Guided Drawing is a bilateral approach to body mapping. The guidance refers to inner guidance, not to instructions from a therapist. Sensorimotor has emerged as a term to describe body focused psychotherapies that use a bottom-up approach. Sensorimotor Art Therapy encourages the awareness of implicit body sensations in the muscles, the viscera, the heart rate, and the breath. It also encourages to explore emotions as body sensations, rather than through the story attached to them.

The drawing process is not necessarily concerned with image-making but supports the awareness of body memories. While these memories are always biographical, the therapy itself is not symptom oriented. Not the specific problem or crisis becomes the focal point, but the option to new answers and solutions as they are embedded in the body's felt sense…

The Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy was recently invited to participate in the inaugural Art Therapy Conference for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), held in Abu Dhabi over October 17-18, 2023. Our highly experienced Institute faculty members Clare Jerdan and Chris Storm attended the conference, held workshops and presented to the delegates.

For the last several years Guy Macpherson has dedicated himself to the study of trauma, post-traumatic growth, and most recently, the intersection of trauma and psychosis - specifically assessing and treating signs of early psychosis. He holds a Doctorate in clinical psychology and with The Trauma Therapist Project brings together resources for clinicians and therapist of all kinds who are starting out on their trauma-informed journey.

In this interview Cornelia Elbrecht and Guy Macpherson discuss the hands-brain connection and how at the Clay Field we are able to treat early developmental trauma through an inter-relational touch experience.

The Philosopher Husserl (1931) formulated phenomenology as a theoretical construct. His interest was to learn what the direct experience of the person is and what meaning they attach to their experience. Husserl recognised that reality is always played out in the present tense, not the past and not the future. That if access is gained to sensory input of a person’s original experience in the here and now, then we would be able to view that person’s subjective reality. By substituting ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions instead of ‘why’ questions he posited that we could avoid interpretation and explanation; rather to be open and aware of the given data and see the client as he is and ‘what is happening right now?’

The study of phenomenology has evolved from the theoretical construct of Husserl (1931) with more ongoing developments in both physical sciences and social sciences (Van De Reit, 2001). The phenomenology of today is a sensory based moment to moment process that is uniquely my own as I interact with and I am impacted by the wider field in the here and now. At the Clay Field this plays out in every session. This interest, curiosity and tracking of my client’s experience in the Clay Field in the here and now supports to deepen the awareness and experience of their reality. There are moments when as a therapist I silently retract, giving minimal encouragement to the client’s action patterns in the clay and as they explore the field...