Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: An Effective approach to treat Trauma
Therapy is not always talk. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is one of the somatic therapies, and it treats the physical symptoms a client carries, because those symptoms are what Trauma leaves behind. Trauma causes them. The therapy aims to treat unresolved Trauma by working with a person’s physical experience, and it helps to build self-awareness and improve mental health.
In short, the theory is a body-centred approach, and it brings neuroscience together with attachment theory to treat Trauma. Leave Trauma untreated after a strong impact and it leads to different physical complications, because the nervous system and the mind are both affected. Talking therapies help us make sense of our experience. Body-centred approaches aim to work deeply. This therapy is used to treat PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and Trauma.
History
At the beginning of 1970, Dr Pat Odgen worked as a Yoga Instructor at a Psychiatric hospital. She noticed something. Patients often felt disconnected from their bodies, and they could not link their sensory and behavioural systems to the body itself. She also saw cases in which patients’ past traumas and negative experiences were triggered as therapies were used on them.
She found a connection between physical exercise and mental health. She began to develop Sensorimotor therapy, which adds somatic work to psychotherapy techniques, and later, in 1981, she founded an Institute for the therapy.
How Does it Work?
In this therapy, practitioners work systematically, and they address the mental, physical and emotional symptoms their clients bring. That helps them treat the issues a person is facing because of Trauma. Patients tend to have certain reactions. Fight-or-flight is one. It appears when they face a situation they think is dangerous. These reactions are known as biological reactions, and the most common of them is to flee the situation or fight it.
Another common reaction is freezing. The impulse not to run from danger comes from shame or guilt, and Domestic Abuse is the most common example of it. Victims blame themselves for all their suffering, and that leaves them ashamed. They feel that they deserve the behaviour they are facing, so they do not flee or fight the situation. The behaviour leads to other physical and psychological symptoms, such as body shaking and tics.
Sessions help the client to imagine a clinical setting and work through the Trauma. A sense of closure develops when the client is encouraged to engage in a defensive reaction while going through the Trauma. There is no need to go through all the exact details of the Trauma. The benefit still comes.
Clients put all their emotions and experiences into words, and that opens the way to nonverbal signals, which therapists then decode with their expertise to keep the session useful and engaging. The session is simple. Verbal conversation carries it, but the nonverbal cues of the right brain are what make it meaningful.
The process of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Therapy is based on the client’s needs and their capacity for dealing with Trauma. It follows a typical pattern. It starts the moment the therapist makes the client feel comfortable and the setting feels safe, and that environment helps the client to feel free and mindful about his actions and gestures.
Dysregulated arousal is common during therapy, caused by fear or traumatic feelings, and it may escalate the client’s emotions. Too little arousal helps least. Extreme arousal is no better. Moderate arousal is considered helpful. Client trust and safety are established during the session. That steady footing supports optimal arousal. Trauma is processed best when arousal sits in the middle of that range, because the client stays present instead of tipping into overwhelmed or dissociated feelings.
Therapists try different techniques, such as stimulating the physical aspect of the event, and this helps to create the feeling of fleeing or fighting. The fear goes out of the client’s response. The client learns to defend themselves with these exercises.
Conditions Commonly Treated
This therapy can treat different psychological conditions, and it helps adults, especially those who have suffered early-life Trauma. Other conditions are treated successfully too, and they are
- PTSD
- Abuse
- Relationship issues
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Low motivation
- Anger Management
- Behavioural Issue
Benefits
Several cases have been treated successfully with this therapy. People do report benefits. It has helped them control their emotions, and they are less vulnerable to being triggered by any event. Self-awareness is a common result. People learn to pay attention to the signals their body gives them about certain past events.
Responses vary, because each client’s case is different. Overall, there is
- Reduced anxiety
- Less pain
- Improved relationships
- Less body sensations
- Less intrusive smells, sounds and images
- Enhanced ability of emotion regulation
- Great level of self-awareness
- Resilience and power to set boundaries
Effectiveness
People who suffered from Childhood Trauma have been treated effectively with the therapy. Studies around the world have shown that it works. Women’s College Hospital in Canada conducted a pilot study in 2012, and 10 women were recruited, all of them victims of childhood trauma. They attended 20 weekly therapy sessions. Several surveys were also conducted. The result showed significant improvement in the somatic dissociation of these women.
In 2008, a psychiatrist from Hertfordshire University in England conducted another study. It was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of body-centred therapy on patients with illnesses like PTSD, and it showed that therapy is helpful to treat anxiety, depression and relationship problems.
Book Recommendation
One of the good books on the topic is EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, written by Arielle Schwartz and Barb Maiberger. It brings the two traditions together in a single integrative model that practitioners can follow, and it does so without losing the detail of either one. Part 1 covers the foundational concepts of science related to the treatment. Part 2 discusses the eight phases of EMDR. It is an excellent source of information. We recommend it.
Summary
Sensorimotor psychotherapy is a healthy and helpful approach to unresolved Trauma. It helps build self-awareness. The approach has been available since the 1970s, but insufficient research means limited use in mainstream practice, so people must find well trained therapists. Seekapsych is the best place to look. Several options are available, and we are here to help you choose the best therapist.
