Sensorimotor psychotherapy

In our sessions, we may opt to combine meaningful dialogue with a modality known as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, or SP,  is essentially a form of therapy that includes an integrated awareness of one's body and nervous system. 

Sensorimotor approaches are often used in treating situational trauma, such as car accidents, assault, abrupt life-transitions, shocking events and inter-personal or marital conflict; it used in the process of uncovering important resources that may not have been accessed or developed due to developmental and relational-trauma, such as long-term family conflict, and/or abuse.  Clients with developmental trauma often express feelings of being stuck, depressed, overwhelmed, numb, "floaty", enraged or flooded and hijacked by sensations or "feeling-states" such as fight, flight, submit or freeze. In this form of work, we engage in a safe process of integration and transformation en route to nurturing experiences of stability (via grounding and centering) and healthy vitality.  

The approach  helps clients learn how to support themselves as  we navigate  'the organization of experience" in each session, not simply talk about or  re-pattern emotions related to the painful events/exchanges.   Sometimes re-patterning requires a whole other careful method and pathway...  and sensorimotor  offers a  safe, human, step by step, kind guide. 

I sought out further education in sensorimotor psychotherapy partly due to my belief in the importance of non-verbal expressions of experience within a dialogue-based approach, but also in effort to continue co-sculpting a comprehensive "tool-box' for working with clients who seek assistance with traumatic memory, emotional processing, meaning making, and attachment repair. 

"Sensorimotor Psychotherapy blends theory and technique from cognitive and dynamic therapy with straightforward somatic awareness and movement interventions... that promote empowerment and competency." - Dr. Daniel Siegel, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute