Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Sensorimotor psychotherapy is a somatic approach that addresses the symptoms of unresolved trauma using somatic experiences as the gateway to long held trauma in the body. Trauma, whether developmental or acute trauma, gets stored in sensory perceptions, posture and movement, as well as emotions and thoughts - all difficult to process when only using words. Because trauma is held deep within the body, we can be completely unaware of it.

 

Sometimes all we know is that our lives don’t feel right. In Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, the bodily sensorimotor processes (sensations, reactions, movements) are the focus of therapeutic interventions. Through this process, automatic somatic narratives that are embedded in procedural memory (unconscious learned actions and beliefs) are interrupted. These patterns may be stuck in the past as a result of trauma or attachment inadequacies. SP utilizes interventions at both the verbal and somatic level, addressing gestures, eye contact, proximity-seeking movements, posture and beliefs. As the debilitating effects of trauma are released from the body, new resources of strength promote the capacity to change at the cognitive, affective and somatic levels. SP integrates current findings from neuroscience to transform traumatic memories into strengths and resources for the client, allowing the natural wisdom of the body to be revealed through self-awareness and curiosity. Therefore, mindfulness, respect and collaboration with the client is central to this work.

 

Because the process of SP goes to the root of the trauma and is completely processed, it allows the brain to process information from a place of safety and mindfulness. As your source of information goes from negative historical experiences held in the body to your innate source of the body’s wisdom, your authentic strengths, clarity, wisdom and intuition begins to reveal itself on your new path of lasting transformation.

 

This method was developed by Pat Ogden, Ph.D and colleagues in 1980s. It blends theory and technique from cognitive, affective, and psychodynamic therapy with somatic approaches, and has become a renowned method to treat some of the most difficult psychological struggles, including physical and emotional trauma. Sensorimotor psychotherapy combines somatic therapies, attachment theory, cognitive applications, neuroscience, and techniques from the Hakomi method. Since its inception, the approach has garnered international acclaim and has become a renowned memo to treat Dr. Ogden’s 2006 book on her method, Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy, has also gained international success.