Читать книгу The Creative Arts in Counseling - Samuel Gladding T., Samuel T. Gladding - Страница 32

The disadvantages of using arts in counseling must also be recognized, for they can cause complications if they are not acknowledged and dealt with properly. First, not every counselor or client is a suitable candidate for such procedures. For instance, counselors who do not have high artistic and social-vocational-type personalities may tend to lack commitment or may burn out on using the creative arts (Orkibi, 2016). Among clients, a chief limitation of using the arts in counseling is that artists themselves may not benefit from such an approach. In fact, according to Fleshman and Fryear (1981), “for artists, the use of the arts in therapy may be counterproductive” (p. 6). The reason for this phenomenon is that artists support themselves through creative expression, and to be asked to perform in a therapeutic setting may seem too much like work. In such situations, the use of arts in counseling becomes an obstacle to therapeutic progress unless clients are asked to engage in an art or artistic activity, such as equine therapy, with which they are unfamiliar.

A second limitation of using the arts in counseling is that many artists (and some clients) may view counseling and activities associated with it as being unartistic. They may be less inclined to work on problems if the format is not highly structured and primarily cognitive in nature. For these individuals, using the arts in counseling may be distracting and frustrating.

A third reason why the arts are not always welcome in counseling relates to popular misperceptions of the arts, especially links between creative arts and mental health. In the 17th century, Italian physician Cesare Lombroso linked creativity with mental illness. Even though such a connection is totally unfounded, the perception still remains and encourages reluctance on the part of many to participate in activities that are of an artistic or creative nature.