EXPLORE THE SCOPE OF CREATIVE THERAPIES

Creative therapies include art therapy, drama therapy, reminiscence therapy, crafts as therapy and so on. They can be useful for people in stressful times in their life and those with physical, emotional and psychological difficulties.
Creative therapies are a range of techniques that are creative and expressive in nature that aim to help clients to find a way to express themselves that is beyond words or traditional therapies, such as counselling or psychotherapy. Creative therapies are limitless as the human imagination.
The aim is to encourage people to express themselves in a positive and happy way, to encourage the expression of positive emotions. At first, the person may focus on their negative emotions, but over time, we hope more positive emotions may be expressed.
Creative therapies are used to encourage a person to express themselves in ways that they may not be able to usually. This also can enable personal growth.

WHAT IS CRAFT THERAPY ?

Craft therapy and art therapy are similar, but not the same. They use similar strategies and can be beneficial to a wide range of people. Craft therapies use hobbies and activities to improve a person’s mental health. Art and craft therapies do overlap. For example, an art therapist may work with fibre art or a craft therapist may use fibre to create art.

Craft therapy can be carried out in groups or individually. It can also be done in a range of settings, such as prisons, schools, inpatient and outpatient therapy and so on.  Craft therapy can include a range of options such as –

• fibre arts such as
  • knitting
  • embroidery
  • crochet
  • macramé
  • quilting
  • screen painting
  • fabric making
  • tie dying fabrics
  • making cuddly toys or dolls
  • dress making
• paper arts such as
  • scrapbooking
  • origami
  • papermaking
  • making greeting cards
• jewellery making
• model building and so on.