Creative Therapy 
in Islington, London

What is creative therapy?

Creative therapies — sometimes called arts therapies or expressive therapies — are a group of approaches that use creative activity as a medium for therapeutic exploration. Rather than relying solely on verbal communication, they invite you to engage with your inner life through art-making, dramatic expression, movement, or writing.

You do not need any experience or skill in art, drama, or performance to benefit. These approaches are entirely about the emotions you engage with and what you discover in the process — not the quality of what you produce. A stick figure drawn in a therapy session can carry as much meaning as any masterpiece.

Creative therapies are recognised and used within the NHS. Art therapy, music therapy, and related approaches have an established evidence base across a wide range of presentations. Research shows that engaging in creative and arts activities leads to measurable reductions in stress hormones such as cortisol, as well as reductions in autonomic nervous system activity — causing heart rates and breathing to slow. The body responds to creative engagement in ways that talk therapy alone does not always reach.

Creative approaches used at City Road Therapy

Our therapists draw on a range of creative modalities — sometimes as a primary approach, sometimes woven into broader therapeutic work. The specific techniques used will always be guided by what feels right for you.

Art therapy

Working with drawing, painting, collage, or other visual materials as a way of externalising and exploring internal experience. Art therapy can be particularly helpful for feelings that resist verbal expression — giving shape to things that feel formless, or distance to things that feel too close to look at directly.

Drama therapy

Using role play, storytelling, embodiment, and dramatic techniques to explore and process experience. Drama therapy can create useful distance between you and difficult experiences — allowing you to approach them from a different angle, or to try out different responses in a safe, contained way.

Movement and body-based approaches

Working with the body’s own wisdom — noticing where emotion lives in the body, using movement to process and release what talking keeps locked in the head. Particularly relevant for people who feel disconnected from their physical experience, or whose difficulties are held in the body as much as the mind.

Writing and narrative approaches

Using writing — journaling, letter-writing, poetry, or narrative exercises — to help make sense of experience, create distance from it, or find new ways of understanding your own story. Writing can be a powerful tool for processing grief, trauma, and major life transitions.

What creative therapy can help with

Creative therapies are increasingly valued across a broad range of presentations. They can be particularly powerful for:

• Trauma — where experiences are stored in the body and in images rather than words, creative approaches can access and process material that verbal therapy struggles to reach. → Trauma Therapy in Islington
• Anxiety — creative expression can provide relief from the relentless verbal loop of anxious thinking, and help you engage with what underlies the anxiety more safely. → Anxiety Therapy in Islington
• Depression — reconnecting with creative engagement and self-expression can be meaningful in itself when depression has flattened the sense of self and reduced all pleasure. → Depression Therapy in Islington
• Grief and loss — creative approaches offer ways of honouring, processing, and giving form to grief that words alone often cannot contain. → Grief Counselling in Islington
• Relationship difficulties — drama therapy and narrative approaches can help you explore relational patterns from new angles and try out different ways of being in relationship. → Couples & Relationship Therapy in Islington
• Low self-esteem and identity — creative self-expression can be a powerful route to reconnecting with a sense of self that anxiety, depression, or difficult relationships have eroded. → Low Self-Esteem Therapy in Islington
• Life transitions — writing and narrative approaches are particularly valuable when you are trying to make sense of where you’ve been and where you’re going. → Life Transitions Therapy in Islington

Creative therapies can be particularly valuable for people who feel stuck in their head, disconnected from their body or creativity, or who have found more traditional talking approaches limiting. If previous therapy has felt constrained by language, a creative approach may open up new possibilities.

Is creative therapy right for you?

Creative therapy may be a particularly good fit if:

• You find it difficult to put your feelings into words, or feel that language doesn’t quite capture what you’re experiencing
• You’ve tried talking therapy before and felt it didn’t fully reach the depth of what you were carrying
• You feel stuck in your head and want a way into your emotional experience that bypasses constant analysis
• You feel disconnected from your body, your creativity, or a sense of who you are
• You are drawn to creative expression and feel it might be a natural medium for self-exploration
• You are working through trauma and want approaches that work with the body as well as the mind

You do not need to:

• Have any artistic ability or experience
• Enjoy art or drama in everyday life
• Know in advance which creative modality feels right — your therapist will guide this

 Creative therapists at City Road Therapy

Therapists at City Road Therapy who incorporate creative techniques into their work are available in person at our Islington therapy rooms and online across London and the UK:

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Ellie Spruell

Integrative Psychotherapist, UKCP, Founder of CRT.

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Ana Erra

Drama & Movement Therapist; Chartered Clinical Psychologist, HCPC, BPS

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Eva Steinlechner

Art Psychotherapist, HCPC

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Mari Makitalo

Person Centred Counsellor, Creative Art Therapy group facilitator, MBACP (Accred)

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Marianna Vogt

Dramatherapist, HCPC

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→ Browse the full therapist directory

Not sure which therapist is right for you? Let us help you find the right match — we’ll consider your specific needs, preferences, and availability.

Common questions about creative therapy in Islington