Creative Arts in Counseling and Mental Health

In any case, a focus on famous and successful artists would be

misleading. This book is about ordinary people and their struggles

with anxiety, mood disturbance, substance use, and psychosis. It is

mostly about their work with therapists and the role that creative

activity plays in these struggles. We have adopted the widely used

term recovery instead of struggles. Recovery is a positive term that

evokes the restoration of lost capacity, whereas struggles can

sometimes be futile. Recovery can be misunderstood

as it can have the connotation of restoration of full health. However, in the context

of mental health, it often means learning to live with persistent

symptoms and may be more concerned with the restoration of

identity, the establishment of meaningful social connections, and the

development of a belief that life can be worthwhile rather than with the complete 

elimination of illness.

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