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The Creative Therapist: The Art of Awakening a Session

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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.

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!

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.

As a licensed mental health counselor, I am always on the lookout for new, different, and better ways to engage with the people that I work with. The Creative Therapist has provided the biggest burst of fresh air to blow through my office in a while. Intentionally non-traditional, The Creative Therapist is a call to all practitioners to question their own work, and whether or not they are truly interested in changing people's lives. After all, as this book's introduction states, "If we believe each human being is unique, along with all the social interactions and contexts that hold the performance of everyday living, it follows that every clinical session should hold the possibility for conceiving a uniquely invented therapy."
What needs to be understood by the reader is that Dr. Keeney did not write this book as an attempt to add to the current literature on counseling theory, but rather to push the dialogue out of the ruts that any established way of acting falls into after it has been around for a while. Taking from his years of experience as a jazz musician and his education at the feet of elders in both the field of Cybernetics and ancient healing cultures like the Kalahari Bushmen in addition to his training as a psychologist, Keeney brings therapy back to its roots as a healing tradition that pre-dates the DSM and modern psychopharmocology.
I'll admit, casting aside the guiding lights of my profession is not always a comfortable experience, and The Creative Therapist does not directly attack any of these pillars of modern mental health care. Instead, it presents itself as a new avenue to explore that, in true Cybernetic fashion, is not new at all. This book subtly fuses the best parts of the counseling relationship with the excitement of dancing around a fire in a healing ceremony into a package that is easy to read and never a challenge to understand.
Whether you agree with Dr. Keeney's methods or not, this book will make you think about your own position as a therapist or healer or performer which, in perhaps the most creative moment of all, will awaken your clinical session, as advertised. Even if a reader develops a strong critique to this book, Keeney's passion and knack for turning a phrase will force that person to assess their own style and strengthen their connection to whatever inspires them. You see, it is not Dr. Keeney's intention to change the person playing the role of client by writing this book as much as it is to change the person in the therapist's chair. I dare say he succeeds.

This is a refreshing book from Dr. Keeney that shakes the creative spirit of those of us in the counseling profession. The Creative Therapist validates all approaches to therapy, but goes further than blind allegiance to any school or model, saying it is creativity that makes a therapy come to life. What is most characteristic of Dr. Keeney's work and is evident through this book is how fully and totally engaged he is in attending to the client. His listening is a highly developed absorption of the other's presence, utilizing it to catalyze change. I personally watched behind the mirror many of the sessions transcribed in this book and can attest to the power that exists in Keeney's interactions. Rarely does a therapist come along who can swiftly and creatively help people move their lives forward. As can be expected this book will irritate therapists who over rely on clinical diagnosis and cliched ways of behaving. Keeney's work has long been attacked for its deviation from the "traditions" that bind clinicians and clients into stagnant dialogue. Senseless attacks and misrepresentations of this book only further represent attempts to maintain these binds. For example, no where does Dr. Keeney advocate that a therapist should dance all night with a client. In one of the most remarkable cases I have ever read about, Keeney helps transform an adolescent that other mental health professionals might dismiss and disqualify as "mentally ill." Keeney helps him discover his talent for drawing cartoons. The follow-up of the case shows that the session was no fluke. The young man's grades soared and he began volunteering for community work. Some therapists will no doubt be frustrated to know that some of their ways of practice are potentially toxic to their clients. But as my colleagues and I have seen firsthand, Keeney's work shows a more creative way for therapy. We agree with Betty Alice Erickson who said that Keeney's work reminds her of her father's contribution. Naturally, the same type of criticisms have been made on her father Milton H. Erickson who has long been revered for his creativity and connectedness to his clients. Yes, Keeney will challenge you with absurd play like he does his clients, but the book is radically transformative. It is an invitation for therapists to be far more respectful and wise than they are accustomed to being with their clients and with each other. This book is fully endorsed and celebrated by many of the leaders of psychotherapy and those of use who have had the privilege to witness his work. I invite you to find out for yourself why everyone is talking about it. It may change your practice. It might even change your life....

As a long time community health specialist, I see the work of Bradford Keeney's The Creative Therapist as a fresh and uncomfortable mix of the known and the unknown. After years of practicing in the telling of stories that include techniques in healing the inner mind, Keeney has put what I think may be some of his best ideas to print in a clear and exciting menu that the therapist, counselor, case manager or service provider may want to consider exploring.

