The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session [Hardcover]

Bradford Keeney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0415997038 | ISBN-13: 978-0415997034 | Edition: 1 Har/DVD

In The Creative Therapist, Bradford Keeney makes the case that "creativity is the most essential aspect of vibrant, meaningful, and successful therapy." No matter what therapeutic orientation one practices, it must be awakened by creativity in order for the session to come alive. This book presents a theoretical framework that provides an understanding of how to go outside habituated ways of therapy in order to bring forth new and innovative possibilities. A basic structure for creative therapy, based on the outline of a three-part theatrical play, is also set forth. With these frameworks, practical guidelines detail how to initiate and implement creative contributions to any therapeutic situation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Did you ever wonder where the spirit and voice went of Abraham Maslow, R. D. Laing, Fritz Perls, Jacob Moreno, Sheldon Kopp, Ira Progoff, Carl Whitaker, Eric Berne, and other therapists who inspired your career? It is alive and well – Brad Keeney is on fire with their spirit! If you missed it then, read it now! The Creative Therapist will awaken your memory of why you wanted to be a therapist, why it matters, and how to be a catalyst for change." -Stephen Lankton, author, therapist, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

"This is one of the best books I have read in years about psychotherapy. Brad Keeney re-awakens and extends further the creative roots of American psychotherapy, where a living conversational field is valued above fixed theories and formulas. The writing is delightful, challenging, cajoling, and filled with gems of wisdom--just like a good therapy session!" -Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D, author of The Courage to Love and The Legacy of Erickson　

"This book is a breath of fresh air that reminds us of what therapy is really about, of the healing power of relationships and of the beauty of metaphors and symbols. The stories are unforgettable. A great read for therapists and for all those interested in improving their life." -Cloe Madanes, co-author (with Tony Robbins) of The Ultimate Relationship Program

"I love this book! Here artistry is brought back to the practice of psychotherapy. It is a delight to read, and to see, therapy done in creative ways that so clearly carry forth the essence of Milton H. Erickson’s work. I celebrate the arrival of this vital and vitally alive book and believe it can help each of us access, trust, and incorporate the deepest sources of creative wisdom we carry within." -From the Preface by Betty Alice Erickson, international teacher of psychotherapy and co-editor, Milton H. Erickson, M.D.: An American Healer

"In The Creative Therapist, Brad Keeney doesn’t just awaken you. He will shake you up, expand your therapeutic repertoire, and magnify your healing power. Read this and move from therapist to healer." -Carl Hammerschlag, M.D. author of The Dancing Healers, The Theft of the Spirit, and Healing Ceremonies

"Brad Keeney lights a fire under the whole therapeutic community. Flying under the rubric of 'Therapy Can Be Fun,' he challenges our conventional approaches and presents a dazzling array of innovative ideas and techniques. Through the use of a theatrical metaphor, he stages wondrous family dramas filled with surprise and unexpected possibilities. Monsters become friends, family skeletons are danced with, secret love is expressed, and obstructing perceptions are turned upside down. This exciting book is sure to stir readers' imaginations and stimulate them to experiment with these unique ideas in their own clinical practice." -Peggy Papp, MSW, author of The Invisible Web: Gender Patterns in Family Relationships and The Process of Change; Director of the Depression and Gender Project, Ackerman Institute for the Family

About the Author

Department of Transformative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, USA

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 Har/DVD edition (July 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415997038
• ISBN-13: 978-0415997034
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Professor Bradford Keeney, PhD, is an internationally renowned scholar, author, and therapist. He is presently Hanna Spyker Eminent Scholars Chair in Education and Director, Institute for Creative Transformation and Virtual Pedagogy, University of Louisiana, Monroe, and President, Louisiana Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.

As a fieldworker, Keeney has been called "the Marco Polo of psychology and an anthropologist of the spirit" by the editors of Utne Reader. As the author of over thirty-one books, Keeney presently is practicing and teaching what he has learned from the arts and sciences across diverse cultural traditions to help individuals, couples, and families transform their challenges and suffering into growth and more meaningful lives.

