Some of the most powerful work I’ve ever done in therapy didn’t start with words.

It started with a picture.

A metaphor.

A card pulled from a deck that somehow knew more about me than I could say out loud.

Creativity is how I grew. It’s how I evolved. And it’s how I continue to grow now. It started with some bird doodles. Rapunzel changed my life.

There was a time when I couldn’t access my feelings in neat sentences. If someone had said, “Just connect with your emotions,” I would have shut down. Not because I didn’t want to. Not because I was resistant. But because I genuinely didn’t know how.

So when I hear people say, “They just won’t connect with their feelings,” I feel a heaviness. For some people, especially those with trauma histories or neurodivergent brains, feelings don’t arrive labelled and organised. They arrive as sensations, overwhelm, numbness, agitation, or nothing at all.

That’s not refusal.

That’s nervous system protection.

And when therapy labels that as avoidance, it can deepen shame. It can leave someone feeling broken, less than, “too much” or “not enough.”

Low self-worth is rarely just a thought.

It’s something lived in the body. Built over years. Formed in how someone was spoken to, treated, ignored, controlled, misunderstood, or made responsible for things that were never theirs.

You don’t think your way out of that.

You experience your way through it.

That’s where creative work comes in.

Using tools like animal imagery, metaphor and cards allows something to soften. When someone chooses a card and says, “I don’t know why, but this one feels like me,” we’ve already bypassed the inner critic. We’ve stepped around the pressure to “explain yourself properly.”

Images can hold what words can’t.

For trauma survivors, this matters. Trauma can fragment memory and language. The brain areas responsible for speech can go offline when we feel threatened. For neurodivergent clients, especially those with ADHD or autistic traits, feelings might be sensory, visual, energetic, not verbal.

Creativity gives another doorway in.

I use Spirit of the Animal Oracle cards in my work because animals carry archetypal energy. Strength. Protection. Adaptability. Hibernation. Instinct. Clients often project their own story safely onto the image. It becomes less exposing. More relational. Gentler.

And here’s the part I care deeply about: it’s never about the cards being magical. It’s about the relationship in the room. The safety. The pacing. The ethical container.

This is how I built my tribe. By trusting who I am. By working down-to-earth, creatively, relationally. By modelling that it’s okay to be different. My own therapist worked creatively with me. That experience changed everything. It showed me there wasn’t anything wrong with me, I just needed a different way in.

When self-esteem is low, it often sounds like:

“I’m hard work.”

“I’m too sensitive.”

“I should be better by now.”

“Everyone else seems to cope.”

“I don’t even know what I feel.”

If that resonates, I see you.

Self-worth grows when we experience ourselves differently. When we feel understood. When something lands and we think, “That’s me… and that makes sense.”

That’s why I’ve created a new experiential online CPD workshop for counsellors and students. It explores self-worth and self-esteem using Spirit of the Animal Oracle Cards, with and without the cards themselves, because this isn’t about selling a tool. It’s about deepening practice.

In this two-hour Zoom workshop we’ll explore how imagery can soften the inner critic, support trauma work safely, and offer neurodivergent clients alternative ways of expression. There will be live exercises, reflective space, and ethical discussion about using creative approaches responsibly in the therapy room.

You’ll leave with practical ideas you can use immediately. You’ll also leave having experienced the work yourself, because we cannot take clients somewhere we haven’t gently walked.

My wider workshops are always about growth. About evolving as practitioners. About trusting our own authenticity rather than squeezing ourselves into rigid models that don’t fit.

Because once we truly believe we are okay as we are, the world loses its power to define us.

Creative work isn’t fluffy. It’s not avoidance. It’s not a gimmick.

It’s another language.

And for some people, it’s the first language that ever made sense.

If you’re curious about working more creatively, relationally and deeply around self-worth, you’ll find the details of the workshop through Wildfire Creative Studio.

Come and explore. Grow. Stretch. Find your own way of doing this work.

There is space for you, exactly as you are. Stay safe, stay connected and take gentle care

Louise x