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”

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.

Expressive arts in dyadic relationships and interpersonal neurobiology LET’S GOOOOO. THIS ROCKS IMMENSELY

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)