Working with Resistance

A Mental Health Approach to Creativity

Integrative Counseling and Coaching for Healing, Clarity, and Growth

Discover how holistic counseling and life coaching in Longmont can help you reconnect with your inner strength. Grow your confidence, clarity, and emotional well-being with trauma-informed support.

---

Working with Resistance: A Mental Health Approach to Creativity

Resistance is information.
When we face a blank page or a creative block, it’s easy to assume something is wrong. But it’s often part of the process. It reflects our fears, perfectionism, or inner doubts—not failure.

In holistic counseling and trauma-informed coaching, it is seen as a messenger. It can reveal where we feel vulnerable or afraid to be seen. When we get curious instead of avoiding it, it becomes a guide.

Ask resistance:

• Why are you here?
• What are you protecting me from?
• What do I need to understand before I move forward?

By making space for resistance, we begin to shift. Avoidance breeds shame. But engagement breeds growth.

Creative Practice as Emotional Practice

If you’re navigating resistance in your art, work, or healing process, try these practices:

• Create a consistent rhythm.
  Even 20 minutes a day builds confidence and self-trust.
• Start small.
  Finishing a quick sketch or short paragraph builds momentum.
• Let go of judgment.
  Treat yourself with compassion. Creativity flows when we’re not policing it.

These practices aren’t just for artists. They’re mental health tools—supporting emotional regulation, identity, and self-worth.

Creativity Beyond the Studio

Whether you’re rebuilding after burnout, facing a life transition, or returning to therapy, resistance forms part of growth. The creative process mirrors the inner work of healing: staying with discomfort, trusting the unknown, and allowing something new to emerge.

Creativity isn’t about control—it’s about connection.
To yourself. To the present. To the process.

---