In this article, I discuss creativity as foundational to being human, how it enables an emotionally and psychologically fulfilling life, and its relationship with psychotherapy.
Everyday creativity
When we think of creativity we tend to think of world-renowned artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Mozart. This, however, is a very narrow interpretation of creativity and perhaps illustrates an unfortunate common belief: that only a select few people are creative. This is simply not true. Though not everyone follows the path of the professional artist, all humans are nevertheless creative. This is powerfully illustrated by observing children at play, where curiosity and imaginative make-believe are both instinctive and joyful.
As we develop into adults, however, our relationship with creativity changes. Instead of playing inside a castle we’ve made out of bedsheets, our creativity often focuses on more practical issues, such as ideas for dinner using what’s in the fridge, how to find a holiday in the sun we can afford, how to deal with a friend we’ve fallen out with. This means that we spend much of the day using what we might call ‘everyday creativity’ to navigate the problems and opportunities we encounter.
And yet, even though we rely on this intrinsic creative ability, we often don’t see the crucial role it plays in getting us through the day and its influence on our fulfilment in life, which in turn often means we don’t fully explore our creative potential.
Self-understanding
To respond creatively in a way that enables us to thrive, we first need to understand ourselves: our experience, our needs, our problems. For example, how to make sense of challenging experiences we’ve tried hard to hide from ourselves? The confusing difficulty with an important relationship? Issues we repeatedly struggle with?
Without this self-understanding, we can try to respond creatively, but as we don’t know what need we’re trying to fulfil and we don’t know how we’ve been going wrong to date, we’re likely to keep trying new solutions which don’t make us feel better.
This has the mistaken side-effect of making us believe that our creativity doesn’t provide the answers we need.
Creativity enabled
But if we develop self-knowledge, our innate creativity can start to work better for us and get our needs met. For example, we might start creatively exploring deeper questions such as childhood trauma. This in turn could change our relationship with the trauma and its impact on our lives now. Or we might come to understand what we’re not happy about in a long-term relationship and creatively explore ways of improving or changing that relationship.
How therapy can help
Psychotherapy embraces creativity in two fundamental ways. Firstly, it aims to help you understand yourself better – to connect with your authentic, creative self. This is the inherent part of you that makes you you, and enables you to respond to life in ways that are aligned with what you believe or feel to be true.
Secondly, psychotherapy develops creativity through its own creative process: where you learn to explore and be open to your own internal world of experience, thoughts, and feelings. And you learn to be open to new possibilities within yourself, developing into a new self-understanding.
It is from here that deeper resources of creativity often come online: seeing experiences and relationships in fresh ways, being more open to emerging experience, responding spontaneously to the moment, being less held back by habitual fears and more prepared to try something new.
The potential impact
The impact of being more tuned into and aware of your own experience and more connected to your creative self are significant and multiple. You will likely be more resilient to problems you encounter, know more about what is and isn’t working for you, and trust and listen to your own internal creative responses. This can positively affect your relationships, your own mental health and wellbeing, and your own fulfilment in life as you positively engage with the creative process of personal change and growth.
What’s the takeaway?
Psychotherapy aims to help you establish and deepen a connection with your creative self which enables you to be more you, to use your own powerful and innate creative resources, which in turn enables you to respond to life in a way that better meets your needs.
To enquire about psychotherapy sessions with Thad Hickman, please contact him here, or to view our full clinical team, please click here.
Thad is an experienced psychotherapeutic counsellor and a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). He works long-term with individuals in our Lewes and Brighton and Hove practices.
Further reading by Thad Hickman –
