Adults
Psychotherapy with Somatic Experiencing™ (SE™)
Somatic Experiencing™ (SE™) is a body-oriented therapeutic approach geared towards helping people find healing from trauma.
Created by Peter Levine, PhD, this therapy works on the principle that trauma gets trapped in the body, leading to some of the symptoms people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or people who have experienced trauma might experience. Through this method, practitioners work on releasing this stress from the body. Many people who have experienced trauma, especially those who have experienced physical trauma such as domestic violence or sexual assault, can dissociate or disconnect from their bodies. SE normalizes the symptoms of trauma, which bind this arousal, and offers the steps needed to resolve activation and heal trauma. SE helps them have an increased sense of awareness of their internal experience (interoceptive, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic sensations).
Psychotherapy and SE together can help to relieve the symptoms of trauma and other stress disorders through a body-oriented approach. This modality seeks to re-set the nervous system and address traumatic shock, essential to recovering from previous trauma. SE helps people restore their mind-body connection to deal with the problematic and often physical after-effects of trauma. Clients are urged to explore the physical sensations that accompany their emotions and uncover the habitual behaviours developed in response to these feelings. SE holds that the negative event isn’t what caused the trauma, but rather the nervous system’s overwhelmed response to the perceived threat that is causing the distress and imbalance. Thus, SE works to discharge the physical memory of the event in order to reset the nervous system.
You can learn more about SE here.
Sandplay
Sandplay uses sand and a variety of miniatures that can be placed in the sand tray to create a scene or image. In this very simple act of creation, the sand world provide a means of expressing and processing experiences and feelings that bypass the analytical brain and access more of the subconscious.
Sandplay focuses on intra and interpersonal issues through the use of play and the creation of miniature three-dimensional worlds that illuminate unconscious material such as challenges and struggles the person may be facing. This form of therapy is conducted in the protective presence of a trained therapist.
Even though most often people think that Sandplay therapy is only meant for children, it can be very beneficial in treatment of young persons and adults as well. Sandplay therapy is a multi dimensional therapeutic approach which can help in emotional release of an adult as well.
You can learn more about Sandplay Therapy here .