All people are creative, whether we are engaged in art or not. The creative force is in its essence corporeal, erotic, connects us to the spiritual source and opens us to the transcendent. Creativity is inextricably linked to the environment from which we draw information, and at the same time we invest our own impulses in it, thus changing and transforming it – we actively interact. Just as we inhale and exhale air, we also take in and put our creative ideas and ideas into the world. When we breathe, we interact with the world and we ourselves “represent the world”, we are the “lungs of the world”, and with each of our creative gestures we intervene in the very structure of being, and it intervenes in ourselves.
We can be creative in everyday life, in landscaping, in the workplace. We can be creative in relationships (e.g., when we write love texts) and otherwise. We are creative when we improvise, when we try new situations, when we follow the process of life – our intuition.
In modern times, due to overload, we lose touch with our creativity, and with it access to the magic of life.
A creative individual enters the world in a way that allows them to act in accordance with their own inner orientation and confrontational understanding of others – which is why they are much less likely to suffer from mental disorders (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, various addictions, etc.), which are increasingly occurring in our society. Many psychologists and other scientists note that creativity is essential to establishing (and nurturing) mental health, as it allows for growth and development.
Through creative expression, children deepen their imagination. Because imagination creates diversity in society – human imagination has created diverse cultures, languages (all the advances of our history are related to human imagination, to the creation of new ideas), which has contributed to socio-cultural development. Neglecting the imagination also means that we neglect the ability to create differences, different views of the world, and thus the development of society as such.
Through creative expression, children deepen their imagination. Because imagination creates diversity in society – human imagination has created diverse cultures, languages (all the advances of our history are related to human imagination, to the creation of new ideas), which has contributed to socio-cultural development. Neglecting the imagination also means that we neglect the ability to create differences, different views of the world, and thus the development of society as such.
As part of the Satori Institute, in 2018, integrative psychotherapist Tamara Trubentar and I developed a program for the holistic development of children, which combines creativity, mindfulness and personal growth, as well as cooperation and connection with others.
With the aim of developing a healthy community, connecting people and creating a safe space for children and adolescents, the Mental Health Development Initiative began operating in the Municipality of Medvode in 2022. The project manager is psychotherapist Ksenia Kos.
As part of the project, I implement the program at the Preska Elementary School:
The program is based on two basic components, namely personal development and the development of networking and cooperation with others (me – us). In the process of development, children learn to look at themselves, which is based on recognizing and accepting their own emotions, the process of regulating internal events, expressing emotions and learning to connect and cooperate with others in a healthy and constructive way. They come to their inner contents through contact with the body (bodily movement). The emphasis is on telling (authorial) fairy tales and stories, as well as on theatrical creation, drawing, writing and working with clay.
Writing is an exercise in an upright posture.
(from my collection Attractions, 2020, Aleph).
In collaboration with Maja Vidmar
In 2013, the poet and psychotherapist Maja Vidmar and I designed an innovative program for EXPERIENTIAL CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS, which combines creative writing with Gestalt therapy, group dynamics and work with the body. The concept of the Experiential Writing Workshops is based on two principles: awareness and authenticity, which means that it teaches participants how to become aware of the creative process, how to recognize their own voice, how to touch subjective experience. Above all, how to text the awakened content and use it as material in a literary work – with an emphasis on innovatively adapted creative writing exercises and elements of geshatalt psychotherapy. The search for the authenticity of the text is intensely intertwined with personal growth.
Within the framework of the Public Fund for Cultural Activities (JSKD) organized by Barbara Rigler, we developed three versions of the program and also implemented them.
I regularly conduct workshops on my own
I really like interweaving writing
individual counselling in the field of literary creation
It allows individuals to shed light on their own creative process and amplify their literary voice by focusing on how to put awakened content into words, use it as material in a poem, story, essay, article, etc. With adapted Gestalt techniques and elements of mindfulness, it is possible to enter into the substance and blocks of writing. The lighting of blockages is done through different, interesting creative principles. The program is designed according to individual needs: we focus on working on texts – writing, filing texts, preparing the text for publication and/or on deepening the creative process.
Writing in nature
Since 2019, I have been regularly visiting the Sunčani grič ecological community in the village of Hrvoji, where I occasionally stay. When I was finishing my fourth collection of poetry there, I spent a lot of time in the wilderness. I felt my body become supple from walking, climbing rocks, swimming in cold pools – creativity uncompromisingly settled into me. Being in nature fully supported my writing. Based on this experience, the idea for this workshop was born.
The workshop intertwines the creative process of writing with elements of Gestalt therapy and mindfulness techniques. The program focuses on the sensory experience of nature, on observing the response of the senses. The text is placed in the foreground as an “independent organism” in relation to its own body. I conduct the workshop once a year (or as needed).
Ongoing workshops are held by appointment, subject to sufficient applications.
