What Is Experiential Therapy? How It Works & Why It Helps

When it comes to healing, it’s about more than just talking about feelings. We heal through more than just words; we heal through experiences. This idea is the root of experiential therapy.

Whether someone struggles to put their feelings into words, feels stuck in their current form of therapy, or wants a more hands-on approach to healing, experiential therapy offers a unique path forward.

Read on to learn more about what experiential therapy is, how it works, and why it can be such a powerful add-on to traditional talk therapy.

What is experiential therapy?

As the name suggests, experiential therapy is a form of experience-based therapy.

“Experiential therapy uses hands-on and expressive activities like writing, art-making, play, and music rather than relying solely on talk,” says Beth Couture, MSS, LSW, a Charlie Health Experiential Therapist.

Through these experiences and activities, clients can process emotions, gain new perspectives, and even process trauma.

Experiential therapy and talk therapy vary greatly in structure and approach. “In experiential sessions, you will spend most of your time immersed in an activity, and then a little bit of time talking about and integrating that activity,” says Abbey Greer, CTRS, CCLS, a Charlie Health Experiential Therapist. “Whereas in talk therapy, you kind of stay in that cognitive, analytical headspace, communicating [verbally] for most of the session.”

Instead of only talking about how they’re feeling or what they’ve been through, clients are encouraged to actively engage with their emotions through various activities, movements, or creative approaches, which can lead to deeper insights and meaningful breakthroughs.

Experiential therapy can benefit a wide range of mental health conditions, including:

• Trauma
• Panic disorders
• Phobias
• Substance use disorders
• Anger management
• Grief and loss
• Relationship and family conflicts

Some examples of experiential therapy include:

• Art therapy
• Music therapy
• Poetry therapy
• Recreational therapy
• Dance & movement therapy
• Drama therapy
• Nature therapy

Experiential therapy can take place in person or online, in individual settings or group settings. At Charlie Health, experiential therapy modalities are practiced virtually in groups.

Why is experiential therapy effective?

While some might be skeptical of more nontraditional approaches, experiential therapy works in ways that talk therapy doesn’t.

“Experiential therapy allows the client to embody their feelings through creative or physical expression, which enables more immediate and powerful processing,” Couture says. “This approach bypasses the intellectual and analytical part of the brain to access emotions stored in deeper areas of the brain and body.”

In other words, experiential therapy helps people access feelings that may be difficult to articulate, or even fully identify, through conversation alone.

“The act of doing — whether creating something, role-playing, or interacting with the outside world (such as in wilderness or nature therapy) — allows emotions and trauma to be embodied and processed in the moment rather than after the fact,” says Couture.

For example, someone who’s a trauma survivor might find a sense of safety in reconnecting with their body through dance & movement therapy, and someone with depression might find that art therapy allows them to express their feelings in a way they couldn’t before.

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A look inside recreation therapy and poetry therapy

Curious about how experiential therapy looks in practice? We asked Couture and Greer for a look inside their experiential group sessions to learn more.

Poetry therapy in practice

“Poetry therapy (or bibliotherapy) uses reading and writing to help people process and express their emotions, lower stress, and gain awareness and insight into their lives, behaviors, and patterns,” Couture says.

In session, she brings in a poem related to the theme of the week. “After we read the poem, I ask for folks’ impressions of it,” Couture says. “What do they like and/or dislike? What resonates? What emotions came up for them as they heard the poem? Did any memories or associations come up?” Group members then have a chance to share their own experiences and how they relate to the poem.

Sessions may also include expressive writing. Couture will give a prompt for the group members to jump off of, and group members can choose whether they’d like to write creatively or journal, or write poetry or prose. “Expressive writing allows writers to figure out what they are thinking and feeling as they write, helping them gain clarity in ways that verbal processing does not,” Couture explains.

From there, clients can choose whether they’d like to share their writing with the group. There’s no pressure to present. Sometimes the writing is collaborative, where the group writes a piece together.

“People in an intensive outpatient program (IOP) can benefit from poetry therapy because it helps them feel less alone and more connected with others who have had similar experiences and emotions,” Couture says.

Recreation therapy in practice

Recreation therapy is broad and can apply to many different leisurely activities.

“It’s different from other modalities in that anything that can be seen as recreation is a tool for us,” Greer says. “Music, knitting, reading, art — anything that you do as a recreation or leisure pursuit — we use them as tools to improve client functioning and deepen the client’s understanding of themselves and the world around them.”

However, one of Greer’s favorite ways to practice recreation therapy is through board games (and yes, this can be done virtually, too!).

Greer shares that many clients are skeptical at first, wondering how playing a game can have therapeutic benefits. She’ll tell her clients, “Let me get to the last 15 minutes of group, and it’ll all click.”

She says one game she’ll play in session is called Herd Mentality — a game where you have to answer a question based on how you think everyone else is going to answer. “We talk about the difference between fitting in versus belonging, and the pressures that we feel to change ourselves to be a part of the herd,” Greer says. “It’s really fun, it’s really silly, but at the same time, the conversations at the end are very impactful.”

She notes that recreation therapy can be especially helpful for people recovering from substance use disorder, since a lot of their leisure time previously was spent with drugs or drinking. Recreation therapy offers a new healthy way to activate those pleasure centers in the brain, Greer says. “Let’s try a bunch of new activities and see if any of them can rewire your brain and bring about the emotions that you’re seeking in a safe way.”

The importance of combining talk therapy and experiential therapy

Experiential therapy is generally combined with talk therapy in a treatment plan.

It opens more pathways to healing through emotional and somatic (body-based) experiences. Together, these approaches open more pathways to self-reflection, learning, and healing.

“The more opportunities we can give clients to recognize and express their emotions, the better,” Couture says. “Combining talk therapy with experiential therapies is a more holistic approach and allows therapists and group facilitators to support more clients.”

Experiential therapy offers great potential for people who struggle to open up. For example, Couture says some people don’t feel comfortable opening up about their feelings, particularly in group settings, but they might be able to draw or write about their feelings with ease.

As Greer explains, experiential therapy creates a space where healing can be practiced and felt, not just discussed. “Experiential therapy is a safe container to practice therapeutic ideas and really integrate what you’ve learned,” she says. “Talk therapy is really important for laying that foundation and awareness and understanding, but I think experiential therapy allows a unique opportunity for that embodied experience to really stick with the clients.”

Together, talk therapy combined with experiential therapy, such as in an IOP curriculum, makes it easier to move from talking about your emotions to actually working through them.

“So much of our trauma comes from experience, but so does much of our healing,” Greer says.

Experiential therapy at Charlie Health

Charlie Health is a virtual behavioral health provider delivering high-acuity treatment for kids, teens, and adults facing serious mental health conditions and substance use disorders.

Various types of experiential therapies are built into the curriculum to help clients heal beyond traditional talk-therapy-based approaches. Examples of experiential therapies at Charlie Health include art therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy, recreation therapy, and dance & movement therapy.

Our innovative treatment model combines clinical expertise, group connection, and measurement-based care to support holistic long-term healing.

If you think you might benefit from Charlie Health’s IOP, fill out this form.

If you’re a provider and you have a client who might be a good fit, refer them today.