Creative Activities for Group Therapy

Book excerpt: The second edition of Creative Activities for Group Therapy focuses on evidence-based alternatives for verbal expression in group therapy, which provides group leaders with innovative inspirational tools, techniques, and intervention strategies to address dilemmas and difficult situations and help encourage members’ self-exploration and self-disclosure. Newly organized into three categories, the book covers group basics and fundamentals, categories for activities, and a new section on diverse settings, conditions, and applications. The first section outlines use of activities, benefits to groups, and tips for effective and safe use of creative activities. Section two covers a range of creative activities for leaders to implement, such as art therapies, movement therapies, writing therapy, and includes new activities for virtual sessions. The new section then addresses activities for diverse settings such as groups in hospitals and prisons, various medical conditions and psychological states, and inclusive applications that minimize group conflict and promote emotional expression. This new edition provides mental health professionals and students, including therapists, counselors, and clinical social workers, with a wide array of methods for enriching their therapy groups and tools for implementing these activities.