Creative Expressions

An Art Therapy Blog

Anxiety and Depression as Allies–They are not the Enemy

Anxiety and Depression as Allies–They are not the Enemy

The Gifts of Anxiety and Depression What would you say if I said that feelings of anxiety or depression are not your enemy?  Both of these symptoms often come together and a lot of times are allies in disguise.  Anxiety can be intuition about our lives that we have...

The Final Image – Art Therapy in Palliative Care

The Final Image – Art Therapy in Palliative Care

As part of my internships in graduate school at Florida State University, I completed 2 semesters of art therapy at a hospice with bereavement and anticipatory grief work.  One of the most powerful experiences was my final session with one of my clients and his final...

The Importance of Therapy for Therapy Students

The Importance of Therapy for Therapy Students

Are you a grad student in a counseling, therapy, social work, or art therapy program?  I highly recommend art therapy for therapy students while they are in their programs. Transcription follows below: Hi, my name is Maggi Colwell and I’m a board-certified, registered...

Nightmares: Especially in 2020

Nightmares: Especially in 2020

Nightmares and Dream Therapy Lots of people this year have been asking questions about why they have such vivid dreams this year, or why they are having more nightmares.  There's lots of reason for this.  Times of both personal and societal stress are a cause for...

Benefits of Keeping a Dream Journal

Benefits of Keeping a Dream Journal

Finding Themes in Dreams Keeping a dream journal can help you discover themes in your dreams. If you realize that you had 6 dreams about the same thing over a year and a half, then that is an ongoing theme. This set of symbols are a metaphor that is coming up in your...

Navigating a Path through Grief

Navigating a Path through Grief

This weekend someone asked me, "if there aren't defined stages and no 'normal' grief time period, then how does therapy work?" Great question!   First I would like to talk about the different goals and tasks that people may want to address in therapy.  Then I...