Creativity

Creativity and Psychotherapy

The image above is a digital image of Logan Hagege’s beautiful painting, The Sun Must Set to Rise Again. This painting sits across from me in my office. I was drawn to this painting because I knew the artist and I found it to be aesthetically pleasing. However, like any good work of art, it began to generate in my mind rich narratives and complex metaphors. As I sit with my patients, I look at this painting and see the journey a patient and therapist take together in psychotherapy...

The patient, with a downtrodden gaze, stares at the ground. Conversely, the therapist, donned with a hat, looks upward at the horizon, locked in on the journey to come. They are safe and can explore the depths of the patient’s mind, so long as they remain tethered to their horse companion, perhaps a spirit animal to them. The traveling pair walk beneath the bright moon. It shines down hopefully on them, while the sun shining from the foreground creates a foreboding shadow at their feet. The shadow rises up from the ground, surrounding the pair. It is the patient’s deepest fears, the patient’s childhood traumas. The horse is strong, stoic even; a bright powerful force that anchors the two wanderers to the ground. He is the patient’s courage, the patient’s desire to heal. He is the therapist’s guide, the therapist’s feelings of hope. The three embark on their journey together.

There truly is an art and science to my work. Prior to receiving my training in psychoanalysis and in psychedelic psychotherapy, I devoted much of my life to the arts, creativity, and performance. My creative spirit greatly influences my work with my patients. I want to share some of my photography and a poem with you, in a hope to inspire your creative process and to give you a little window into my heart, mind, and soul. The poem is about the therapy relationship and the way patients heal themselves through self-exploration, facilitated by a feeling of being emotionally held by their therapist. The pictures are randomly chosen from my library but I feel they demonstrate how I visually see the world. I look forward to working with you and perhaps even co-creating some artwork together in the therapy space.

Holding

Holding is not healing,
I may be seduced by the thoughts of a promise of power that I can bring healing to others,
But I cannot heal others, 
Nor can I set them free, or change them, or bring them to their power, or bring them to their gods even,
You can only heal yourself,
Only then can you fly with your brothers and sisters and sexual lovers,

I cannot heal you my love,
I will hold you deep, deep in my heart, My heart that is vast, 
It runs deep into the earth like a well of infinite love, and power, and devotion, 
Your path is yours,
My path is mine,
And our arms must extend over and through the divine, if we are to stay together and hold hands in this harsh difficult world, and the difficult life that surrounds us,

My hope is that my arms are long enough, 
That my hands are strong enough, 
And that my head and body and soul can hold and embody all that you have and can give and receive, 
I cannot heal you,
I can only hold you,
And I will.