Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

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

Our bodies are constantly processing information, yet 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 of being. As we orient toward our bodies, we can deepen into felt-sense experiences that are corrective and new. When our bodies feel better, safer, and more present, there is room for new emotions, thoughts, and impulses to arise. Our habitual beliefs and thought patterns can change, thereby increasing our capacity for more satisfying experience.

What do Sensorimotor body-based (somatic) therapeutic interventions look like?

Somatic interventions can involve anything that helps the body to move toward feeling safer, more connected, and more present. It may be self-touch right where the anxiety is felt in the body to contain and settle the uncomfortable sensations and slow down racing thoughts. Physical grounding through the feet and legs can bring down a rapid heart rate, release tension and constricted breathing. A felt-sense of a healthy boundary can provide an experience of safety, protection, and autonomy. Connection can be felt in the body through eye contact, reaching out and being met, pushing away, feeling supported, and proximity.

No matter the exploration, decisions about which somatic intervention is used and how it is applied are agreed upon between you and your therapist in a collaborative manner, and designed in the moment for the express purpose of moving your body toward a deeper experience of safety, comfort, presence, and connection.