top of page
11. Expressive.png

Is creative therapy just for children?

Children are often more open to creative approaches in therapy.

​

Natural, less tethered curiosity means that figures, a sandtray, pens, paper, a pile of Lego or even an open invitation to get on with the important business of playing, making and exploring can be accepted without wondering whether they're doing therapy properly.

​

Adults can be a little more, um, hesitant.

Creative and expressive ways of working aren't just for children. As adults, we often rely much more heavily on words. But words aren't always easy to find. Nor are they necessarily the easiest — or only — way to explore what we're experiencing.

 

And being creative isn't the same as being artistic.

 

I think of creativity more like using what's around us to make a conversation easier or fuller. Another way of helping us express ourselves. That might mean:

​

  • Choosing an image that seems to capture something you've been describing and helps us understand an experience differently.

  • Using objects to represent different people, relationships or parts of an experience.

  • Drawing, making something or moving sand in the sandtray to add something to a story that words haven't quite captured.

  • Or simply having something to do while we're talking, because sometimes that makes conversation easier.

 

If we work in this way, I'm not going to analyse your drawing, decide what the object you've chosen means or tell you what you were thinking or feeling. I'm not that kind of therapist. We'll become curious about it together.

 

So perhaps creative therapy isn't something that belongs to children.

 

Perhaps children are simply more likely to give themselves permission to do it.

bottom of page