Professional Documents
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One of the creative arts in counseling I mostly identify with is music and counseling. For
as long as I can remember, I have had a deep, passionate, unconditional love for music. It is a
form of communication that I can easily comprehend, especially when the rest of my world is
chaotic and does not make much sense to me. I have always expressed my thoughts and feelings
openly and much more effectively toward others through music. I learned to play the piano and
the saxophone during my late elementary and early middle school years and have sang on
I would often pretend I was an orchestra Maestro rapping my baton on the music stand
three times demanding the eyes of my musicians to focus on me. Then, I would raise it slowly
and bring the woodwinds, brass, strings, and drum line to a sharp attention. I would drag out long
notes for the flutes, clarinets, and trumpets with smooth rhythmic strokes of the baton and speed
up the violins, oboe, and cello with frantic waves of my hands. My body would convulse
harmoniously under the pulsating sounds of the gracious orchestra that sat before me (fully
formulated from an array of stuffed animals and dolls). I used music and counseling often in
combination with Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT) when working in the school system. I
found that music without lyrics, but a steady pace promoted more regular breathing in children
that presented with anxiety. I would also use music with lyrics to help troubled use make
journal about the feelings music helped them explore. I have also had students attempt to write
their own songs after providing the score without the lyrics.
Play and counseling has been a recent interest of mine within the past few years. When I
was a counselor in a private alternative school, it was my first experience working with younger
children. My co-worker was a more seasoned counselor with a private practice where she
practiced play therapy part time. Although I was never allowed to observe her individual
counseling sessions with the students, at the end of each day she would allow me to reorganize
her office. I found that I would often spend the last hour of so of each work day creating
masterpieces in her sand tray or coloring intricate mandalas discussing the events of my day and
sometimes my life outside of work. I assumed she would come behind me daily and clear the
tray after I left until one day she informed me the children would ask every morning who made
I am a very private person and rarely share personal information about my life with my
evoke a desire or create a space I was comfortable enough in to speak freely with an absolute
stranger about me feelings and inner most thoughts/opinions about the world around me. This
counselor became a valuable part of my life for the years I worked in that school. She would
teach me, and listen to me, and when the world was overwhelming and I would find myself
crying unexpectedly, she would always comfort me. Thus began my quest to gain knowledge and
understand the practice of play therapy, something, I as a novice counselor, had never even heard
of. My immediate thought was why not get paid to play all day and help little people heal at the
same time. I think some ways I could use play therapy in conjunction with CBT by offering
some guided play sessions. For example the child could take on the role of a caregiver and
demonstrate how he/she feels a caregiver should behave. Also, therapeutic story time for
children can help them identify both the validity and helpfulness of their cognitions.
I can also identify with literature in counseling as well; however, only as it related to
music and play. For example, when Gladding (p.80) stated “literature, especially poetry is is
music”. Children’s therapeutic stories have been useful in my previous settings to help students
relate to the characters in the story or project their feelings onto themes of stories. In these
moments I can relate, so this could possibly be an avenue to explore in combination with one of
the other therapies I easily identify with. Finally, I noticed it was more difficult for me to identify
with drama, visual arts, and/or imagery concepts of counseling. Although I can clearly
understand the premise behind using these art forms and I thoroughly enjoy experiencing them
on a personal level, I neither have any experience nor much professional interest in them,
practice. I believe that if a counselor is passionate about the specialty they elect to pursue, that is
what makes them amazing, successful, more creative, and will help others develop more lasting
results.
References
Gladding, S. (2016). The Creative Arts in Counseling (Fifth Edition). Boston: Pearson.
Gold, C., Voracek, M., & Wigram, T. (2004). Effects of music therapy for children and
Jafari, N., Mohammadi, M., Khanbani, M., Farid, S., Chiti, P. (2011) Effect of play therapy on
Ryan, V., Edge, A. (2012). The role of play themes in non-directive play therapy. Clinical Child