Creativity, Mindfulness and Body Awareness

Creativity can be thought of as the expression of the Self through the imagination. In therapy, working creatively can help us to access parts of ourselves that live in the unconscious, but are ready to be known and expressed. We can temporarily put aside the ‘knowing mind’, and discover forms of expression for those moments when words don’t seem adequate.

In a therapy session, this might involve working with writing or drawing, as well as meditation or visualisations. I also work with dreams, which are often seen in psychotherapy as messages from the unconscious that are ready to be known.

Working with the body and breath can be powerful, too. The body stores a great deal of our experience, including the memory of trauma, which can show up later as emotional imbalance, aches, pains and even, possibly, as chronic illness and disease. In the West, we’re often cut off from our bodies because of our over-reliance on the mind, but this deprives us of being able to access the vast and innate wisdom that our bodies can offer as a guide to healing and wholeness. I offer safe, trauma-aware methods of working with the body with the ultimate goal of you feeling safer and more at home in yourself and in the world.

And breath — the essence of life — is also often overlooked in the busyness of the modern world: our bodies breathe, so why would we waste time focusing on it? Isn’t that just too simple? Yet, becoming aware of the quality of the breath in the body has the power to show us where energy and emotions are blocked. If we can then learn to accept what’s happening in our body and emotions, rather than fight what ‘is’, we can restore equilibrium, calm the mind and nervous system, and invite greater ease into the moment. I incorporate a blend of breath and body work from over twenty years of personal yoga practice, over a decade of meditation practice, as well as professional Mindfulness training. There is now considerable clinical evidence from neuroscientists which backs the efficacy of Mindfulness in particular as a proven method for easing stress, anxiety and depression.

Some people can feel self-conscious about this sort of work at first, but more often than not, find themselves enjoying this way of working and discovering new parts of their inner world. Importantly, though, you’ll never be forced to do anything.

For those interested in this kind of work, the results can be twofold: we can get to know ourselves better, and in turn can find that we feel freer to pursue a life that’s more filled with all forms of creativity, artistic or otherwise.