What is Guided Drawing?

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…

Art Therapy Conference for the United Arab Emirates

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.

Creative Healing Strategies for Victims of Natural Disasters

When the earthquake shook an area the size of Portugal in southeast Turkey and northern Syria, at least 56 thousand people died, 126 000 suffered non-fatal injuries and at least 2.6 million people were displaced. I was asked by the Psychology Department of Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul to speak about trauma-informed strategies to support large groups affected by a natural disaster. An event such as this earthquake is overwhelming for all involved, even the news were overwhelming to watch. And while the world by now has turned elsewhere, the aftershocks for those millions directly affected will last for years, if not a lifetime…

Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.

These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy…

Stabilization, Pendulation and Titration

In a recent group discussion, the question arose about the difference between stabilization and pendulation. The term stabilization in the context of trauma therapy was coined by psychiatrist Pierre Janet (1859 – 1947), a pioneer, who profoundly influenced the work of Freud, Jung and Adler. His approach to treating traumatized clients was a three-stage model that is still relevant today…

Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.

These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy…

The Arts and Happiness

While I was still an Ugly Duckling, secretly reading novels by torchlight underneath my bedcovers, I discovered a world of likeminded Swans, where my spirit belonged. My wild emotions resonated with the music I listened to throughout my teens. I know I am preaching to the converted with this blog, however research always adds another level of credibility to something we seem to know but have no evidence for.

Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.

These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy…

The Treatment of ASD and ADHD with Sensorimotor Art Therapy

Many times I read the mental health records of children and teens and shudder at the long list of ASD and ADHD related diagnoses, while I wonder how much these young clients’ learning and behavioural difficulties are in fact caused by developmental trauma. For young children, threat is not about what is actually dangerous, but about what their brain perceives as such. This can happen from real threats or perceived threats – the brain will respond the same way to both…

Pendulation as a Core Trauma Healing Model

The term Pendulation was coined by Peter Levine (Levine 2010), describing a process of oscillating between two vortexes, a trauma vortex, and a healing vortex, to titrate the recall of stressful events. Pendulating between fearful and hopeful or joyful memories makes the trauma therapy process manageable, rather than re-traumatising. Levine’s insight into Pendulation has informed my approach to trauma therapy fundamentally. Thousands of therapists and clients have benefitted from this approach…

Healing my Broken Wrist with Guided Drawing

I have created my way through many a crisis in my life. Art Therapy has always been my go-to. Recently I broke my wrist quite badly, it required surgery. I now have permanent hardware in it, and it has taken some getting used to.

As soon as I was able to bear any movement, I started practicing Guided Drawing.

Bilateral Drawing with Closed Eyes

One of the features of Guided Drawing is that clients draw with their eyes closed. This is a concept foreign to the visual arts, where seeing is traditionally of core significance. It is also the one question inevitably raised in every Guided Drawing training: “Do all clients have to close their eyes when they engage in Guided Drawing?” The answer is: “of course not.” The closed eyes are a tool. Just like crayons and finger paints offer different haptic experiences, the closed or open eyes offer a different focus. The client either looks inside or outside. Is the client’s need for implicit connection with the body or explicit orientation in the world? Is the therapeutic goal nervous system regulation through self-perception or through a relational encounter?

Healing boundaries: a teenager's experience of art therapy integrated with Somatic Experiencing

“Initially I thought the art therapy sessions were useless. I really didn't want to go. Then after a year I began making great strides. I started to open up more to others, to be more emotional, to express my ideas. I began to see my life in colour, instead of just grey. I am more controlled now.” (Federico Gentile)

This paper is based on an interview with 13-year-old Federico Gentile (pseudonym). He has had weekly individual art therapy sessions for two years. Art therapy began fifteen months after he began living with his adoptive parents.

Trauma can be defined as the rupture of a boundary on many different levels (physio-logical, psychological, social). A common thread throughout the sessions was the testing and re-pairing of boundaries. The therapist herself found it necessary to break two boundaries: giving the user a gift and integrating Somatic Experiencing (SE) techniques from outside our field…

Myelination, Mobilisation and Sensorimotor Art Therapy

In the recent decade neuroscience has significantly contributed to our comprehension of the brain-body connection. It has validated many aspects of therapies, including Sensorimotor Art Therapy, and enhanced our understanding of the need for body-focused approaches to treat traumatized clients. Stephen Porges’ development of the Polyvagal Theory (2007 Porges), and his ground-breaking explorations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), have expanded the knowledge of how our physiology detects and processes existential danger and safety. Porges identified two motor branches of the vagus nerve, that provide both motor and sensory pathways between brainstem structures and visceral organs. Consciously working with these sensory and motor aspects is at the core of Sensorimotor Art Therapy.

Trauma-proofing Children

The distressing images emerging from the war in Ukraine, and a recent discussion with a group of social workers, youth workers, art therapists and play therapists in Lismore have prompted me to reflect on how to best support children in crisis. Hundreds of children have lost their homes in the recent floods in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. Thousands are fleeing the utter devastation in Eastern Europe. Not only are these children displaced and have gone through an overwhelming event, but they have also lost the entire infrastructure of their community, their homes, schools and play grounds. They have lost the connection with friends and possibly family members. Their entire life has been turned upside down in a wave of uncertainty and terror. So the big question is - how can we support these children in a trauma-informed way that is age appropriate and healing…

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