Mindfulness, Coping Skills, and Creative Practices in Mental Health.
By Dr. Gregory Lyons, PsyD, LCPC.
9/4/2025.
Mindfulness has been central to modern therapy for decades. Since the 1970s, when Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), clinicians have used meditation, breathwork, and intentional awareness to help reduce anxiety, support mood balance, and encourage emotional resilience. From its earliest clinical use, mindfulness has been understood not only as a relaxation tool but also as a discipline that may assist in managing disruptive emotions and cultivating resilience. Today, mindfulness is woven into many therapeutic modalities — CBT, DBT, ACT, and somatic therapies — each recognizing the potential value of slowing down and cultivating presence.
Alongside mindfulness, therapists often employ coping skills and talk therapy to help clients recognize harmful defense mechanisms, interrupt thought cycles, and encourage self-evaluation with the hope of unlearning negative behavioral patterns. These practices may open the door to greater conscious regulation and subconscious exploration, supporting the possibility of more adaptive responses.
Through past studies and years of clinical application, mindfulness and coping skills have been associated with promising outcomes across a wide range of symptoms and diagnoses:
Anxiety & Depression — Mindful breathing and grounding may slow racing thoughts, ease tension, and help clients reframe overwhelming emotions.
Aggression & Impulsivity — Pausing before reacting can foster awareness of triggers, offering a safer moment to consider different responses.
Bipolar Disorder — Pre-creative reflection may support early identification of mood shifts. Journaling or symbolic planning may provide structure during transitions between mania and depression, while the creative act itself can serve as a possible outlet during hypomanic energy.
Borderline Personality Disorder — Ritualized preparation before creative work may help reduce impulsivity and support emotional regulation. Symbolic choices can foster identity coherence, while reflection without evaluation may decrease shame and provide a safe space for expression.
In these ways, mindfulness is not simply relaxation — it may be seen as a discipline that helps counter the intensity of harmful or disruptive behavioral symptoms, creating the potential for healthier responses to emerge.
Adding a Creative Dimension.
Mindfulness and coping skills can also be extended into practices that involve symbolic, sensory, and creative expression. Preparing the body and mind before engaging in expression may create a ritual that mirrors established coping strategies while adding unique depth. For example:
Breathing and grounding rituals may help regulate the nervous system.
Journaling or symbolic reflection may assist in identifying the “why” before the “what.”
Optional sensory cues (a candle, calming aroma, or soft music) may reinforce the reflective state.
This kind of structured preparation may transform the creative act — whether painting, sculpting, writing, or building — from a simple outlet into a possible mirror of inner states and emotional patterns.
One example of a modality that envelops these approaches is Creative Activation Therapy (CreATe™). This model extends mindfulness and coping strategies by presenting pre-creative reflection as the central therapeutic moment. Unlike traditional art therapy, which often emphasizes post-creative analysis, CreATe™ suggests placing emphasis on cognitive activation and emotional assessment before artistic engagement.
In practice, this may mean slowing down before creating, reflecting on emotions or symbols that arise, and then engaging in artistic expression as an extension of that reflection.
Modalities like CreATe™ do not replace established therapies; instead, they may function as gentle, symbolic adjuncts that integrate mindfulness, creativity, and reflection into one rhythm:
agency (choosing medium, pace, and focus),
may strengthen somatic grounding (linking body awareness with reflection),
may build symbolic resonance (connecting meaning to imagery), and
may foster integration (uniting reflection, expression, and insight).
Just as CBT sharpens thought and somatic therapy calms the body, creative mindfulness practices — including CreATe™ — suggest that healing may begin not in the product of expression, but in the quiet, reflective space that precedes it.
Conclusion.
The data and perspectives shared here highlight how mindfulness and coping skills can be, and traditionally have been, identified as essential tools in modern therapy. They may offer clients ways to regulate emotions, reduce distress, and reclaim a sense of agency in their lives. When these philosophies are extended into creative and reflective practices, they may open new pathways for insight and introspective psychological growth, particularly for individuals navigating conditions such as anxiety, depression, aggression, Bipolar Disorder, or Borderline Personality Disorder.
While no single method replaces established treatments, modalities like CreATe™ show promise in demonstrating how mindfulness, creativity, and reflection can be woven together to support both immediate relief and long-term maintenance of symptoms. By cultivating practices that encourage clients to pause, prepare, create, and integrate, this form of psychotherapeutic discipline may support addressing present challenges while also encouraging the development of sustainable habits of self-awareness and resilience for the future.