Somatic Talk Therapy: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Somatic talk therapy (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) (SP): Beyond insight from simply talking, Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy re-creates an experience to discover unconscious sabotaging “maps”—and update them. These maps contain untrue negative beliefs and defensive strategies adaptive in childhood to help them fit into a family environment that did not meet their unique needs. In SP we use mindfulness to invite unconscious maps to the surface to directly experience a moment when the underlying assumption was made—and then update this untrue belief. For example, a child may believe they are unlovable, but seeing this moment from an adult’s perspective makes it clear they always were lovable, transform and integrate this new guiding belief. I teach clients how work in mindfulness. SP can be life transforming.