Training exercises for developing the therapist's creativity and resourcefulness

We have used the following exercises to help therapists practice and develop rhetorical skills and therapeutic strategies. All of these exercises encourage therapists to utilize their imagination and creativity. When practicing these exercises therapists should not worry about whether their responses are clinically sound, safe, appropriate, or even ethical. These exercises are for helping to loosen the therapist's attachment to clichés, recipes, and routine ways of being in a session. Like the exercises conducted in a school of performing arts, therapists should free themselves to practice exercising their inventiveness. Following the practice of an exercise, therapists may analyse, critique, and dialogue about the utterances that came forth.