Back to Basics: Creative

Counseling Techniques

Ying Tang, PhD, NCC

Alyse M. Anekstein, PhD, LPC, NCC

SUNY Oneonta

Reasons for Using Creative

Counseling Techniques

• They intervene at an affective level and a physical level

– sensations, behavior, cognition and imagery

– Movement, exercise and diet

• Respect individual differences

– Help meet children where they are

• Engage them in the therapeutic process

Reasons for Using Creative

Counseling Techniques

• Facilitate insight, communication, & identification of feelings

• Encourage self-awareness

• Allow freedom of expression & encourage originality

• Strengthen child/adolescent’s ego (internal core)

Choosing Interventions

• Based on theoretical orientation

• Developmentally appropriate

• Age-appropriate

• Need to know a variety of interventions

• Be appropriate for the problem(s)

Creative Approaches

• Structured vs. Unstructured

• Some recommendations

– Genograms, family tree

– Art

– Music

– Movement

– Bibliotherapy

− Play therapy

− Cinema therapy

− Yoga & Mindfulness

Genograms

Helpful alternative to explore family history

1. Objectifies information and task

2. Allows child/adolescent to explore own identity

3. Parents can provide biographical information

4. Can do alone with client

Sample Genogram

Family Tree

Family Tree

Genograms

1. Client feels less the focus of the intervention

2. Within context of family member’s lives, history,

identities, careers, & possibly secrets

3. Used as positive reinforcement

4. Ask client to draw the family, identify people,

personal characteristics, oldest,

youngest, etc.

Art

• Can be relaxing

• Helpful in working with clients who have difficulty communicating

• Use a variety of media

• Process-, not product focused

• Allow time for client to discuss his/her work

• Abstract drawings

Art

• Creative art offers a nonthreatening way

for clients to express their inner feelings

• Creative art is useful in assessing client’s

underlying emotions

• Art can offer a creative outlet for clients

who experience abuse, parents’ divorce,

depression, lack of self-regard, or sudden

social or academic failure

Parents “exploded” when the client came home

Benefits of Creative Arts

• Process emotions and feelings that the

client is struggling with

• Gain insight into the problems

• Understand certain aspects of themselves

that maybe they are not aware of

• Through viewing one’s own creation – one

can improve the skill of self-observation

• What cannot be said with words – may be

more easily expressed through the art.

Benefits of Creative Arts

• Emerging and recurrent symbols/colors

expressed in the art can help to make

unconscious material conscious.

• Art can make the hidden – visible in an

external & tangible way.

• Art making provides an experience which

is stress & anxiety reducing, relaxing, and

decreases worry.

Creating Relaxation

• Drawing a picture can have the same

therapeutic effect as venting your problems out

to a friend.

• The creative process has also been shown to

increase our levels of serotonin and dopamine,

neurotransmitters that play a role in increasing

happiness and relaxation.

Using Art to Cope V

an

Gogh

Using Art to Express F

rid

a K

ahlo

Expressive Self Portrait

Expressive Self Portrait

• You can use this exercise to portray how you feel on the

inside.

• Sit comfortably facing a mirror.

• Take a deep breath and look at your eyes in the mirror.

Do they show any feelings? Are you so overwhelmed by

stress that it feels as if your eyes are about to pop out of

your head?

• Do not draw your eyes how they look in the mirror.

Instead, draw them how you think they look on your

inner self.

Expressive Self Portrait

• Do the same for all your face features. Exaggerate

where needed.

• Do you feel like your thoughts are about to burst out of

your head?

– Then draw gestural lines emanating from your head.

– Do you feel trapped in a cage? Then draw prison bars

in front of your face.

• Do not draw what you see, draw what you feel.

• You can draw other images and use words to show your

inner thoughts.

Process questions

• Look for any patterns within your drawing

• Are there any themes that you can identify?

• What feelings are you trying to express?

• Speak as if you are the image. What would

you say?

• What would others think/feel/say about my

drawing?

Process questions

• Were there any surprises in creating the

portrait?

