Counselling, psychotherapy and creativity

Creativity, the activity to construct something new and useful, is an elementary aspect of life. This article advocates the position that creative elements are also present in counselling and psychotherapy. Creativity can be found in relational, behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic, systemic and existential approaches to counselling and psychotherapy. It is shown that the shaping of the therapeutic relationship as the basis of every successful counselling or psychotherapeutic process is a creative challenge. On the cognitive-behavioural level, creativity also plays an important role in developing and implementing new perspectives and behaviours. Psychodynamically, the verbalization of emotions and unconscious wishes and conflicts can also be considered as a creative task. Finally, on an existential level, counselling and psychotherapy appear as a means to form novel and useful constructions of reality. Recognizing and utilizing creative resources of counselling and psychotherapy correspond to a 'creative attitude', which is an effective factor in counselling and psychotherapy.