Children arriving in a new space need to orient to feel safe in the environment. Children literally need to connect to themselves, then their relationship with others and then the environment (Elbrecht, 2012).

Young children are not in charge of their lives and they do not often get a choice when they are presented to therapy. They enter a strange space and are then asked to follow instructions with someone they have not met before. This can be very overwhelming as children take in the whole situation as one stimuli: that is you, your energy, your room and all the other activities that you offer (Elbrecht, 2012, p.272; Winnicott, 1964).

Tapping into the Rhythm of Life with Guided Drawing®

With the upcoming Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing online training starting on 1 August, I would like to reemphasise one of the key features of this unique approach. Not only do clients draw bilaterally, and adults preferably with their eyes closed, but most important is the way how clients draw in rhythmic repetition. Clients set out using rhythmic repetition to explore their implicit felt sense. They aim to find an adequate expression for inner sensations. Shapes and images are not intentional or visualized; their creation does not require artistic skills. Rather they evolve out of a process of tracking the body’s various rhythms.[1]

[1] (Elbrecht 2018)

Neuroception at the Clay Field

Students all over the world learn theory in large, anonymous lecture halls, but then need to practice in small group tutorials. No junior doctor would be allowed to treat patients without the hands-on experience gained in practice sessions. The extensive use of PowerPoint presentations tends to dominate all conferences as a way of managing large groups, and it is the preferred teaching medium online. Zoom has made it possible to facilitate international tutorials over the past 18 months in ways unimaginable not long ago.

Much theory can be communicated in this way; however, our emotional brain craves the connection with others, and our brainstem needs the action patterns of practical application in order to integrate insights. Emotional connection, sensory awareness and the practice of new action patterns all benefit from small group learning.

Embodied Learning - Clay Field Therapy, Guided Drawing and Sensorimotor Integration

Students all over the world learn theory in large, anonymous lecture halls, but then need to practice in small group tutorials. No junior doctor would be allowed to treat patients without the hands-on experience gained in practice sessions. The extensive use of PowerPoint presentations tends to dominate all conferences as a way of managing large groups, and it is the preferred teaching medium online. Zoom has made it possible to facilitate international tutorials over the past 18 months in ways unimaginable not long ago.

Much theory can be communicated in this way; however, our emotional brain craves the connection with others, and our brainstem needs the action patterns of practical application in order to integrate insights. Emotional connection, sensory awareness and the practice of new action patterns all benefit from small group learning.

The Psychophysiology of Touch: Haptic Perception

Haptic perception is the perception through touch. Our hands are superbly fine-tuned perceptual instruments. They play a far more important role for art therapy than has been acknowledged so far…

I am woman, hear me draw!

When I first came to Sensorimotor Art Therapy over 10 years ago it was with the intention to find new ways to support clients to find a pathway through their troubles. As someone who has a leaning towards lifelong learning and deepening knowledge of various options, I had long wondered about the ways that Art Therapy could be utilised with children, adults and in particular at that time, with people impacted by family violence. It has been through the unfolding my own learning journey since those early days that I discovered that many of the tools and techniques I had been using over the years had a definite ‘art therapy’ quality to them.

We Need Touch to Regulate Our Anxiety

Another COVID lockdown, quarantine requirements, back to working remotely and the ensuing social isolation have again highlighted the profoundly human need for embodied contact and touch to regulate our nervous system.
In a London hotel room a few years ago I came across an essay by filmmaker Sebastian Junger where he discusses his experiences as a journalist in an outpost in Korengal Valley in Afghanistan in 2007. He describes war from a neurological perspective stating that while no one wants war, the majority of veterans long to go back because combat gives soldiers an intense experience of connection…

Being in Touch

Touch is the most fundamental of human experiences. It is also likely the most under-researched of our five senses. Most art therapists have little awareness of its importance being overly focussed on the optical experience. You can live a successful life being blind, deaf, lack smell and taste, but without touch, we most likely die…

Crossing the Midline

Crossing the midline is an indicator of bilateral coordination, meaning the ability to use both sides of the body at the same time. The Neuro Sequential Model (NMT) (Perry, 2005) recommends repetitive activities that target both hemispheres of the brain. The bilateral stimulation allows for the left and right hemispheres of the brain to increase communication through the unifying brain structure of the Corpus Callosum. This allows the client to rely on both hemispheres of the brain equally. This action according to the NMT allows the brain to reorganise itself and to therefore continue to develop from where the interruption began...

Sustenance and Sensorimotor Art Therapy®

When I first came to Sensorimotor Art Therapy over 10 years ago it was with the intention to find new ways to support clients to find a pathway through their troubles. As someone who has a leaning towards lifelong learning and deepening knowledge of various options, I had long wondered about the ways that Art Therapy could be utilised with children, adults and in particular at that time, with people impacted by family violence. It has been through the unfolding my own learning journey since those early days that I discovered that many of the tools and techniques I had been using over the years had a definite ‘art therapy’ quality to them.

The Tree Meditation

Over a ten-year period in the nineteen-eighties I studied with Jungian analyst Phyllis Krystal. She taught me much about guided imagery and how to apply it in a therapeutic context. One of Krystal’s core questions as a therapist was, how to resource clients in a way, they no longer needed to go over the troubled relationship with their parents hundreds and hundreds of times? How could she introduce exercises that opened up a new perspective and provided them with a different parenting experience? One that allowed clients to access healing and repair, and on this basis, they could go back to the past, but better resourced.

The Polyvagal Theory

Peter Levine and Stephen Porges both place their trauma-informed insights on understanding the polyvagal system in the body. While I found the Polyvagal Theory too medical to understand for a long time, when I attended a masterclass with Porges during the Australian Childhood Foundation Trauma Conference in 2014 he turned out to be a clear, simple and engaging speaker; finally, I understood his important research. During his masterclass Porges used the image of traffic lights to explain his Polyvagal Theory in a way that I found even children and parents can easily comprehend. It is one of the printed resources I keep on my desk and show to parents and children alike to assist them in understanding what is happening inside them. The Polyvagal Theory focuses on how the autonomic nervous system impacts on every somatosensory system in our body illustrated by traffic lights…

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