Whenever I tell people what I do –A creative Arts Therapist/Counsellor, one of most questions I get asked is: You must be extremely creative, must be good at drawing and dance and signing…. creative? And I have to tell them that that I was never one of those kids in class who could color or paint very well. In fact, I loved using rainbow colors for everything and often got into trouble for not coloring the way I am supposed to…Sure, I love music and all forms of dancing and I guess I am creative in my own unique  way and that is what I try to explain to my clients as well as children….that its okay to color outside the line, if that is how you are feeling….but then again, its difficult to be creative all the time  in my own way……. I realize the importance of having boundaries, but do we lose something really valuable in this process? Can we keep both the color and the order? Can we have structured creativity?

As a fledgling creative arts therapist , I wanted to live by the training I got on being creative about creativity…. that creativity involves the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns and relationships to create meaningful new ideas, methods and interpretations. Creativity also involves originality, progressiveness and imagination.  Creativity is about exploring different ways of applying the traditional counseling theories and techniques while connecting with clients effectively.

Although some counseling professionals seek specific credentialing in the creative arts, others simply access their inborn creativity and use it within their scope of training as counselors, remaining mindful of the ethics and parameters of their practice.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA