The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Clinical Session

• Publisher:   Routledge
• Number Of Pages:   273
• Publication Date:   2009-07-22
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0415997038
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780415997034

In The Creative Therapist, Bradford Keeney makes the case that creativity is the most essential aspect of vibrant, meaningful, and successful therapy. No matter what therapeutic orientation one practices, it must be awakened by creativity in order for the session to come alive. This book presents a theoretical framework that provides an understanding of how to go outside habituated ways of therapy in order to bring forth new and innovative possibilities. A basic structure for creative therapy, based on the outline of a three-part theatrical play is also set forth. With these frameworks, practical guidelines detail how to initiate and implement creative contributions to any therapeutic situation.

This book is a scathing indictment of how psychotherapy is practiced today by everyone except the author. He advises us to "sing and dance with clients, laugh and weep, and touch without fear" (page 7). He says therapy should not deal with problems or solutions because it is a performing art. He says therapy should be irrational, absurd, and irrelevant. He recommends that therapists stay up all night with clients and dance. Therapists should talk about cooking, whistling, and fishing with clients (page 63). He says therapy is like doing stand-up comedy, and therapists should speak nonsense, make odd sounds, dance on the table, and take a nap (page 72). He says therapists should try to "induce chaos and craziness" in clients. The book comes with a DVD that shows the author doing therapy with two clients. The really strange thing is that after all that talk about being creative with clients, his therapy is totally conventional, all just talk, and mostly him talking to the client rather than the clients talking. He's a very directive, traditional systemic family therapist. His therapeutic guru is Carl Whitaker, who was famous for falling asleep in his therapy sessions. At least in the sessions he shows Keney is true to his theory that you should not address the client's problems or work toward any solutions. Rather, the therapist should just riff on whatever pops into his head. One client on the DVD is a severely disturbed teenaged boy who does not say more than 10 words in the whole session. Keney's creative(?) intervention is to tell him to draw comic books. One wonders if that piece of advice was sufficient to heal the boy's serious mental disorders. Of course no information on outcome is provided, because Keney does not believe in statistics, research, diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, or any other old-fashioned aspect of therapy. While the author seems to think that anything goes in therapy, there actually are ethical and professional standards that licensed therapists are expected to follow.

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