• If this is done in a group, you may invite

group members to share what they see in

each other’s portrait.

Collage

• It comes from the French word “coller” which

means to glue or paste and so, is a composition

of materials and objects that have been pasted

over a surface to form a unifying (or sometimes

not!) theme.

• Client uses images to create a visual narrative

that enhances the communication

Collage

• Collages can help us all open up our

creative and artistic sides to

– Tell a story

– Express our feelings,

– Identify conflicting themes,

– seek who we are, were, or wish to

become at this moment.

Collage instructions

• Counselor may suggest a theme

– E.g. “Alexander’s horrible terrible day” or “This

is what anger looks like!”

• Client can also do free association

• Be selective, be honest, and look from the

heart and not the mind

• Magazines are popular materials for

collage due to availability and the wide

spectrum of images.

Some process questions

• What is the title of the collage?

• What emotions are bubbling to the surface

as you work?

• What feelings are you expressing (with

each item on the collage)?

• Why did you select those particular

images and/or words?

• Can you identify a theme?

• If there is one thing you want to convey

what it is?

Collage

Anger

Pain

Bibliotherapy

• Can consist solely of reading, or it can be

complemented with discussion or play activity.

• A child might be asked to draw a scene from the

book or asked whether commonality is felt with a

particular character in the book.

• The book can be used to draw out a child on a

subject (s)he has been hesitant to discuss.

Bibliotherapy Bibliotherapy (utilizing literature in counseling) can help

students make meaning if their experiences. Typically in

four stages:

•Identification – intellectually identifying with the

characters, situations, or settings

•Catharsis – becoming emotionally involved in the story.

They share motivations, conflicts, and feelings.

•Insight – Application of the story outcomes to their own

lives

•Universality – Realization that their own issues are

shared with others and their empathy and sensitivity are

enhanced

Books

Books

Books • Sample: Julia Cook’s book

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKIAK5QwJTE)

Book Lists

• Library database

– Auraria Library Guide

– Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

– Cooperative Children's Book Center

– Bibliotherapy Reading List for Gay and

Lesbian Youth

– Pinterest

– Reading Lists of Books for Children and

Young Adults

Criteria for selecting bibliotherapy

literature

• Provides motivating and challenging experiences

• Is suitable for age, ability, and maturity

• Elicits critical and personal responses

• Avoid books that attempt to instill certain values

• Broadens understanding of diversity

• Contain accurate information

• Develops sensitivity and understanding of

differences

• Adapted from Newfoundland Canada Department of Education. (2008) & Vare & Norton (2004)

Play Therapy • Play therapy can be used to help (typically

younger) clients communicate in their

natural language of play.

• Children can play out worries, gain

mastery over fears and let the counselor

know about their desires, wishes, hopes &

dreams.

• Play therapy is currently adapted to many

theoretical frameworks, non-directive and

structured formats being the most popular

formats.

Play Therapy • Imagine what it would be like to enter a

room filled with exciting toys.

• Setting up your space: – Create an area of your office that is the play

area for your clients.

– This space is where children make decisions about ways to play and what toys mean.

– Put the toys in the same place each time.

• Good tool selection and set up are critical!

Play Therapy

• Art and Creative Expressive Toys

• Emotive Expressive Toys

• Constructive-Construction Toys

• Musical Instrument-Noise Production Toys

• Regressive Toys

• Sport-Physical Toys

• Aggressive-Anger Toys

• Reality Toys

• Nurturing-Cooking-Healing Toys

• Soothing Toys

• Fantasy Toys

Play: Puppets

• Clients can displace their feelings onto the

puppets

• Displacement offer physical & psychological

safety

• Facilitates self-expression

• Can help them gain mastery over a

situation

Puppets

Sandtray Therapy

According to Homeyer and Sweeney (2011):

“Sandtray therapy is an expressive and projective mode of psychotherapy involving the unfolding and processing of inter-personal issues through the use of specific sandtray materials as a nonverbal medium of communication, led by the client(s) and facilitated by a trained therapist.” (p. 4)

Sandtray Therapy • Allows clients a non-threatening way to express their emotional issues

• Supplies a tactile experience of just touching the sand that in itself can be therapeutic

• Provides therapeutic distance by allowing the client to direct the process and “speak” through the tray

• Naturally provides boundaries, limits, and a sense of control through the structure of the process and careful selection of tools

• Provides an environment for the emergence of therapeutic metaphors

• Promotes communication for non-verbal clients or clients with poor verbal skills

• Effectively cuts through the verbal defense of rationalization

• Creates an environment for repressed issues to surface very quickly which can cause very strong emotional reactions

• Sandtray therapy is very powerful!

