Sensorimotor Art Therapy

“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.” – Margaret Atwood

Neurological research has proven that trauma is held in the body and needs to be treated through embodying therapies. Instead of addressing the storied memories, Sensorimotor Art Therapy® focuses on regulating the nervous system, building resources, encouraging active responses to once overwhelming events, and nurturing developmental deficits.

We instantly respond to safety and threat with our body. Sensorimotor Art Therapy® encourages the awareness of such implicit felt sense experiences; it fosters the expression of these body sensations to enable clients to actively respond to otherwise often overwhelming or inexplicable events. Drawing in rhythmic repetition, or the physical encounter with the resistant clay engages the motor cortex; and simultaneously it stimulates increasingly satisfying sensory feedback.

In the safety of a session this sensorimotor feedback loop encourages the development of new neurological pathways that can repair traumatic ruptures that once occurred. Such sensorimotor achievements can lastingly transform even early infant developmental setbacks; they assist in finding an active response to traumatic experiences. They allow us to rewrite our biography towards a more authentic, alive sense of self.

Sensorimotor Art Therapy® has been developed by Cornelia Elbrecht

The Clayfield is a body-oriented, sensory-based form of therapy using a box filled with clay. It is often referred to as “touch therapy”. It offers a safe, nonverbal way to explore emotions, connect with internal body sensations, resolve trauma, and support resilience.

People of all ages can benefit from this modality. It is particularly useful for children with developmental delays or trauma, neurodivergent individuals, and adults experiencing grief or major transitions. 

The tactile experience and movement in the clay can access deep, often unconscious memories and emotional patterns.

The Clayfield supports:

  • emotional regulation,
  • trauma resolution
  • sensory integration
  • attachment and relationship challenges

The focus is on touch, pressure, resistance, and movement. Most clients find the experience grounding and calming.

We offer clayfield to families and in group settings. This process can also be paired with other modalities we use such as EMDR or Internal Family Systems.

“Guided Drawing® uses rhythmic bilateral repetition to explore emotions and felt sensations in the body as flowing or blocked internal movements. Trauma manifests physiologically as bracing patterns, tension, pain or numbness, accompanied by strong emotions.

Here the focus is not on the story of what happened, but on the implicit responses needed in that present moment. The process is self-guided, which is profoundly empowering for the client. The therapist has the option to introduce archetypal shapes as interventions to structure and support this bottom-up approach.”

*This is an excerpt from Sensorimotor art therapy website that our clinicians are trained through. This unique approach has been developed by Cornelia Elbrecht over the past 40+ years.

Like much of art therapy, the goal isn’t to create a finished product. But what sensorimotor art therapy uniquely focuses on is the sensory and kinesthetic input from the materials. It’s about the felt sensations — how the hands move in the clay or in the paint on the paper, what is felt internally, haptic senses, and sensory feedback loops. There’s no interpretation of the “art” — the focus is somatic and experiential through the feedback of directly interacting with the material (clay, paint or chalk).

Attachment and complex trauma implicitly inform our relationship with the world. We reach out through motor impulses and receive sensory feedback from such encounters. Adults and children explore these haptic (senses in our hands) learning experiences in their search for fulfillment at the Clay Field.

At the end of a session only intense body memories will be taken home. The repair of the sensorimotor feedback loop has lasting therapeutic benefits.

Clay mimics human touch and connects in our brain to a core human desire – to be loved and known. Trauma is stored in the body which means that our nervous systems are at the root of healing trauma. We have to address more than the story or narrative that is getting stuck – we have to address the felt experience in the body. The clay helps us do just that. 

“The clayfield was more powerful than I imagined. It shifted things in me that I wasn’t expecting and taught me a lot about myself.”

Join us for our clayfield group option called Rebuilding Attachment!

Not sure if this is for you?

Reach out for a free 15 minute consultation to see if this is the right next step.

Trauma is stored in the body, and so healing happens when we meet the body with safety and support.

Our office is located at: 37 N Hibbert, Mesa AZ 85201

Our office is in the heart of Downtown Mesa in a small home.

Our therapists and our space are all curated with you in mind. The Well is a unique and special place full of warmth and color. You and your family will come into a historic home turned counseling office and take a deep breath together. We pride ourselves in taking special care of every client that enters through our doors.

*We also offer virtual options when it is needed and supportive.