Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
What is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy?
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is an innovative and integrative approach to therapy that capitalizes on the direct connection between the body and the mind to facilitate healing and personal growth. This approach uniquely combines traditional talk therapy with body-focused strategies to treat trauma-related disorders, stress-related disorders, and interpersonal challenges.
Understanding Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Our bodies remember experiences, both positive and negative, and these memories can manifest in physical symptoms or mental distress. SP acknowledges this mind-body connection, using it as a focal point of therapeutic intervention. Through mindful study of the body, SP aims to access and process the unresolved traumatic memories that may not be accessible through traditional verbal psychotherapy alone.
SP uses “bottom-up processing,” where therapists help clients to first become aware of their physical sensations and reactions. This awareness is then used as a gateway to explore painful emotions, limiting beliefs and memories, allowing clients to develop new, healthier patterns of feeling and behaving.
How Does Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Work?
SP is a collaborative process and requires that we start with an agreement of what we will engage in mindful study. Below is a snapshot of how the process may look like:
1. Body Awareness
We begin by becoming aware of what’s showing up in the body i.e. bodily sensations, movement or posture using simple verbal and physical experiments as it relates to the theme we have agreed to study. The more we stay with the inner experiences, the deeper the experience becomes.
2. Exploring Connections
As we stay with what’s happening in the body, we explore the connections between sensations and how it links to thoughts, emotions and memories. This process can uncover underlying challenges that are contributing to your current struggles. We are bring the past into the present.
3. Developing New Patterns
The final step involves integrating these insights into everyday life. This may include completing an action that has remained stuck in the body due to unresolved trauma, explore movement and postures that can guide boundary setting and enhance interpersonal connections or enhance a deeper sense of self that allows for openness to new experiences.
What Conditions or Symptoms Can Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Address?
- Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD)
- Attachment wounds
- Dissociative Disorders
- Anxiety symptoms
- Depressive symptoms
- Difficulties regulating emotions
- Difficulties setting boundaries
- Chronic or unexplained pain
- Body tension
- Stress related disorders
- Blurred sense of self
Who would benefit?
Besides the conditions mentioned above, you would benefit from SP if:
- You prefer a slower and more gentle way of processing unresolved traumatic material.
- You are curious about how early life experiences have shaped your present-day emotional and relational challenges.
- You are looking for a therapy that prioritizes safety, pacing, and collaboration in the healing process.
- You would like to feel more connected to your body especially if you feel ‘numb’ or find yourself cognitively inclined.
- You are seeking a holistic approach that integrates mind and body.
- You feel stuck in repetitive emotional or behavioral patterns and want to explore how these are rooted in the body.
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