Creative therapies like writing therapy, drama therapy, and art therapy, are not meant to be treatment-centric. Meaning, their efficacy does not stop at treatment center walls. Creative therapies are practical life skills which can help us relax, cope, emotionally regulate, and more. When we are in a position of having to face or overcome fears, creative therapy can help us change a story, face our fears head on, or visualize what we cannot otherwise explain.
Writing Therapy Changes The Story
We often feel as though we aren’t in control of our own story. Simultaneously, we let the stories of our past dictate the story of our present, and our future. What has happened to us does not define us, yet we often let it. So convinced of the truths of our stories, we lose sight of our authentic truths of who we are. More importantly, we forget that we have the ability to define our truths however we want. Writing therapy is a proven avenue for changing the narrative which we bring to our stories. We can turn a sad story into a heroic tale, if we only change the perspective and create a new storyline. Writing therapy can help us discover the roots of our stories and pinpoint the exact areas we want to change. We can describe how things might be if they were different, examine our tone and our mentality regarding a challenge in our life, and decide to change the ending. Through expressive writing, we can both describe our fears and imagine a world where we are able to overcome them.
Drama Therapy Eliminates Fears
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said. Resiliency is built by facing and overcoming fears. However, we cannot overcome our fears until we face them. Sometimes, we only fear the fear itself, because we have not faced it yet. Drama therapy is a way to create our fears, or a version of our fears, and overcome them. We can role play in the conversations which terrify us. We can have the reactions we are too afraid to have. We can “act as if” we were able to take the actions, be the person, and feel the feelings we are intimidated by. Through drama therapy, we can eliminate the fear of fear by confronting it directly.
Art Therapy Creates Visualizations
A picture is worth a thousand words or more. Finding the right words to describe fears and feelings about fears can be hard, especially when feeling deeply afraid. Art therapy offers a sanctuary of safety for creative exploration as well as expression. There are often hidden messages in the art we produce when we are full of emotion and fear. Our subconscious has more to tell us than we are able to capture with our words. By using colors and textures, along with the meditative practice of creating art, we are able to reach deep places which need more expressing.
Creative art therapies are part of our multifaceted residential treatment program at Cypress Lake Recovery. Offering excellence in addiction treatment, our programs approach mind, body, and spirit, helping clients find balance, confidence, and restoration. For information, call us today at 866-217-2636.
