Creative Arts in Counseling

One of the creative arts in counseling I mostly identify with is music and counseling. For

as long as I can remember, I have had a deep, passionate, unconditional love for music. It is a

form of communication that I can easily comprehend, especially when the rest of my world is

chaotic and does not make much sense to me. I have always expressed my thoughts and feelings

openly and much more effectively toward others through music. I learned to play the piano and

the saxophone during my late elementary and early middle school years and have sang on

numerous choirs since I was about 8 years old.

I would often pretend I was an orchestra Maestro rapping my baton on the music stand

three times demanding the eyes of my musicians to focus on me. Then, I would raise it slowly

and bring the woodwinds, brass, strings, and drum line to a sharp attention. I would drag out long

notes for the flutes, clarinets, and trumpets with smooth rhythmic strokes of the baton and speed

up the violins, oboe, and cello with frantic waves of my hands. My body would convulse

harmoniously under the pulsating sounds of the gracious orchestra that sat before me (fully

formulated from an array of stuffed animals and dolls). I used music and counseling often in

combination with Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT) when working in the school system. I

found that music without lyrics, but a steady pace promoted more regular breathing in children

that presented with anxiety. I would also use music with lyrics to help troubled use make

positive/negative correlations to positive/negative aspects of their life. I would have students

journal about the feelings music helped them explore. I have also had students attempt to write

their own songs after providing the score without the lyrics.
 Play and counseling has been a recent interest of mine within the past few years. When I

was a counselor in a private alternative school, it was my first experience working with younger

children. My co-worker was a more seasoned counselor with a private practice where she

practiced play therapy part time. Although I was never allowed to observe her individual

counseling sessions with the students, at the end of each day she would allow me to reorganize

her office. I found that I would often spend the last hour of so of each work day creating

masterpieces in her sand tray or coloring intricate mandalas discussing the events of my day and

sometimes my life outside of work. I assumed she would come behind me daily and clear the

tray after I left until one day she informed me the children would ask every morning who made

the drawings in the sand.

I am a very private person and rarely share personal information about my life with my

co-workers, so it intrigued me that something as trivial as doodling in sand would somehow

evoke a desire or create a space I was comfortable enough in to speak freely with an absolute

stranger about me feelings and inner most thoughts/opinions about the world around me. This

counselor became a valuable part of my life for the years I worked in that school. She would

teach me, and listen to me, and when the world was overwhelming and I would find myself

crying unexpectedly, she would always comfort me. Thus began my quest to gain knowledge and

understand the practice of play therapy, something, I as a novice counselor, had never even heard

of. My immediate thought was why not get paid to play all day and help little people heal at the

same time. I think some ways I could use play therapy in conjunction with CBT by offering

some guided play sessions. For example the child could take on the role of a caregiver and

demonstrate how he/she feels a caregiver should behave. Also, therapeutic story time for

children can help them identify both the validity and helpfulness of their cognitions.
 I can also identify with literature in counseling as well; however, only as it related to

music and play. For example, when Gladding (p.80) stated “literature, especially poetry is is

music”. Children’s therapeutic stories have been useful in my previous settings to help students

relate to the characters in the story or project their feelings onto themes of stories. In these

moments I can relate, so this could possibly be an avenue to explore in combination with one of

the other therapies I easily identify with. Finally, I noticed it was more difficult for me to identify

with drama, visual arts, and/or imagery concepts of counseling. Although I can clearly

understand the premise behind using these art forms and I thoroughly enjoy experiencing them

on a personal level, I neither have any experience nor much professional interest in them,

therefore, I do not think I would be very successful in my attempts to implement them in my

practice. I believe that if a counselor is passionate about the specialty they elect to pursue, that is

what makes them amazing, successful, more creative, and will help others develop more lasting

results.

References
Gladding, S. (2016). The Creative Arts in Counseling (Fifth Edition). Boston: Pearson.

Gold, C., Voracek, M., & Wigram, T. (2004). Effects of music therapy for children and

adolescents with psychopathology. A meta-analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and

Psychiatry, 45, 1054-1063.

Jafari, N., Mohammadi, M., Khanbani, M., Farid, S., Chiti, P. (2011) Effect of play therapy on

behavioral problems of maladjusted preschool children. Iran Journal of Psychiatry. 6(1):37-42.

Ryan, V., Edge, A. (2012). The role of play themes in non-directive play therapy. Clinical Child

Psychology & Psychiatry. 17(3):354-369.