Читать книгу The Creative Arts in Counseling - Samuel Gladding T., Samuel T. Gladding - Страница 34

Counseling at its best has an artistic quality that enables individuals to express themselves in a creative, unique, and therapeutic manner. It is an activity that may be enhanced through encouraging some clients to participate in creative experiences, especially artistic expressions such as painting, writing, dancing, or playing. These activities, if carried out in a nonmechanical and therapeutic manner, help people become more in tune with their emotions and form new, healthier relationships with themselves and others. The arts sensitize clients to untapped aspects of themselves and promote an awareness of uniqueness and universality. Ancient and modern civilizations have recognized this quality of the arts, and the tradition of using the arts in counseling is a long and distinguished one.

The creative arts in counseling are, as a group, process oriented, empowering, authentic, parsimonious, multicultural, and insight focused. They energize individuals and help connect them with positive aspects within and outside of themselves while fostering a new sense of self. By engaging in playful, cooperative, and communicative dimensions of art, individuals recognize more clearly the complexity and simplicity of their lives. Similarly, counselors benefit from their involvement with the arts by being able to work with a greater variety of clients in therapeutic ways. Engaging in processes, such as using the SCAMPER model of creativity, enriches counselors personally and professionally and helps their clients gain new perspectives or try different behaviors, whether with the arts or not.

Although those who are professional artists, irrationally minded, or mentally unstable may not be appropriate candidates for therapeutic treatment using the arts, many individuals are excellent candidates. It is to the advantage of everyone involved that professional helpers learn how to use the creative arts in counseling.