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…

An Initiatic Art Therapy Journey

Sometimes training to work with vulnerable and historically adversely impacted people is perplexing. This is why after 30+ years in the Community Services sector my eternal curiosity was focused on how to best support my clients; how could I assist them to embrace the healthiest and safest version of themselves?

Then I discovered the world of Art Therapy - and specifically Sensorimotor Art Therapy. Through my work I had already trained in numerous modalities and intervention-based options, however I still remained somewhat frustrated. Finally I realised that in my personal practices I had been utilising these methodologies to varying degrees. It was time to start some consolidation…

Safety is Predictability

I still remember the times, when you sent a letter by snail mail, and it would take days, if not weeks, for a response. These days I check my emails ten times per day, even on a weekend. We have lost a lot of breathing space within one generation. Is our global nervous system struggling to keep up with the pace of instant connectedness? As much as I embrace the amazing advances of internet-life online, it seems, we need a reset, a restart of our way of being. Many of us certainly need a rest at the moment. We need to exhale. We are exhausted from the undercurrent of constant threat.

The Black Madonna

The Black Madonna is a powerful symbol of the woman as divine. She represents the archetype of the wise old woman, a conveyor of ancient wisdom.

Owning Your Shadow

How many times have we referred to Alice in Wonderland in the past couple of years? Don’t we all know someone who disappeared down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures and world views? There are the vaccinated and antivaxxers, there are those in detention versus the freedom advocates. The continuously moving Covid19 goal posts appear similar to the unpredictable Queen’s Croquet Ground. Heads get chopped off, jobs are lost – and the Cheshire Cat grins. In our virtual world, reality has become a very pliable material indeed – with painful consequences.

Guided Drawing® with Children

Guided Drawing encourages bilateral, rhythmic repetition of movements and applies particular, archetypal shapes as intervention tools to structure the experience, if necessary. (Elbrecht 2018) During the Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing online training the question how to apply this modality with children arises on a regular basis. Children benefit from Guided Drawing just as much as adults, however, the facilitation has to be adjusted to match their age-specific needs and learning style.

Arriving at Therapy - and Self

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…

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