Am I Doing Expressive Arts Therapy or Creativity in Counseling?

Abstract

PERSPECTIVES is a special feature included in this issue of the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health that provides mental health professionals with an opportunity to discuss their positions on a variety of creativity-related topics. In this article, 2 counselor educators, Christina M. Rosen and Sally S. Atkins, share their perspectives on the use of expressive arts in counseling and therapy. These perspectives emerged from a supervisory session between the 2 authors. As their discussion expanded, issues of definition, ethical practice, theoretical grounding, credentialing, and supervision emerged. The authors explore these issues by means of personal story, literature, and dialogue, and they encourage counselors to trust their intuition and creative ways of working with clients while staying mindful of their professional spectrum of competence and ethical guidelines.