Creativity and Mental Health : A Cognitive Analytic Approach to Integrating Play and Imagination in Psychotherapy, Supervision and Training

A practical and wide-ranging guide to approaching therapeutic work with creativity, openness and imagination, and to integrating a variety of playful and relational techniques when utilising Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) with clients. Part of the Innovations in CAT series.

Creativity can be vital to mental health and well-being. Featuring case accounts from therapeutic journeys that have used creative approaches, Creativity and Cognitive Analytic Therapy explores how both novice and seasoned CAT therapists can engage relationally with their creative selves and in doing so enable a more open and flexible exploration with their clients and trainees. The book is structured in three parts. The first sets the scene by discussing creativity and play as an aspect of mental health. The second considers the creative as a freestanding therapeutic approach in forms such as dramatherapy and imagery work, or as a nonverbal means for accessing, expressing and healing trauma – with detailed techniques that can be integrated into practice. The final part looks at a variety of ways in which individual trainers and supervisors have merged their own interests and gifts with the CAT framework.