Creativity—the drive for connections and regeneration through new combinations—is the essence of life. Humans share this drive with all organisms at the neurobiological level; it is basic to our desire to attach and connect with others, to procreate, and to dream. This drive to generate meaning by relating one thing to another is also fundamental to the automatic and unconscious “connection making process” of learning.

The powerful drives generally associated with creativity exist alongside equally strong drives that work against creativity and toward conformity. Conformity, driven by the need for homeostasis, familiarity, security, and group affiliation gives us stability and predictability, both of which are critical for survival. But resistance to change makes individuals and societies wither and decay.

We can see the tendency to resist change in the discomfort many people experience when faced with two contradictory ideas. They find it difficult to avoid choosing one of the other ideas as true and dismissing the other. In fact, entertaining both as valid is commonly called “cognitive dissonance.” This theory describes how the natural and usual response to internal discord is to simplify it to one solution or view; the simplification tends to eliminate all other aspects of the situation and thereby reduces the tension.

But such reductionism also inhibits creativity because creativity, by definition, requires the disruption of established paradigms, patterns, and beliefs in the service of producing something new. Creativity exercises the imagination and playfully combines disparate elements while overcoming the discomfort and fear of change, uncertainty, ambiguity, and inconsistency—even to the point of celebrating paradox, puzzles, and the unknown.

In almost all animal species, especially mammals, creativity is intimately connected with curiosity and the drive toward discovery, play, and problem solving. However, in human beings creativity is additionally characterized by conscious, deliberate connection making and imaginative play by the combining and recombining of elements, things, or ideas with the goal of creating something new.

This kind of imaginative combinatory play includes metaphor-making, empathic perspective- taking and placing oneself in another’s shoes or oneself in another possible way of being. The exercise of this skill expands the capacity for holding multiple possible ways of being and of seeing anything. It is also the essential skill in the creation of meaning for one’s life. There are very few places where the creative imagination is actually exercised deliberately and sequentially, even in all forms of arts learning and performance.

This course will provide an opportunity to focus in on particular ways of expanding creative thinking and increase awareness of particular inhibiting factors through the introduction of theoretical concepts and experiential exercises both in the class and in-between classes.

What you will Receive:

• 4 Live Webinar Sessions with Q & A
• 4 Links to the Recordings
• 4 CECs

This Course is Ideal For:

• Those who are seeking to expand their creative thinking skills in their personal relationships.
• Those who are looking to develop their own internal creative processes.
• Those with a creative project in any area who want to deepen their understanding of the relationship between creativity, imagination, meaning-making, and resistances or unconscious inhibitory thoughts or feelings.

The information and exercises in this course can be adapted to something specific you are facing right now such as a work of art, dissertation, book, or business, the expansion of skills that are important for mastery in a particular professional capacity such as therapeutic presence, attunement, and interpretation, issues in personal relationships, or toward a more general expansion of ways of being and personal transformation.

Course Overview: Week 1: Introduction and Overview

• What is creativity?
• Myths and assumptions about creativity.
• Exploration of paradigms and mindsets.
• Creative Thinking
• Connections to problem-solving, imagination, empathy, innovation, play, curiosity, wonder, hope, and possibility-thinking.
• Creative thinking and ways of being in everyday life

Week 2: The Creative Process

• Poincare’s Four Stages of Creative Thinking
• Brainshifting: Right and left hemispheres and somatic intuition
• Creative Combinatory Play
• Conscious and unconscious focus and attention
• Mindwandering, daydreaming, and nightdreaming
• Unconscious wisdom and logic

Week 3: Resistance and Creativity Killers

• Negative beliefs and fears
• Depressive thoughts, despair, and hopelessness
• Anxiety and cognitive or emotional overwhelm
• Rigidity in thoughts, beliefs, or behavior
• Perfectionism and self-criticism
• Resistance to questioning, change, and uncertainty
• Triggers related to reactions to past or present trauma

Week 4: Creative Intelligence and Being-In-The-World

• Affect regulation and mindfulness
• Tolerating and embracing uncertainty
• Questioning assumptions and awareness of not-knowing
• Contextual awareness of unconscious hijacking and reconnection with the present with curiosity and compassion.
• Flexibility and adaptability to change
• Connection with inner bodily wisdom and spiritual metacognition

Learning Objectives

By the End of This Course, You Will Be Able To:

• Describe the different forms of creativity and pervasive myths about it.
• Name the four major stages of creative thinking and connect them to consciousness and neuroanatomy.
• Identify the major forms resistance to creativity can take and how they shut down the creative process.
• Describe ways to shift out of resistance and into the space of creative thinking in real time, especially when under stress.
• Identify the specific ways in which each of the above shows up most often for you in personal and professional domains and know techniques that work for you.

Resources:

• Cameron, J. (2002). The artist’s way: A spiritual path to higher creativity. Tarcher/Putnam
• Camus, A. (2019). The power and the responsibility of the artist. Vintage
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper
• Gilbert, E. (2016). Big magic: Creative living beyond fear. Riverhead Books.
• Goleman, D. , Kaufman, P., Ray, M. (1993). The creative spirit. Plume.
• Jung, C. G., (1971). The Spirit in Man, Art, & Literature (Collected Works of Jung Vol. 15). Princeton University Press.
• Kahneman, D. (2013). Thinking fast, and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Lamott, A. (1995). Bird by bird: Instructions on writing and life. Vintage.
• May. R. (1994). The courage to create. W. W. Norton & Co.
• Pressfield, S. (2012). The war of art: Break through your blocks and win your inner creative battles. Black Irish Entertainment.
• Richards, R. (2017). Everyday creativity: Coping and thriving in the 21^st century. Lulu.com
• Rilke, R. M. (1993). Letters to a young poet. W. W. Norton & Co.
• Robinson, K. (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Capstone Ltd.
• Rubin, R. (2023). The creative act: A way of being. Penguin Press.
• Schuldberg, D., Richards, R., Guisinger, S. ( 2022). Chaos and nonlinear psychology: Keys to creativity in mind and life. Oxford University Press.
• Sternberg, R. (1998). Handbook of creativity. Cambridge University Press.
• Stevens, V. (2014). To think without thinking: The implications of combinatory play and the creative process for Neuroaesthetics. The American Journal of Play. Vol 7, No. 1, pp. 99 – 119.
• Stevens, V. (2018). Resonance, synchrony, and empathic attunement: Musical dimensions of psychotherapy. In Play and creativity in psychotherapy. Marks-Tarlow, T., Solomon, M. Siegel, D. eds. New York: NY. W.W. Norton & Co.
• Tharp, T. , Reiter, M. (2006). The creative habit: Learn it and use it for life. Simon & Schuster.