R125: Creativity in the Consulting Room

This Reading Course is designed to help you deepen your appreciation of creativity and also bring more spontaneous originality to bear in your therapeutic practice. David Waters explores the role of Big Moments of insight and revelation in therapy, as well as the many little, everyday moments necessary to make sure that changes stick. Jay Efran challenges the assumptions of manualized treatment, arguing that therapy is always an exercise in creative ambiguity. Brad Sachs shows how to use case notes as a means of imaginative exploration. Michael Ventura offers the unusual proposal that, among other things, therapy should ask clients to consider what is beautiful in their lives. In addition, profiles of two remarkable artists--poet John O'Donohue and director Andre Gregory--offer perspectives on the role of creativity in the healing arts.

Course Readings

The Big Moment: Inspiration vs. Perspiration in the Therapy Room by David Waters

The Art of Therapeutic Conversation: The Move to Manualized Treatment Misses the Point by Jay Efran & Mitchell Greene

The Poetics of Progress Notes: Using Your Imagination with Tough Cases by Jay Efran & Mitchell Greene

Rediscovering the Mystery: For John O’Donohue, Therapy Is a Journey into the Unknown Self by Mary Sykes Wylie

Beauty Resurrected: How Can a Therapist Head Off a Potentially Violent Client? by Michael Ventura

My Interview with Andre: For Andre Gregory, the Truth, No Matter How Painful, Is Always Funny by Richard Simon

Learning Objectives

1. Discuss the development of therapeutic views about the creative role of the therapist in helping clients change.
2. Distinguish between the impact of creativity and talk vs. manualized treatment in therapy.
3. List three ways to use creativity in progress notes to deepen your understanding of a client