Apart from his work with the Kalahari Bushmen, he has served distinguished careers that span and connect the disciplines of social cybernetics, anthropology, and therapy. He has extensively researched and published information about various healing traditions around the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Theory to Art, November 1, 2009

By 

Dulce M. Garcia (Los Lunas, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session (Hardcover)

Bradford Keeney's "The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session" is a testimony to the healing potential of being creatively present with one another. Keeney's work is about letting the therapeutic moments create themselves, like a piece of fabric that is woven together by therapist and client in the unfolding of "creative presencing," an essential aspect of authentic healing.

This book highlights the importance of understanding the client's situation in its proper context, and not as an isolated set of symptoms or behaviors for which certain interventions are habitually/theoretically prescribed. It is suggested in this book that transforming the context that holds the problem is the key to constructing more generative situations that in turn re-frame the problem in a positive way. This work also demonstrates Keeney's profound understanding of the self-referential nature of problem creation and problem resolution.

"The Creative Therapist" is a call to approach therapeutic interventions from a space of "what is possible" versus "what is already known." Operating in that creative space of possibility, Keeney demonstrates how we can empower the client to enact his/her own solutions, thus facilitating a "lived learning experience" of higher-order approaches to healing. Keeney's work is, above all, a call to approach each client as a unique individual, and to awaken the set of unique potentialities that will reframe the greater ecology that holds their being. The Creative Therapist asks that we shift from the limiting frames of theory toward the freedom of creative expression, imagination, and play.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dare to be alive, as a person and as a clinician!, October 22, 2009

By 

Jana P. Sutton - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session (Hardcover)

Family therapy is alive and well thanks to the music of Dr. Keeney's personal and transformative spirit. Clinicians searching for their own creativity, the creativity of their clients, and the creativity possible within the field as a whole need look no further than The Creative Therapist. Paradoxically and in an isomorphic fashion to his own theoretical orientation, Dr. Bradford Keeney does not hand it to us in a nice little package with a bow, but prompts and provokes us to find it for ourselves through his exciting dance of words and inspiration, in relationship and in conjunction with our own interaction with his rhythm and expressive use of language. Read closely and with curiosity and with imagination and play, and your work and thus the lives of your clients will be transformed and awakened, forever. I do not believe that one can ever go back after being jilted from therapeutic boredom and a close-to-death like clinical adherence to predictable theoretical utterances and sequences of interventions. But, just as soon as we think we are abandoning all old fashioned therapeutic wisdom, one catches a glimpse of the spirit of other family therapy greats such as Gregory Bateson and Carl Whitaker with a sprinkling of traditional healing practice presence. The Creative Therapist is a dance you will want to participate in. Thanks Dr. Keeney for bringing your unique touch back to the field. Although, we all know you never went anywhere! You still leave us wanting more! Like any great theatrical performance ... we want an encore. The only difference that I see between this and any other legendary performance is the paradox that this "style" of therapy and being is not a performance at all. It is genuine and real and an effective and lasting intervention for clinicians and clients alike!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant! now lets awaken the artist in every other profession, October 28, 2009

By 

Andrew Mcclure (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session (Hardcover)

As an art teacher I found this to be a wonderful book. Keeney's words ring true and carry the weight of, not only the rigor of his considerable research, clinical practice and teaching career, but the wisdom of a life that has embodied these same ideas. It would be easy to misinterpret Keeney's intentions here. He is not advocating for untrained explorations in psychotherapy or even that we all become Bradford Keeneys. The development of modern art provides a historical lens through which to view this work. Similar arguments were raised against those modern artists who began to explore the possibilities of inspired improvisation. Those artists began with the foundation that firstly, in order to make great abstract art (akin to creative psychotherapy) one must understand the rules and patterns that govern the traditional forms. It wasn't the breaking of rules that created Modern Art, however; it was in allowing the sometimes chaotic processes of an imaginative artistic practice to generate a new, deeper sense of what Art could be. The best work, grounded in both rigor and imagination was almost always a surprise and transcended the artist's limited intentions. The most difficult part of Keeney's argument is that it asks us to trust that the most complex and appropriate work we may do is not through our own fixed vision, but through a collaborative, transformative leap into possibility. I would highly recommend this book for brave academics and crazy poets.