Sensori Motor Psychotherapy is a therapy developed by Dr Pat Ogden, to enable a person’s capacity to recognise and self-regulate their body’s response to past traumatic events. This body based (Somatic) therapy guides you towards mindfulness of the responses and sensations that are resultant of these historical events. This guidance aids you in tracking these sensations as they change or sequence through the body, with the objective of executing what is known as an “act of triumph”.
When presented with a traumatic event the body activates the fight/flight or survival response: a response whereby a rational person will seek to fight, or run away in order to protect themselves. Successfully achieving either of these is referred to as an “act of triumph”. In such cases the survival energy is utilised and the body returns to a state of normality (homeostasis) after the event. If the fight/ flight response is inhibited in some way i.e. you are unable to fight or run (eg bullying at school, child abuse) the body, mind, or both will go into a “freeze” response. A freeze response keeps the trauma energy trapped in the body, presenting as undiagnosed trauma symptoms and other related issues.
An example would be if a person is trapped in a car after a car accident, they can neither run away nor fight to get out of the car and may then experience trauma symptoms. In clinic, while discussing the trauma, such a client may be observed as having restless legs, thereby giving the clinician an idea about the possible flight response that wasn’t executed in the traumatic event. The client is then guided in tracking those sensations, understanding the feeling of tension in the legs, and though this, a remedial strategy is developed. This strategy is guided by the muscular needs presented by the client. Though more complex than simply enacting a running response, it allows the body to experience the desired act of triumph. Enabling the person to execute the movement the body would have liked to have done in the face of the original trauma, helps to redeploy the constrained trauma energy, thereby alleviating the symptoms.
In my clinic I rarely do Sensori Motor Psychotherapy on its own but as a complement during other therapies if the need arises.
Here is a short video by Dr Pat Ogden explain the practice in more detail.
For more information or to book an appointment contact 0427249335