Grace’s Reviews > Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process > Status Update

Idiosyncrasies of play: “What might be horrifying for one child was not disruptive for another”

Adjusting the medium to a smaller piece of paper when someone is overwhelmed with their emotions is GENIUS actually holy smokes.

The body as a “physical container for the entire history of [an] individual.”
IVE BEEN SAYINGGGG!!! Thanks Reich (sp?)

Neuroscience researcher Kelly Lambert: “simply creating meaningful objects with one’s hands can alter mood bc handwork actually mediates anxiety and depression” (research focused on accumbens striatal cortical network)

This is honestly a better, more comprehensive breakdown of sensate therapy than the currently available books (that I’ve read) specifically focused on sensate therapy.

mentalization = the ability to see yourself “from the outside” and others “from the inside”
It is connected to empathy, self-regulation, self-preservation, expression of affect, self-efficacy, impulse control, and understanding how actions impact others and is thought to reduce the impact of traumatic stress.

Is chronic/stressful people pleasing an error of mentalization? Or is it categorized differently?

Dietrich-Hartwell model: 1) safety. 2) reduction of hyperarousal 3) interoception. (No exhaustive) focusing on disconnection from body and lack of interoception (enteroception)

I haven’t seen anything in this text so far that covers that particular issue. The encoding stuff is a great start, but I still feel it’s missing that crucial first step.

The problem with using sensory-based details to “ground people in the here and now” is that it ASSUMES sensory details are still safe territory for the people undergoing therapy, which isn’t at all a fair assumption to make. We know from anecdotal evidence and the encoding research that sensory details can be and often are re-traumatizing, so the first step HAS to be cultivating safe sensory spaces… (1/2)