Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Trauma deeply affects the body. While traditional psychotherapy deals with thoughts/beliefs and emotional elements, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SMP) – a specialized type of somatic therapy – works directly with the many physical symptoms of trauma, including the inability to tolerate certain external stimuli, like a loud noise, a tone of voice or a look on someone’s face; vegetative depressive symptoms; impulsivity and anxiety.
In short, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy seeks to find a physical “movement waiting to happen” …
In dangerous situations, either physical or emotional, human beings will normally react by fighting or running away (the fight/flight response). But when the trauma is so overwhelming, we freeze or submit instead. The “movement waiting to happen” is thus the movement that got stuck by the freeze reaction when there didn’t seem to be a way out.
In session, we blend in psychodynamic psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). We integrate Hakomi Therapy and mindfulness, engaging emotions, feelings, thoughts/beliefs, memories, images, and embodied sensations until a body-felt sense of a “body movement waiting to happen” occurs. A slight turning of the head or lengthening of the spine could finally help unfreeze our natural fight or flight reaction.
Example: Blending Sensorimotor and Hakomi Psychotherapies
Aileen, who has been experiencing fear of public places since she was a child, came into a session frightened that her forearms and hands became paralyzed while she was driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge. I ask her to turn her attention inward. In mindfulness, she slowly observed and sensed her body sensations, such as her eyes orienting to danger, tensions in her chest and throat, and a thought that was associated with these tensions: “I need to feel safe.” She found tingling feelings in several places in her body connected to movements in her body “waiting to happen,” such as her arms needing to push out and her feet needing to kick. I had her experiment. “Let your arms push out and see what wants to happen next.” She did, and did it again and again until she was tired. Then she said that she needed to kick. And she did. At the end of the session, Aileen had the insight that the paralysis in her hands had to do with her anxieties around moving from the East Bay to San Francisco and her fear around letting her partner know. Asked how she felt now, she replied: “calmer and closer to myself.” Shortly after this session, she spoke honestly to her boyfriend about not wanting to move to San Francisco and found him to be accepting. She also reported that she no longer fears driving over bridges.
When you’re ready to create positive, lasting change, I encourage you to contact me today at 510-866-4781 or email me at eleanor@eleanorlew.com to schedule a free, 15-minute, initial telehealth consultation. I look forward to meeting you, but the person you’re really going to meet is YOU.