Creating to channel emotional intensity - an interview with psychologist Cheryl Arutt

“Creating art has always been a way to channel emotional intensity.”

Psychologist Cheryl Arutt adds, “You don’t have to be in pain to do great work as an artist.”

Pain and sensitivity

In our conversation, Dr. Arutt notes "Creative people do tend to be highly sensitive and an exquisite sensitivity is an asset when it comes to creating art...But that same sensitivity can often make the painful experiences that they have even more so."

I asked her about how creative people can work with their sensitivity:

"I think respecting the sensitivity, regarding oneself as a creative artist, as someone who uses that sensitivity to communicate something back about the world, allows that sensitivity to be framed as an asset."

Dr. Arutt thinks that actors and other artists who are willing, in their creative work, to delve into the really “messy” feelings of being human (shame, devastations, disappointments, betrayals, traumas and more), probably have a relationship with those feelings.

That may be one of the key reasons artists can create such compelling and authentic performances, novels, music and other work.

Dr. Arutt is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist in private practice specializing in trauma recovery and creative artist issues.

She is also a "nationally recognized expert on PTSD, a sought-after mental health commentator on national TV programs & podcasts, a high profile speaker and forensic consultant." Site: drcherylarutt.com.

Video of a broadcast TV program with some of her perspectives on mental health:

Topics in our audio interview include

• high sensitivity,

• regulating disruptive feelings,

• destructiveness vs creativity,

• pain and creativity,

• being unconventional vs rebellion against the self,

• the fight-or-flight response,

and other issues which can impact creative artists and other people as well.