Counseling For Creative People

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Counseling For Creative People

Counseling for Creative People is a private therapy practice based in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California.

Currently I am providing online therapy to clients.

05/07/2025

This series of posts explores healing through creative work.

How do people heal through creative expression? Many approaches and examples highlight art as an integral part to one’s healing journey.

Bessel van der Kolk’s work, a leading expert on trauma, emphasizes that healing from trauma involves making it safe for individuals to inhabit their bodies, tolerate their feelings, and accept their experiences.

Part of the healing power of therapy is that we organize our experiences in a coherent way. We can make meaning through storytelling, writing, picturemaking, and poetry. All of those creative expressions can act as a structure for meaning making. The practice of these and other creative modalities can help someone access resilience and peace by way of processing and building tolerance around feelings and sensations.

05/02/2025

How do people heal through creative expression? Many approaches and examples highlight art as an integral part to one’s healing journey. As a therapist and creative person, I am inspired by humans’ impulse to create and make meaning of their experiences. This series of posts will concentrate on how healing intersects with creative expression.

One piece of the puzzle is the world of sensorimotor art therapy. What is it? Sensorimotor art therapy is a “bottom-up” or body-centered approach to art therapy. It focuses on helping individuals become more aware and work through physical sensations, emotions and experiences by engaging in artmaking that is often tactile oriented. This can look like working with materials like clay, finger painting or fiber arts.

01/13/2025

Hello, in response to the unprecedented fire events, I have immediate openings for therapy. Sliding scale and insurance is accepted. I accept the following insurances: Aetna California, Carelon California, Cigna California, Anthem Medi-Cal and Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Please email me with any questions: michael@counselingforcreativepeople.com

10/23/2024

What makes people happy? And what makes artists and creatives happy? Strong social connections, meaningful work and physical health I explored these topics on the CCP blog this week

08/14/2024

As I spend more and more time doing therapeutic work with clients, I’ve learned how important it is to develop a sense of acceptance and compassion for the different parts of ourselves. Self-compassion helps us find more inner harmony. This week, I explored some creative writing prompts that are an entry point to exploring self-compassion. Visit the website for more.

07/24/2024

Hello! This week I wrote about boredom - a little bit of etymology and thoughts regarding working with it.

The article is posted on my website.

08/14/2023

Pleased to announce an online collage therapy group for adults starting in September. DM or email me at michael@counselingforcreativepeople.com for more info!

11/17/2022

Understanding intolerance of uncertainty is an important concept that helps to address anxiety. Often times someone who experiences acute anxiety has difficulties dealing with uncertainty. They may worry and do everything they can to avoid and eliminate uncertainty in daily situations. This can lead to unhelpful behaviors such as seeking excessive reassurance or excessive list-making, double or triple checking, refusing to rely on others or delegate tasks, and procrastination and avoidance. One helpful approach to work through uncertainty is to actually build tolerance for the things we don’t always have answers for. We can address this by way of identifying certain behaviors that help us to practice better tolerating the unknown. This can be things like letting someone else make plans if you feel a strong pull to manage situations or delegating important tasks at work or at home.

In therapy we can identify these things together and come up with a supportive and helpful plan. This is one of many approaches that helps to address anxiety in a productive and meaningful way.

08/17/2022

Life presents us with many unplanned events. Clients often come to therapy during these unexpected transitionary times — a move, a career impasse, a change in a relationship, a loss. There are other times when someone comes to sessions because their transitions are less tangible, more murky or scary or they may feel stuck, unable to make decisions or now how to pivot.

Therapy is a helpful space where someone can feel supported during these transition times. What I often advocate for is to make intentional space for reflection. This can happen in and out of therapy. And the goal is to better understand one’s values, the life they want to live and how to achieve those things in actionable ways amidst unforeseen events.

06/28/2022

“Have You Been Good To Yourself” by Johnnie Frierson.

Have you been good to yourself?
Have you been getting your proper rest?
Have you been sleeping at least eight hours?
Have you been eating the right kind of food?
Have you been getting enough exercise?
Have you been living a righteous life?

A lot of people they work too hard
A lot of people depend on drugs
A lot of people they go too far
A lot of people don't rest enough
A lot of people not eating right
A lot of people not eating right
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If you get a chance to listen to this song I think it will brighten up your day. I discovered Johnny Frierson this year going through the Light In The Attic records catalog. I mention him because I’ve recently started to listen to lyrics more closely and realize that discovering words that deeply resonate can be a powerful space for emotional processing.

Frierson’s lyrics in this song cut to the chase. He asks some fundamental questions that I think are worth asking ourselves, especially when the world feels in flux and we need to anchor ourselves.

When I have clients struggling, we acknowledge and work to understand the emotions, thought and feelings coming up. Sometimes it can bring us to a place of asking some of these essential, foundational questions. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating well? Are you moving your body? Are you feeling connected to others?

05/16/2022

Posted by . Join the Book Club as we launch our Local Conversations series - presenting authors from the SGV-CAMFT community in discussions about innovation and inspiration.

On June 5, we're meeting with Michael G. Bauer to hear more about his recent publication, "10 Meditational Drawing Exercises." Join us for an evening of connection and creativity!

Learn more and register: https://www.sgvcamft.org/event-4637353
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Michael G. Bauer is a licensed marriage and family therapist, registered art therapist, and artist and musician. He is the founder of Counseling for Creative People, a private therapy practice based in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California.
More information at www.counselingforcreativepeople.com, www.michaelgeraldbauer.com
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Released in 2022, "10 Meditational Drawing Exercises" entails 10 exercises that facilitate mindful and meditative drawing experiences. It’s geared for creatives, art therapists, artists, and those interested in the intersections between artmaking, psychology, cognitive behavior therapy, and mindfulness. For creatives, these exercises can spark curiosity and serve as an alternative entry point into your creative practice.

More information at https://www.counselingforcreativepeople.com/store/10-meditational-drawing-exercises

04/11/2022

Hi! Looking for therapy in California? I have a few telehealth openings and love helping creatives — makers, educators, artists, musicians, designers, writers, architects. Let’s chat and see if we’re a good fit!

Address

5619 North Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA
90042

Telephone

+18482283701

Website

http://www.counselingforcreativepeople.com/

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About CCP

Counseling for Creative People is a private therapy practice based in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California. My name is Michael G. Bauer and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Registered Art Therapist, artist, and founder of Counseling for Creative People. Counseling for Creative People helps people improve their lives through creative therapeutic action. I work to provide quality, well-informed care, and do it in a way that advances creative expression.

We encounter many challenges during the course of our lives. Whether it be difficulties in family, peer, or romantic relationships, isolation in a new city, or a shift into a new life phase, we can work together to find a greater sense of resolve. If it is a professional impasse, or grieving the loss of someone or something, suffering from depression, anxiety, or experiencing obsessive-compulsive thoughts and rituals, our time together will be both explorative and grounded in ways that help you apply the tools you need to move through difficult times.