Creative Counselling
Exploring Your Inner World Beyond Words
Not everything we experience can be easily put into words. Emotions, memories, and patterns often live beneath conscious thought, making traditional talk-only counselling feel limiting or overwhelming at times.
Creative counselling offers a gentle, expressive alternative. By using carefully chosen creative resources—such as sand trays, Russian dolls, art materials, clay, and picture cards—it provides multiple ways to explore your inner world safely and at your own pace.
What Is Creative Counselling?
Creative counselling combines therapeutic conversation with expressive, hands-on resources. Rather than relying solely on verbal explanation, you are invited to use objects, images, and materials to represent thoughts, feelings, experiences, and relationships.
You don’t need artistic skill or creativity. The focus is not on making something “look good,” but on what emerges naturally through the process.
SandStory (Sand Tray) Therapy: A Safe Container for Expression
Example of SandStory Therapy
I am a registered SandStory Therapist, having completed the SandStory Therapy level 1 training. This is at the heart of my creative work, and sparks much intrigue, realisation and reflection. It uses a tray of sand and a wide range of miniature figures and objects. You are invited to create a scene that reflects your inner world, current challenges, or life experiences. This is either done in a guided but open way, or specific landscapes are suggested.
The sand tray acts as a contained and safe space where emotions, memories, and dynamics can be explored symbolically rather than directly. This can feel less overwhelming and more accessible than talking alone, particularly when experiences are complex or deeply emotional.
Sandstory therapy is gentle, non-directive, and respectful of your boundaries. Meaning and insight emerge through reflection, curiosity, and your own understanding of what you create.
Additional Creative Resources Used in Counselling
Alongside sand tray work, creative counselling may include a range of expressive tools, chosen thoughtfully to support your needs:
Russian (stacking) Dolls
These can represent layers of the self, inner parts, family roles, or different emotional states—helping explore identity, boundaries, and inner complexity.
Painting and Drawing
Art materials allow feelings, thoughts, and experiences to be expressed visually when words feel insufficient. This can bring clarity, release, and insight.
Clay Work
Example of Clay Work
Working with clay offers a tactile, grounding experience. Shaping and moulding can support emotional regulation, embodiment, and expression of feelings held in the body. I often use this when representing hurt or difficulties and creating a supportive structure for this, or for representing something that needs changing.
Picture Cards
Images can evoke memories, emotions, and associations quickly and intuitively. Picture cards are often used to explore themes, values, strengths, or inner experiences in a non-verbal way.
Why Creative Counselling Can Be So Effective
• Reduces pressure to explain or relive experiences verbally
• Supports emotional regulation through sensory engagement
• Allows exploration at a safe emotional distance
• Accesses insight through symbolism and imagery
• Encourages curiosity, self-compassion, and reflection
Creative approaches often help unlock understanding and movement where talk alone may feel stuck.
Who Can Benefit From Creative Counselling?
Creative counselling may be especially helpful if you:
• Find it hard to put feelings into words
• Feel emotionally overwhelmed or disconnected
• Want a gentler, more intuitive therapy approach
• Are navigating anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, or life transitions
• Prefer a holistic, mind-body way of working
All creative work is optional, you can choose if this is of interest to you. It is often picked by adolescents, however can be a great resource for adults too.
Get in touch to learn more or to book a counselling session.