Sensorimotor Therapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy integrates sensorimotor processing with cognitive and emotional processing in the treatment of trauma. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy uses the body (rather than thoughts or emotions) as a primary entry point in processing trauma. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy directly treats the effects of trauma on the body, which in turn facilitates emotional and cognitive processing. This method is especially beneficial for clinicians working with dissociation, emotional reactivity or flat affect, frozen states or hyperarousal and other PTSD symptoms. In this article, we discuss Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, emphasizing sensorimotor processing techniques which can be integrated with traditional approaches that treat these symptoms. Because the therapist’s ability to interactively regulate clients’ dysregulated states and also to cultivate clients’ self-awareness of inner body sensations is crucial to this approach, three sessions are described illustrating the clinical application of this method.