Therapy for Creatives
Are you a creative exploring the benefits of therapy? Maybe you work in a creative field or are struggling to find the balance between your creative interests and your day job or family life. Maybe you are trying to find a way to reignite your passion for creativity that has faded due to life’s demands or are a creative who is suffering from anxiety or depression and just looking for a therapist who understands the creative personality.
I would love to help. As a creative myself, I have a passion for working with fellow creatives to both explore and make good on the therapeutic upside of creative activity, to build a life that affirms the both the joy and the meaning imbued in creative expression, and to find outlets for creativity in everyday life.
I understand that for a creative, the need to exercise your creativity is just as fundamental as that for food and water. For creatives, the desire for creative self-expression is not something that you can choke down or wish away until life hands you the perfect opportunity to create. It is an integral part of who you are. That’s why it is so important to structure your life in such a way that you can exercise your creativity on a regular (if not daily) basis.
Pioneering creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified ten paradoxical traits of creative people, including:
- having an abundance of physical energy while also being quiet or at rest
- being intelligent but also naive
- swinging between playfulness and seriousness
- having a strong imagination while also being rooted in reality
- veering between introversion and extroversion
- embodying both humility and pride
- having qualities that defy rigid gender roles
- feeling a tug between rebelliousness and conservatism
- being passionate yet also coldly objective about one’s work
- being sensitive to emotional pain yet also capable of tremendous joy
Does this sound like you? If so, I can relate. I know it felt like I was looking in a mirror the first time I read this list. Creatives face unique challenges in life — challenges that others often don’t understand. But a creative also knows that the joy of creative self-expression makes those challenges worth it.
So, let’s work together to uncover and address whatever it is that is holding you back.
Ready to schedule?
If you’d like to talk more about what that looks like, or if you’re ready to schedule an appointment, please reach out to me on my contact page.
Photo credit
Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash