- by David N Wilde, LPC, NCC

If I were to ask you to name something that makes us distinctly human, you might come up with a number of answers: Having a soul, perhaps. Living under a moral and ethical code. Gazing into the night sky and pondering the heavens. All of these would be true. Today, however, we are taking a look at creative expression. Music, dance, and the visual arts are all forms of creative expression, but we needn’t limit ourselves to these areas. A broad definition of creativity incorporates ideas, concepts, and innovation. Before you start thinking, though, that “I’m not a creative type” or “I hated art class in middle school,” I want to suggest that because you are a living, breathing human being, you create every day of your life. You fashion ideas about a vacation you want to go on. You read a fiction story, immersing yourself in the character’s world and wondering about other aspects of his/her life. Maybe you have children and you enter into their make-believe world during bathtime. You create.

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who was active professionally from the 1940s to 1960s. In his work, he argued that the field of psychology had previously been too focused on the abnormal and the problems in a person’s life, leading him to focus his work on identifying factors associated with growth and healing. Out of his belief that people have inner strengths and an innate desire for growth, he began clarifying and categorizing the spectrum of human needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs organizes these various needs into the following categories (progressing from basic to more complex): Physiological (e.g. breathing, food, water, sex, sleep), Safety (e.g. security, order, stability), Love/Belonging (e.g. friendship, family, intimacy),  Esteem (e.g. accomplishment), and Self-Actualization (e.g. achieving one’s full potential; expression of true self). Maslow’s Hierarchy thus gives us a picture of the breadth of human needs, including creative expression. What this tells us is that not only do we have the capacity to create, but for us to engage our true selves, we need to create. Furthermore, just as we make space for our need to sleep or eat, it is good for us to intentionally make space to create.

One of the best ways to engage creativity is by being curious. Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” What are some ways that you can be curious today? What if you took a different route home from work? How would the addition of a certain ingredient affect the taste or aesthetics of your favorite dish? What would happen if you took a picture from a different angle or in different lighting? Let me encourage you to creatively participate in life!

Creativity can not only be beneficial as a means to self-actualize and pursue our true selves, but is important as we work through difficult aspects of our lives, namely in the work of emotion-processing and meaning-making. Daniel Siegel, psychiatrist and author of The Whole Brain Child, notes that the integration of our left and right brain hemispheres is imperative to functioning well, and dis-integration often leads us to become emotionally stuck. When we experience a difficult or scary situation, the right hemisphere of our brain manages the feelings and bodily experiences of the situation-at-hand, but does not have the capacity to bring logical order and understanding to this experience, as this is a function of the left hemisphere. As an example, when I was in high school, I experienced a distressing event that brought about intense situational panic attacks. One of the most evident things about panic attacks is that they aren’t very enjoyable. Because this was true of my ordeal, I found myself avoiding situations in which I might experience another one. Each time a panic attack occurred, I was thrust back into the emotions that were encapsulated in the right hemisphere of my brain: fear and dread. In those moments, I had little understanding of what was going on and no perspective on how (or if) they would end. 

Though medication was part of the treatment for my panic attacks, it turned out that counseling was more integral because it allowed me to gain understanding. Over time, the process of therapy enabled me to talk about this distressing event and the subsequent panic attacks in a logical fashion (i.e. “It started when . . . and then . . .” ) and include my felt experience (i.e. “I felt trapped and alone because . . .” ). As counseling progressed, I was able to understand my emotions, which served to clarify their role. This process also reminded me that I was bigger than these experiences and emotions. Here was hemispheric integration at work: the emotions and memories of the right brain being filtered through the logic and language of the left brain, and leading to greater understanding of the meaning of my experience. 

For me, the creative process of sharing my experience and telling my story helped resolve my emotional stuckness. Other forms of creative expression can be therapeutic in similar ways: drawing, painting, writing a song or poem, journaling, talking with a friend. Each of these can utilize the creative process to work through distressing circumstances and bring about healing and hope.

The ViewFinders curriculum is uniquely designed to create a forum for participants to use photography as a means to express emotion in their lives and discuss both their photos and their life experiences in group. This process facilitates the integration of the brain’s right and left hemispheres, and assists participants in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of their experiences and themselves.

For information on the ViewFinders program or to inquire about bringing ViewFinders to your school or community group, please give us a call at 314.375.6611 or email info@viewfinders-stl.com.

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