Somatic Expressive Therapy is an integrative mental health intervention that accesses both historical and contemporary mind-body wisdom. It is inclusive of ancient cultural healing practices, brings awareness of the inner felt landscape, and is based on the scientific research of neurobiology. Visual art and image making, music and sound, dance and movement, drama and enactment, play and role play, creative writing and the manipulation of art materials such as clay, sand, paint, paper, etc have been around for centuries in all cultures. These healing practices allow us to engage with our senses, perceptions, emotions and symbolic ways of knowing. Somatic Expressive Therapy invites and introduces us to a variety of ways to process information, repair emotional wounds, resolve trauma and restore identity, hope and vitality. At the core of these embodied, cultural and expressive healing practices is restoration. Restoration of the mind, body, heart and soul.

Creativity, imagination, play and self-expression are used in many approaches that provide mental health intervention with children and adults. These include, but are not limited to: art therapy, play therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, creative writing therapy, clay therapy, yoga therapy and sand therapy. Expressive Therapy is the integrative use of two or more of these approaches within the context of counselling and psychotherapy.

To address the complexity of trauma symptoms, we need multiple ways to access our intuitive wisdom. At the heart of Somatic Expressive Therapies are the principles of sensory based communication, action-oriented creativity processes, and implicit (non-verbal) sensory, emotional and symbolic understanding. The goal is to restore the connection between body and mind through somatic and creative practices that enhance awareness of sensations, emotions and thoughts.

A trauma informed approach to counselling requires access to the limbic system, lower ‘fast’ brainstem, and right brain processing. Neuroscience research suggests that initially bypassing the rational, left brain processing is imperative if we are to work with the implicit memory where trauma resides. This requires the use of language that targets the brainstem, as well as working somatically with the ‘felt sense’ of the body through rhythm, synchrony, movement and entrainment to enhance interoception, the vital skill of reading the signs and cues from the body. Combine these skills with the use of imagination, symbology, creativity and play and you have Somatic Expressive Therapy.

Somatic Expressive Therapies provide whole brain integration, mind-body unity and a culturally safe approach to working both with a client’s physiology and psychology.