PHOTO: Aumary Salas, Unsplash.com
Music, art, and play can help people more easily reveal something about internal thoughts, feelings, and actions via indirect methods. Music and art usually provide stories and offer perspectives about what is both heard and seen (internally and externally). Whether the creativity be ones own, or if it is someone else’s—what is “said” can tell yet another story.
Because there are people (adults and children alike) who may decline to explain or discuss what is going on—play, art and music can be a medium to begin dialogue and to show and share interest. With art and music and play many people can “give voice to” what traditional talk therapy might otherwise miss.
Play therapy can include treatment tools that are as simple as sand, blocks, balloons and paper; these are helpful in assessing and treating nearly everyone who enters therapy. Anger, sadness, joy, fear—the emotions can be expressed and experienced via non-traditional therapy methods.
The inability of a person to traditionally disclose (talk about for example) mental health information, electively (due to some inhibition) or unintentionally (inability to use words), can slow the assessment and the treatment planning process. With what seems to be simple art, music or play treatment time can be accelerated substantially.
Eclectic mental health practitioners may not specialize in one area of practice, however, this does not preclude them from practicing in generalist approaches. Title protection is statutorily provided in certain areas of expertise and by certain disciplines (see other professional summaries at “who should I see? for examples). Clinical Social Work is both an eclectic discipline by training, for example in the PIE perspective and clinical social workers can also specialize in specific interventions (like clinical hypnosis, for example), online therapies and in work with certain populations (couples, LGBT, batterers, anxiety, depression, etc. etc.). You might consider a consult to begin (LaRose offers free consults limited by state, jurisdiction and availability – and the free consult offering may or may not be available at the time you decide to schedule; if unsure text or call to ask!).
For professional development training on the methods identified here, including scheduling and costs, contact us for further assistance or see the prices & fees section of this web site.
Rev 6/28/19