If you’re a creative person, therapy (with the right therapist) could be a fabulous investment in yourself. It may help you:
- Deepen your ability to connect with yourself and your creative process
- Find creative ways of living better that emerge from inside you
- Develop your ability to connect with others, both personally and professionally
- Help you find ways to manage and regulate your emotions
- Heal from a trauma that’s been keeping you blocked
The benefits achieved in therapy will vary, of course, from person to person. There are no guarantees, and so much depends on factors such as the ‘fit’ between yourself and your therapist, and of course your willingness and desire to allow change to happen.
As a creative person, you have some familiarity with listening to your intuition, and responding to your feelings and imagination. Maybe it’s been a long while since you were able to harness your intuition and feelings in a good and productive way, but in therapy you can gradually get in touch with the strong life-force of creativity that can help you, no matter what you are struggling with right now.
And it’s important to know that therapy is not just about analysing oneself. It’s very much a two-person project, with the therapist focused on bringing him/herself as a real, whole person into relationship with you in such a way that you really feel there is someone who is truly alongside you and actively trying to understand you in order to help you change in the way that you want to change, and not according to anyone else’s agenda.
Here are a few of the benefits you may experience from therapy:
Connect with Yourself:
- Feel clearer about what’s going on in your life
- Become a fuller version of yourself
- Feel more peaceful and calm inside
- Heal from early hurts and damage
- Discover the unique value in your dreams and images
- Broaden the range of feelings you can safely and comfortably access and manage
- Connect with all of yourself: emotions, sexuality, spirituality, mind, and body
- Connect better with your creativity and intuition
- Find a sense of meaning and purpose in your life
- Deepen your self-confidence and self-compassion
Live Better:
- Use new understandings to transform how your past affects you in the present
- Loosen stuck self-limiting behaviours and thinking patterns
- Enjoy living more healthfully and with ease
- Lessen anxiety, depression and stress
- Live more consciously and awarely, so you don’t ‘sleepwalk’ through life
- Discover the hidden personal meanings behind habits such as procrastination and compulsions
- Become more resilient through learning and practising self-care and coping skills
Connect with Others and the Wider World:
- Learn how to avoid repeating past mistakes in relationships
- Develop your curiosity, openness and acceptance as tools for positive change in the world
- Feel more connected with the world around you
- Become more accepting and compassionate
- Draw on your past suffering to enrich your life and help others
- Develop your social skills and support networks
- Improve your relationships and become more “emotionally intelligent”
Invest in yourself: try therapy! If you’ve tried it in the past, and the results were disappointing, maybe the timing was wrong, the therapist wasn’t a good match for you, or you didn’t give it enough of a chance to develop.
Let yourself commit to the creative process of therapy and allow changes to happen – the benefits may go beyond what you ever thought was possible!
However, it is worth knowing that therapists are not all the same, and unfortunately there are some poorly-trained therapists and counsellors around. There are also many therapists who’d be a great fit for some clients and yet might not be a good fit for you.
To find a good therapist, you might start with my Beginner’s Guide to Finding a Good Therapist.
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