Imagination, Creativity, and the Language of the Soul

Caring for the Soul in Counselling:
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​Imagination, Creativity, and the Language of the Soul

​“In soulful therapy, imaginal modes of inquiry—poetic, aesthetic, religious--
are as legitimate as the medical and scientific modes for
​understanding and processing reality.”
- Ottens & Klein

Imagination is amongst the greatest therapeutic tools one can use to engage the soul. This is because imagination is the language of the soul (eg. Moore, 2021; Quillman, 2020). Imagination is how we experience and perceive what exists beyond our rational cognition. We must suspend our disbelief towards our own beyond-rational modes of knowing in order to experience the soul, in order to work with our own intuition. Imagination is the language the unknown uses to call back to the known. It is the bridge between ‘what is’ and what could be. 
 
In counselling, we can care for the soul by inviting the imagination to play an important role in the therapeutic process, both implicitly and explicitly. We can open the counselling space up to imagination by trusting the process and waiting in the unknown. We can use the imaginal as an intervention tool. And we can also engage with imaginal modes of inquiry. All of this can help us explore, nurture, and understand deeper needs that exist beyond our immediate ability to grasp.  

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