Making Something New Happen In the Consulting Room

Erving Polster on Creativity in Therapy

The arts don't hold a monopoly on creativity. There's plenty of opportunity to bring it into the world of therapy.

Just listen to what Erving Polster, pioneer of Gestalt Therapy and one of the field’s Master Therapists, has to say about the value of creativity in psychotherapy.

Erving Polster is the director of The Gestalt Institute of San Diego, and the author of several books, including Gestalt Therapy Integrated and From the Radical Center: The Heart of Gestalt Therapy. This clip is taken from his session in our master therapists video course:

Moment by Moment in the Consulting Room
These video demonstrations, combined with analyses by the master clinicians themselves, are designed to bring new insight and clarity of purpose to your clinical work. You’ll learn how to:

• Cultivate spontaneity, curiosity, and excitement in your sessions


• Leverage your personality, creativity, and humor to make your work come more fully alive


• Bring a warm, authoritative presence to therapy without influencing the client too much


• Attune most effectively with clients and use what's most genuine and affirming in the moment


• Incorporate tools and methods from theater, film, poetry, the visual arts, music, and other art forms that bring new inspiration to your sessions


• Go beyond words and intellectualizing to help clients develop a fuller experience in the therapy room


• Help clients access their most creative states of consciousness to solve problems outside your office

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Do you learn by watching? Check out our current online video courses here.

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Tags: consciousness | Erving Polster | gestalt therapy | Jeffrey Zeig | learning | Peggy Papp | poetry | psychotherapy | therapists | therapy | Virginia Satir | Erv Polster | master therapists