can tell you what little I’ve done of the body work seems to have helped.

There are a few of these therapists working near me but I don’t know a lot about them. I remember you saying before this was how your t worked and I really like how she works with you from what you describe in your posts.
A lot of these ts work well with trauma too, don’t they?

Originally Posted by lucozader

You should ask your supervisor to recommend a creative therapist for you, Mona.

This is a great idea, thank you lucozader! She may have some names of ya near me. I remember once dissociating in our supervision and she took out these cards with all different images and asked me to pick one that describes the place I go to when I dissociate and it was very powerful.

oh yeah speaking of cards! my t has a "daughters of the moon" tarot deck and sometimes she gets that out, and I pick a couple cards and then write a quick story using the images on the cards. That's a really interesting and creative way to get inside my psyche...

Originally Posted by ArtieSwimsOn

For a long time I wanted t to do a sand tray with me. I asked her if she would, basically told her I was inviting her into my sand tray world not asking her to show me hers, she'd thought about it and said we would when the time was right, but she's continued to put if off for so long that now I've decided that I don't want to anymore... I haven't done one in awhile again. She has two like the above linked article talks about one with wet sand, one with dry. I always use the wet one. I like to mold the sand, make little rivers in it, I can pour water in it, and stuff. Never have used the dry one.

From the article: "The silent respectful acceptance of the images created during the Sandplay process allows the client to feel increasingly safe and free. As this happens, the images seem to come less from the ego and personal unconscious, and more from the deeper levels of the human psyche, or the collective unconscious." aha!! so that's why t stands there watching mostly silently while I create. Sometimes she goes "Mmm" or "Ahhh" or whatever but no talking. And when I finish, we stand side by side looking at it in silence for a couple minutes, then she'll ask me to name it. Then we sit down and talk about it. She waits until after I leave to take pictures of it and then takes it apart. She said it's very important that you don't take apart your own sand trays.

I have never tried the wet trays but as you describe them, they sound really fun. I like to get messy with paints, pastels and clay to, something about doing things with my hands helps.

A lot of ts take pictures of sand trays when client is gone. Do you mind your t doing that, for me that feels almost intrusive of your stuff but I also understand they learn a lot from taking pictures too. Isn’t your t a jungian t? I think jungians are very creative and especially with dreams.

Originally Posted by monalisasmile

I have never tried the wet trays but as you describe them, they sound really fun. I like to get messy with paints, pastels and clay to, something about doing things with my hands helps.

A lot of ts take pictures of sand trays when client is gone. Do you mind your t doing that, for me that feels almost intrusive of your stuff but I also understand they learn a lot from taking pictures too. Isn’t your t a jungian t? I think jungians are very creative and especially with dreams.

Yep, she's Jungian. And (I think) she's very talented with dream work.

I don't mind that she takes pictures, she keeps telling me that one day we'll go over all of them and then she'll give me the pictures. I hope she does cuz I want them, I don't even remember half of the ones I've done anymore. I remember most of the very first one, because I felt so stupid doing it and had no clue what I was "supposed to do" so I just put little swirly things in the sand, and I put a cave in there with a little curled up baby inside it, and other things that put together, I remember, really "spoke" to how I felt at the beginning of therapy. I have taken my own pictures of some of them when I've had my phone there.

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by monalisasmile

There are a few of these therapists working near me but I don’t know a lot about them. I remember you saying before this was how your t worked and I really like how she works with you from what you describe in your posts.
A lot of these ts work well with trauma too, don’t they?

This is close to how mine works, she uses an Embodied-Relational approach (I have CPTSD)

[velcro003]

Originally Posted by monalisasmile

Hi winter blues,
Here is a link to an article explaining a bit about it:
Sandplay: how and why it works - Jungian Sandplay

i love this article, thank you!

[toomanycats]

I used to paint with my ex-T
It was really helpful for me
I was able to express things I didn't have words for
and felt he understood better in this "language"

[chihirochild]

I’ve never done anything especially creative in proper therapy, but I was exposed to crap tons of it when I was inpatient—at least one hour-long “group” each day was some kind of art therapy or expressive therapy.

I am terrible at visual art but I was so bored that I ended up trying lots of different stuff. I haaaaated making pretty lil inspirational quotes or cards with “coping techniques” listed on them, but had unexpected success filling notebooks with angry pastel scribblings and god-awful poems, and with drawing stick figure comics. The scribbling was mostly just catharsis, but the stick figure comics somehow helped me express some stuff that I couldn’t verbalize straight up. I did a whole series of Id/Ego/Superego comics where the three stick figure characters would interact with each other. It was all very tongue in cheek but also helped me sort out things e.g. yes, what I really want to do is refuse to get it if bed or speak with my psychiatrist but also I know that that approach won’t help anything.

I don’t know how well I would tolerate that kind of thing in a therapeutic dyad, though—I guess the artsy stuff feels a little erm scientifically non rigorous so I’d feel wary of a t who insisted on my participation in such a thing.

[Carmina]

From my experience the sort of group 'therapy' you get on wards bears very little relation to art therapy, even if they use the term 'therapy' they are mostly very basic and more diversional or occupational in focus rather than using art psychotherapeutically

[Out There]

I do adult colouring which I've taken to therapy on occasions , and lately we've been working with some abstract image cards which I emote well with ( emoting is not something I'd win prizes at ) I'd like to have a go at sand tray work ,art therapy seems very interesting from what I've seen.