– (Homeyer and Sweeney, 2011, p. 8-12)

Sandtray Therapy

• Requires a separate and specific work area.

• Sandtray can be placed on a stand or work table no

higher than the average person’s waist level.

• Sandtray tools should be placed on shelves that

usually do not need to be higher than four inches

and organized by category for easy access.

• An alternative would be to place Sandtray tools in

separate bins organized by category. This also

allows for easy storage in between sessions.

Sandtray Therapy • The “standard” tray should be a rectangular box, sized

at approximately 30 inches by 30 inches and three

inches deep.

• The base and sides of the sand tray are usually

painted blue (as a metaphor for water or the sky) and

made of wood or plastic.

• A plastic tray with a blue plastic cover can be placed

on the bottom to look like water.

• The sandtray should be filled about one third of the

way with sand.

Sandtray Therapy People

Animals

Vegetation

Buildings

Vehicles

Fences and Signs

Natural Items

Fantasy

Spiritual/Mystical

Landscaping and Other Accessories

Household Items/Miscellaneous

Sandtray Therapy Step One - Set up the room

Step Two - Introduce the Sandtray and

Tools

Step Three - Clients create the Sandtray

Step Four - Process the Sandtray

Step Five - Clean up

Step Six - Documentation

Sandtray Therapy

Cinematherapy

• By watching characters successes and

failures in movies, we can learn new

approaches to solving our problems

• Movies have the advantage of using

narratives, pictures, sound effects and

music which gives cinema greater power

over our emotions than books, which

makes them ideal for therapeutic modeling

Cinematherapy

• Cinematherapy can be used with your

students by addressing issues and feelings

through the use of film.

• Students can connect to the emotions or

situations of the characters in the film.

• UP Movie Clip

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krdZ053x3DI)

Cinematherapy • Do you remember any physical changes occurring

while watching the movie? (breathing or becoming hot or cold.)

• Notice what you liked and what you didn’t like. Which characters or actions seemed especially attractive or unattractive to you? Did you identify with one of the characters?

• What emotions did you experience while watching the movie? Can you relate any of your personal experiences to the movie?

• Notice whether any aspect of the film was especially hard to watch. Could this be related to something that you have personally experienced?

• Did you experience something that allowed you to understand yourself or your situation better as you watched the film?

Dance and Movement

• Gets clients(s) in their body and moving

around

• Gives a chance to experience the

conversation rather than just discuss it

• Provides a change in format and an

opportunity to energize

• Addiction Dance Clip

• (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhI4CpAH8wM)

Yoga and Mindfulness

• Rybak & Deuskar (2010) state yoga

emphasizes an increased sense of connection

with the self; “the aim of yoga is to realize a

state of silence, bliss, and oneness…” (p. 4).

• Mindfulness means “paying attention in a

particular way: on purpose, in the present

moment, and non-judgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn,

1994, p. 4).

• Emotions may quickly come to the surface and

there may be lack of interest/buy in from

clients.

Proper Seated Posture/S-Spine • Sit all the way back in the chair and lift your shoulders

up and back like bird wings.

• Place your feet flat on the floor and parallel.

• Align your hips, knees, and ankles to make a 90-

degree angle.

• Inhale, lifting your heart and extending the top of your

head to the sky.

• Face your head forward with the chin parallel to the

ground. Ears align over shoulders.

• Your spine should have alternating curves (lumbar,

thoracic, and cervical) in the form of an “S.” No

“rainbow back.”

