Welcome to Volume 12, Issue 1 of the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health (JCMH). JCMH is the official journal for the Association for Creativity in Counseling (ACC). This journal is designed to bring to our readership cutting-edge scholarship that promotes growth-fostering relationships and enhances relational development within a diverse society. ACC was established for professionals and students interested in creative and complementary approaches to counseling practice and counselor education.
Authors represent the diverse mental health disciplines of counseling, psychology, expressive therapies, psychiatry, and social work. JCMH is particularly interested in receiving submissions that discuss creative ways to facilitate growth-fostering connections and relational development. JCMH also encourages further understanding of diversity in professional practice. These interventions may include music, literature, theatre, drama, art, dance, energy psychologies, and other complementary and alternative therapies.
The following articles are included in this issue, offering a wide variety of innovative topics: “Supervising Counselors-in-Training Through a Developmental, Narrative Model,” “Using Art-Based Strategies in Group-Based Counselor Supervision,” “Diversity and Dance: Exploring the Therapeutic Implications of World Dance,” “Portraits of Well-Being: Photography as a Mental Health Support for Women with HIV,” “Using The Mirror Story to Understand Self,” and “Paws for Intervention: Perceptions About the Use of Dogs in Schools.”
The Creating Space for Connection: A Column for Creative Practice column features activities for clinical practice: “A Kinetic Sculpture Intervention for Individuals Grieving the Deaths of Family Members” and “Improvisation as a Meta-Counseling Skill.” The Creating Space for Connection: Creativity in the Classroom column features “Actors in the Classroom: The Dramatic Pedagogy Model of Counselor Education.” The Perspectives column features “The Potential of Animal-Assisted Therapy Within the Supervisory Alliance.” Finally, the Creativity and the Cinema: Movie Review column presents “‘Girls Can’t Play Ball’: Feminist Counseling Using A League of Their Own.”
It is my hope that you find this issue enlightening and helpful to your work.