A Therapist for Christian Creatives
Gifted, Talented, and Creative humans navigate through life with unique social and emotional gifts that the average person appreciates but genuinely cannot understand.
With a heart for justice, a passion to create, and an exquisite sensitivity towards almost everything they encounter in life, God gave these humans an intense portion of insight, emotion, imagination, intelligence, and, for some, physical energy to face this world and fulfill their God-given callings. How can I state this with such confidence?
Because I’ve worked with these artists for over 20 years and hold a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Intelligence, Creativity, and Giftedness. Over the years, I’ve noticed that there truly are few therapists who can genuinely understand the depth of the artist’s heart, the intensity of their day to day lives, and hear what is left unspoken. This is especially true within the church settings.
Although admired for their talents, too many well-intentioned people are only seeing the surface level of the creative arts teams around them. A creative is much more than what he/she does. Who God created said artist to be is of greater importance than what God created them to do. Without this proper perspective, even in childhood, creatives can begin to internalize their identity into what they do well instead of who they are in Christ.
Oftentimes, creatives face a variety of silent challenges.
Silent challenges are those that the creative soul must overcome or try to medicate on their own. Here’s a list of typical challenges and silent challenges that gifted and creatives face throughout their life’s journey:
Anxiety & Sudden onsets of depressive symptoms
Appropriate professional and personal boundaries
Balancing their passion to create and enjoying their everyday lives and families
Comparison
Creative blocks
Feeling like an imposture (“Imposture syndrome”)
Frustrations with feeling misunderstood
Identity
People pleasing & being taken advantage of for one’s gifts/talents
Perfectionism
Rejection
Self-doubt
Self-hatred
Spiritual struggles (there’s a lot of spiritual attack on creatives)
Unresolved personal trauma
With therapists who truly understand the overexcitabilites, the asynchronous development, and other amazing God-designed differences between the roughly 3% of the population who are birthed as artists from the other 97% of the population who are not, creatives can live personal and professionally thriving lives without the shade of the “tortured soul” stereotype set against them. In fact, the gifted, the talented, and the creative can learn the following:
Learn to identify and really use their God-designed overexcitabilites, intensities, and imagination to their fullest potential so they can thrive in life personally and professionally
Increase their self-awareness and develop effective boundaries that protect their hearts
Increase their passion for gift and talent development and exploration
Tune into the voice of God instead of the static of the enemy
Boosts in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-confidence
Tools to slay the enemy when fears, worry, and insecurities try to surface
An understanding that they truly are able to learn how to heal themselves without self-medicating
Why is this so important to me? Why am I so obviously focused on Christian creatives? Because I see an unspoken injustice within the church, and as an advocate for gifted, talented, and creative people, it’s time I embrace this call on my life to slay the injustice.
We are losing too many artists in our pews because they are burned out, left out, rejected, or afraid to be themselves.
We are missing the fact that they are the marines of the congregation that set the atmosphere of praise that draws our hearts to the Lord and the Holy Spirit’s presence into manifesting during worship. It’s not just the musicians. It’s the entire creative arts team. And, it’s the unidentified younger artists in our classrooms, in our youth groups, at our young adults get togethers who have not been identified or are in hiding. I’m focused on Christian creatives because as a therapist, I’ve had gifted and creative clients in both the church and outside our beliefs, and I have noticed there truly is a spiritual battle that our Christian creatives are facing on the daily as the enemy is after the call God has on their lives. And, finally, I am doing this because God is calling me to do it and I bow to Him.
Live a Great Story!
Dr. Suzy Thompson
