Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs

How does Sensorimotor body-oriented psychotherapy differ from traditional talk-therapy?

Our bodies are constantly processing information, but much of this information is outside our awareness. By studying body sensation, tension patterns, movement, five-sense perception and impulse, the body-oriented psychotherapist brings the unconscious into awareness so that it can be worked with mindfully. Body-based therapeutic interventions have a profound effect on our felt-sense, or, implicit memory. As clients orient toward their own body, they can deepen into felt-sense experiences that are corrective and new. Out of that new experience arise new emotions, thoughts, and impulses, thereby increasing the capacity for more satisfying experience.

What is an example of a body-based Sensorimotor therapeutic intervention?

In the case of a dysregulated central nervous system, as is the case with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a somatic intervention might involve self-touch to contain and regulate the uncomfortable sensations of anxiety. Physical grounding through the feet and legs can help to bring down a rapid heart rate, release constricted breathing and tension, and slow down racing thoughts. Somatic development of healthy boundaries can reinstate the experience of bodily safety and a restored sense of self.

In the context of attachment-based disruptions, a body-based intervention would seek to facilitate a missing quality of connection. Connection can be felt by the body through experiences of eye contact, reaching out and being met, pushing away, feeling supported, and a sense of autonomy, to name just a few.

In either case, decisions about which somatic intervention is used and how it is applied are arrived at between client and therapist in a collaborative manner, and are designed in the moment for the express purposes of moving the body toward a deeper experience of safety, comfort, presence, and connection.

What is dissociation and how does it relate to trauma?

Dissociation is a natural phenomenon which may occur in the aftermath of an overwhelming traumatic experience(s). In order to continue with the tasks of daily life, part of the personality “splits” away from the part of the self that holds the traumatic memory, leaving the personality fragmented. Traumatized individuals can experience everything from having no linear memory of the event, to persistent experiences of threat or imminent danger (where no actual danger is present), to outright denial of the traumatic occurrence(s). Whatever the degree of dissociation, the sense of self is greatly affected, and may fluctuate between no sense of self, no body, memory gaps, intense emotions, and many selves engaged in competing strategies for survival.

Can traumatic dissociation be resolved?

It is possible for dissociative parts to be re-associated from a system of disparate parts into a working whole self. As the mind is divided, so is the body, and it is not uncommon for dissociative individuals to have persistent and inexplicable body-based symptoms. These symptoms can live anywhere in the body and encompass any kind of disturbance, such as pain, tension, psychomotor retardation, reflex inhibition, temporary blindness, loss of speech, pressure, tingling, numbness, anaesthetization and many more. As the Sensorimotor psychotherapist studies these symptoms and assists the client in tracking the body, together they learn to understand how these dissociated parts create a system. Survivors learn to successfully engage with their dissociated parts and generate more harmonious function within their system. This process affords the opportunity for the development of an over-arching definition of self that acknowledges authentic character traits as distinct from symptoms, allowing survivors to begin to live with a sense of being grounded in the present. 

What is the importance of mindfulness in psychotherapy?

Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, and without judgement. It is useful in psychotherapy because it engages a part of the brain which allows for dual awareness. That dual awareness in innately regulating. It allows us to slow down, and to break our experience down into manageable pieces. When we hold a mindful perspective, we can be aware of what we are experiencing while simultaneously tracking the internal effects of that same experience. We can slow down and break our experience down into more manageable levels. As we exercise the capacity to witness our thoughts, our emotions and our body sensations, rather than being overcome by experience and have it dictate our behaviour, we can choose our responses and choose the behaviours that feel appropriate to our present needs.