What it is

Counseling & Creative Arts Therapy at Temenos is a psychological service for adolescents and adults that brings together talking therapy with the creative arts and experiential methods.

Not every experience is easy to put into words. Sometimes a person knows they feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed, angry, afraid, sad, or stuck, but finds it hard to understand or express what is really going on. So counseling does not always have to happen through conversation alone. Alongside talking, clients can use a range of creative media to express, explore, understand, and process their experiences.

The service is available in person (onsite) and online, according to each client's needs, circumstances, and suitability.

What Can Counseling Help With?

Counseling can be considered when an adolescent or adult is facing emotional or life challenges, for example:

  • stress and feeling overwhelmed,
  • anxiety or excessive worry,
  • difficulty recognizing or managing emotions,
  • low self-esteem,
  • relationship difficulties, family or interpersonal conflict,
  • life changes or transitions, difficulty making decisions,
  • academic or work stress, burnout,
  • grief and loss, experiences of rejection or failure,
  • perfectionism, difficulty setting boundaries,
  • feeling stuck or having lost direction,
  • a wish to better understand one's own patterns of thinking, emotion, relationship, and behavior.

No one has to wait until a problem feels very serious. Counseling can also be a space for self-exploration, personal growth, and developing healthier ways of meeting life.

More Than Talking

Talking is an important part of counseling. But sometimes words alone are not enough. Some experiences are hard to explain directly, too complex to name right away, or easier to explore through symbols, imagery, metaphor, or creative activity.

So counseling at Temenos can bring the creative arts into the therapeutic process: drawing, colors and images, clay, collage, journaling, creative writing, metaphor, visualization, storytelling, symbolic objects, cards or visual prompts, and mindfulness-based activities.

No drawing ability or artistic skill is needed. The focus is not on producing a good piece of work, but on the process, the experience, the meaning, and the understanding that grows during therapy. Media are always adjusted to the client's needs and comfort.

An Integrative Approach

Counseling at Temenos is not tied to one technique applied the same way to everyone. Talking therapy and the creative arts are the core of the process, while the therapist can draw on principles from several approaches according to the client's needs:

  • Cognitive behavioral. Recognizing the links between thoughts, emotions, and behavior, then gradually developing more adaptive ways of responding.
  • Solution-focused. Looking not only at the problem but at the strengths, resources, and abilities the client already has, to shape realistic steps toward change.
  • Acceptance-based. Not every uncomfortable thought or emotion has to be removed right away. Clients are helped to build awareness, develop psychological flexibility, and choose responses that fit their values.
  • Mindfulness. Building awareness of thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and patterns of reaction, so as to observe and make sense of an experience before reacting automatically.

StoryPlay®

StoryPlay®, developed by Dr. Joyce C. Mills, is a resiliency-focused, indirect therapeutic approach. It brings together story, metaphor, imagery, creativity, expressive arts, symbolic exploration, and play-based and experiential processes. Stories and metaphors give enough safe psychological distance to see an experience from another angle, without always having to talk about it directly. The therapist does not impose interpretations on a client's symbols or work; meaning is developed together.

Every Person Comes with a Different Story

No single counseling method suits everyone, so the process is individualized. In one session the process may be mostly conversation. In another it may involve drawing, clay, journaling, story, StoryPlay®, metaphor, visualization, or mindfulness. There is no obligation to use creative media in every session, and clients are never pushed to make something, use a particular medium, or talk about something before they are ready.

In Person or Online

Onsite counseling. The client meets the therapist in the therapy room. The space allows a wider range of creative media and offers physical distance from daily routine. It suits people who prefer talking in person, need a private space away from home, or feel the therapist's presence in person fits them better.

Online counseling. Takes place remotely by video call. Online counseling is not a lighter version: the therapeutic relationship, confidentiality, assessment, clinical reasoning, and therapeutic goals remain central. Telepsychology research indicates that for a range of concerns and client groups, therapy by video can achieve outcomes comparable to in-person therapy, and the American Psychological Association recognizes it as a legitimate form of service when competence, privacy, safety, technology, and client suitability are considered.

Benefits of online counseling:

  • Accessibility. No travel to the location, for those facing barriers of distance, time, mobility, or transport.
  • Flexibility. Therapy can continue when in-person meetings are difficult.
  • Familiar surroundings. Some clients are more comfortable in a place they know. A private, safe space with minimal distraction is still needed.
  • Continuity. Therapy can go on while a client is traveling or temporarily unable to attend, as long as the online setting remains clinically appropriate.

Online sessions use Zoom. Clients outside Jakarta, including those abroad, are welcome.

Counseling Is a Collaborative Process

The therapist is not someone with all the answers who decides what the client should do. The therapist provides a safe space to help clients understand their experiences, see patterns, recognize their strengths and resources, understand their needs, develop coping strategies, and find choices that better fit who they are and what they value.

Change does not always mean getting rid of every uncomfortable emotion. Sometimes change means becoming better able to understand oneself, accept what cannot be changed, set boundaries, make choices more consciously, and respond to life in healthier, more flexible ways.

You Don't Have to Know Exactly What to Say

You do not need to arrive with a well-ordered story, know the root of the problem, or be able to explain all your feelings clearly. Therapy can help you gradually give language, shape, meaning, and understanding to what you are living through.

Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we create. Sometimes we use stories and metaphors. Sometimes we sit with what is difficult to put into words. The therapeutic process begins where you are.

References

  • American Psychological Association. (2024). Guidelines for the practice of telepsychology.
  • Mills, J. C., & Crowley, R. J. (2014). Therapeutic metaphors for children and the child within (2nd ed.). Routledge.