Seated Cat and Cow • Sit sideways on you chair with your feet firmly on the

floor and hands on your knees.

• Begin with a neutral spine in Proper Seated Posture.

Draw your shoulders up and back like bird wings.

• Inhale. Extend your spine by lifting your tailbone and

the crown of your head upward. Press your chest

forward and up, into Cow position.

• Exhale. Draw your buttocks down, and curve your

back by pulling your navel into your spine. Bring your

chin to your chest for Cat position.

• Move with powerful inhale and exhale breaths,

alternating back and forth from Cow to Cat. As you

get more comfortable, increase the pace.

Awareness of breath

• Sit in a comfortable position with your feet firmly

on the floor. Close your eyes or let your eyes

gently focus on something in the distance. Follow

your breathing in and out. Pay attention to the

sensation of your breath going in and out of your

body. When your mind wanders, bring your mind

back to your breath. It is normal and natural for

your mind to wander; give yourself permission to

be non-judgmental. Bring yourself back to your

breath.

Mindful Walking

• Bring your full attention to the act of walking.

Become aware of how it feels to walk.- your feet

becoming firmly rooted to the ground. Notice how

your body feels as you slow down and

concentrate on moving your legs, your feet, your

ankles. When your mind wanders, bring your

mind back to the present moment and

concentrate on your walking.

Games

• Useful to teach new behaviors

• Facilitates discussion by objectifying problems

• Addresses specific concerns

• Helpful with resistant children in denial, and anxious and inhibited children

• For example: feeling games, games addressing specific issues such as divorce, anger, cooperation, and survival skills games

Games

Advantages

1. Formats are familiar & nonthreatening

2. Helpful establishing rapport

3. Diagnostic value

4. Can enhance client’s ego

5. Can gain a sense of mastery

6. Fun

Disadvantages

1. If used in artificial & stilted

manner

2. Inflexible game play not

connected to problem

3. Complicated games can

be confusing

4. Adolescents may find

condescending

Music

• Many teenagers are immersed in the world

of music.

• Music lyrics often elicit strong emotions,

normalizing and expressing their emotions

in ways that they either cannot or do not

feel safe doing.

• Using music is a great way to begin to

establish a relationship with teen clients in

a non-threatening manner.

Music

• Useful with clients who have difficulty expressing

themselves verbally

• Alleviates feelings of depression, anxiety, anger,

loneliness, & grief…etc.

• Reduces anxiety & stress

• Communicates feelings

• Often used in conjunction with other techniques

(creative writing, movement, imagery, relaxation

techniques…etc.)

Katy Perry - Roar

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath

Scared to rock the boat and make a mess

So I sat quietly, agreed politely

I guess that I forgot I had a choice

I let you push me past the breaking point

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up (hey!)

Already brushing off the dust

You hear my voice, your hear that sound

Like thunder, gonna shake the ground

You held me down, but I got up

Get ready 'cause I had enough

I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter

Dancing through the fire

'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar

One Direction - Half A Heart

Only half a blue sky

Kinda there - but not quite

I'm walking around with just one shoe

I'm half a heart without you

I'm half a man - at best

With half an arrow in my chest

'Cause I miss everything we do

I'm half a heart without you

Lady GaGa - Born This Way

There's nothin' wrong with lovin' who you are

She said, 'cause He made you perfect, babe

So hold your head up, girl and you'll go far

Listen to me when I say

I'm beautiful in my way

'Cause God makes no mistakes

I'm on the right track, baby

I was born this way

Don't hide yourself in regret

Just love yourself and you're set

I'm on the right track, baby

I was born this way, born this way

Advantages of Creative Arts

• Promotes relationships

• Breaks barriers

• Stimulates communication

• Involves a sense of playfulness, perceived

as fun

• Allow clients to express themselves in

multiple ways

Limitations

• Students may be less likely to work on

problems if the format isn’t properly

structured.

• Using arts can be distracting

• The process may easily become arts and

crafts

• Students may become overcritical of

themselves (remind them: process is more

important than the final product)

Questions and Comments

Thank you!