We all have a creative spark within us, a unique way of seeing and interacting with the world. Sometimes that translates as art making or other creative activities, and I’ll tell you a bit about my story with that. But creativity isn’t just about art-making; it’s a powerful tool for understanding ourselves and navigating the complexities of life, which is why I use creative coaching in my work too.
My ‘career’ as an artist began in earnest when I was about three years-old and wanted nothing more than to draw pictures of fairies in bunk beds. All day. Ten story bunk beds, and fairies with delightfully scrawny wings and fat tree-trunk legs. Pure joy.
My love for drawing and painting continued, even during times of my life when I was focusing on other things. When I was in France studying and working, all of my spare time was spent in life drawing classes and galleries. When I was working in tech back in the UK, I was studying fine art part-time in the evenings.
I went on to take a post-graduate certificate at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. My art practice has been a sanctuary over the years. My place to unwind and relax, and give voice to the deeper narrative that words can’t quite reach.
Creativity has always felt like more than a hobby – it’s been a way to process, understand and stay connected to myself.
Creativity as a tool to understand yourself
Over the years, I’ve explored different ways of understanding creativity as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. SO much of what goes on in our brains and bodies is unconscious, and creative practices (just like working with dreams) can reveal fascinating insights into what’s happening below our conscious awareness.
It’s really powerful to use images as a different way of understanding yourself – it gets you beyond habitual ways of thinking, and familiar stumbling blocks.
It’s especially relevant for those of us who are highly sensitive and neurodivergent, or anyone who struggles to make sense of change using words alone. I trained in collage coaching with Andréa Watts (author of ‘Collage as a Creative Coaching Tool’), and I still use collage as a tool in my sessions sometimes.
We can use it around any goal, it doesn’t have to be a goal connected with creativity. It could be a question or an area of life where we feel stuck, like at work or in a particular relationship. And if you don’t have a specific goal, you can even gather images that just catch your eye for a coaching collage.
Once you’ve put your collage together, there’s a dialogue to support you to access insights, connections and deeper themes. It’s often surprising, with clients almost being ‘shown’ what’s going on in their unconscious through the language of imagery – it’s funny how you’re the one who chooses the images consciously, but they still reveal depths that you hadn’t been aware of before.
While my coaching practice these days isn’t centred on creative coaching, I do still love bringing it in to sessions when someone asks for it. Hence giving a bit of an outline here.
How creativity shows up in coaching
- Art journaling, writing practices, collage exercises.
Starting a creative practice that suits you and fits with your life. - Making creativity manageable through micro practices and accessible exercises.
- Partnering with your creativity at times of change, to learn about yourself and process what’s happening.
- Working with and beyond the inner critic to build confidence and freedom.
- Learning to trust your intuition through experimentation and listening.
- Re-balancing a noisy, busy world with the calm of a creative practice.
- Working with images and ideas from your dreams to more fully learn from them.
- Using images and collage as a way to visualise and clarify your goals and ideas.
If you’re curious about accessing more of your own creativity, or adapting your existing creative practices to gain personal insights and development – remember, you can do it with or without a coach!
Ideas for getting started with creative self-coaching
If any of the content here feels inspiring to you, why not explore it? Creating a collage or an art journal doesn’t have to be complicated, and you don’t have to have artistic skills for it to bring you insights!
Just pulling some images from magazines, or creating a Pinterest board is a great start. You can do that with a particular question in mind, or just keep it broad. Then do some reflection on the images:
What do you notice?
What themes tie the images together?
What’s the emotional mood of the collage overall?
What are the most powerful images or motifs that stand out?
How do you feel when you look at it, what words come to mind?
Do some free writing or journalling about it and see what you notice. If there are pictures of people in your collage, do a bit of imaginative dialogue with them in a journal (or out loud, whatever floats your boat). Find out what they’re there for, what they want, what they want to tell you.
Whether you’re exploring on your own or working with someone, there’s no wrong way to begin. You don’t need to be ‘good at art’ or even see yourself as a creative person – you’re human, which means you’re inherently creative.
What you make doesn’t need to be polished or pretty; it just needs to be yours. Sometimes the weirdest collections of images in a collage lead to big insights; and the most simple ‘childlike’ drawings can open up a really unexpected “Aha!“.
So follow your nose (or your eyes), and see what happens.