While chiefly written with the therapist in mind, The Creative Therapist invites anyone working with people, alternative ways to engage. Shaking up the established binary processed standards, Keeney urges the readers to turn away from the staid, sedentary processes of script and route dialogue, prompting both the patient and therapist to seize at those moments when movement, sound, and noise feel right. Energetically illustrating how fluidity and intuitive expression is a key partner in creating a healing experience between practitioner and patient. The Creative Therapist moves the reader step-by-step, towards understanding the importance that for sustainable healing to occur, each must organically learn from the other, moving, changing, deviating and then returning to the experience, moment by moment.

The Creative Therapist, provides a unique insight into the transformative powers of "engaged participatory mental health", Keeney style. Traditional therapists may argue that it turns away from the scientific methods so fondly looked on and I would agree. But those very same methods don't always work for everyone - and sometimes we need the outlier to remind us that we have within us the power to heal.

What if Universities around the world used the Creative Therapist as a standard textbook of instruction for up and coming therapist's and social worker's? I could not help but ask this question over and over as I read the Creative Therapist. As a recent graduate from a Masters of Arts Program in Counseling Psychology, I would have relished the opportunity to learn an approach to psychotherapy that is strength-based and creative, an approach to therapy that is more art and less science, more heart and less brain. The Creative Therapist is such a book and Keeney has delivered an approach to therapy that evokes transformation in both the client and the therapist.

Keeney advocates for a form of therapy based on creativity, improvisation and performance. He actually encourages therapist's to, "create your own individual style of therapy" (pg. 70) rather than consistently mimic another "school of therapy". I found this refreshing because so much of what is expected today in psychotherapy is a regurgitation of what was used in the past. In the Creative Therapist, Keeney encourages therapists to step out of the box of standard convention and be spontaneous, "act in order to see, hear, and feel" (pg.68). Keeney also says, "Don't listen to what I have to say; listen to what each session is asking you to become" (pg. 80). I strongly recommend this book to any and all who seek an awakening to the idea and action/non action of play, creativity, and spontaneity of change.

This book is about creative therapy, yes. But it's also a book about healing, changing, relating to one another, and remembering what life is. Read this book if you're a therapist of course. But read it also if you've ever had therapy, are in therapy, or have ever felt like you needed it. This book doesn't just introduce a different way of doing therapy, it introduces a different way of being in the world, and a different way of understanding and responding to each other as human beings when things seem to go awry. Love, compassion, and life force ooze from its pages. Read it if you've ever had a bad day, struggled with your family, or been angry at your partner. Read it if all of that has happened and you couldn't help but still know that life was worth living anyway. You were right. Prepare to be affirmed and blown away. Thank you Dr. Keeney.

The Creative Therapist is a veritable venture into Wholeness. In working as a health professional, first as a registered nurse and now as a physician, I am awed and always amazed by those pivotal and life affirming moments where true transformation takes place both within our patients and within ourselves. It is perhaps only at these times that we transcend our functional and pragmatic professional roles and enter into a greater and more encompassing healing relationship: A relationship that is more nourishing, more soulful and intrinsically ethical. A relationship that calls us to serve deeply while, at the same time, is deeply serving. Dr. Keeney, through his shared insight in The Creative Therapist, succeeds in reaffirming this truth.

I have had the privilege of seeing Dr. Keeney work on many occasions. In my experience, his work simultaneously honours the past great teachers of psychotherapy but is not bound by them. His actions are grounded in the world's oldest healing traditions but are not tied down to them. He is acutely present in the moment of the therapeutic encounter. He is open to surprises, but not blinded by future expectations. In this manner, in partnership with the patient, he navigates the ever-changing contexts, utilizes every available resource and improvises with anything necessary to help evoke transformation in its deepest sense.

Andrew Still, the founder of Osteopathy, wrote, "To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease." I believe this should be the maxim for all of us in the healing professions. Bradford Keeney, through his courage and through the experience he shares in the pages of The Creative Therapist shows us this can be true. I have once again been reminded that medicine is first and foremost an embracing art: The tools of my trade are found in my training and experience. The medium of my craft is relationship. Transformation is my work.

...for this book. As a registered nurse, shaman and now psychiatric nurse practitioner student, Bradford's work just makes me aware that there is hope for the helping professions. When I first started training as a shaman, I noticed that there were many mental health people along side me. What were they searching for? I asked a psychiatrist why he was here and he said, "So I can finally help people." A psychologist told me after a particular training session, "I'll never be able to do talk therapy again."

I went through great agony trying to decide whether to go the psychiatric nurse practitioner route or just be a shaman but a shaman did an intervention that paved the way for me to combine the nurse practitioner work with shamanism. Thanks to "The Creative Therapist" I know I made the right decision. In NP class I'd almost barf when learning Cognitive Behavior Therapy, for example. My professors were always reminding me that "this class uses evidence based medicine!" All the while I'm thinking, "that's too bad as I know a better way!" Thanks shaman Brad!