Creativity and Perfectionism

For many of us, our relationship to our creative selves can be a rollercoaster of hope and dread: a place where we can feel deeply connected to our life force, and yet where we often encounter our darkest fears along the way. I have worked with many individuals who are courageously struggling with how to come into relationship with their creative process, and who often are facing what can feel like an uphill battle against their own self and the doubting or even self-loathing that arises in the face of creating. Some of the ways I approach dilemmas including writer’s block, procrastination, or creative depression include:

• tracking the process of procrastination, and getting to know what part of the creative experience feels impossible to be with;

• processing old wounds and the associated feelings that have led to unconscious beliefs about what it means to be an individual or to be successful;

• befriending the inner critic and understanding how that self-berating perfectionism has been trying to protect you, so it can begin to release its grip;

• exploring your relationship with being seen or getting attention and how the conflicting desires to be seen and to hide may be driving your creative impasse;

• working through the challenges that arise when your passion becomes your profession, and how beliefs around worth and value can close down creativity.

Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, I had a decade-long career in the book publishing industry, and have midwifed hundreds of authors through the publication process. When needed and if appropriate, I also provide support with questions around time management and the kinds of self-care that nurture a creative life, although I often find that those issues resolve themselves when the underpinning beliefs and feelings towards ones creative self are given enough air and holding.