Marriage and Family Therapist Andre Anthony Moore, LMFT is now using Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in his work with couples

Marriage Couples Counseling & Life Coaching

Throughout the course of their lives, couples express seven categories of emotion first described by Jaak Panksepp who first coined the term affective neuroscience:

• Seeking new, exciting experiences, like the couple that took new jobs in London which gave them the opportunity to explore Europe together.

• Lusting after each other in the evening after work in their tiny West End apartment.

• Caring tenderly for each other in moments of work or family stress.

• Playing or acting goofy with each other at the spur of the moment.

• Fearing some unforeseen circumstance like illness or death.

• Raging at the world, each other or both in the face of failures, and

• Grieving the loss of a shared dream or something precious in their lives.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a powerful way to encourage couples to experience these emotions which often get cut off from the words they say to each other; emotions hiding like tiny woodland creatures in the feeling regions of their brains and bodies. Sue Johnson in her book Hold Me Tight calls them primary emotions, the ones individuals all try so hard to hide from the world.

Take into consideration the following hypothetical situation: Michael constantly apologizes to Jennifer for small stuff that drives her up the wall. She doesn’t have a clue that he lives in a swampland of shame so excruciating that most of the time he can’t even let himself feel it and covers it with an endless flood of apologies for even his smallest mistakes. On her end, when Jennifer loses it and blows up at Michael, she has no sense that her anger covers a deeper fear that she’ll never find anybody to care for her and will always wind up being the rebound for guys running away from unhappy relationships.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can help Michael and Jennifer slow down and get more in touch with what they’re really feeling. As they tell their stories, they’re encouraged by the therapist to get curious about their emotions and how these emotions are felt in their bodies:

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy would Ask Jennifer:

• When Michael irritates you, is there an image or feeling that goes with it?
• Remember the last time you were angry at him? What starts to happen in your body?
• What sensations do you notice now?
• What feelings accompany the sensations?
• What thoughts are you aware of as you notice?
• That twitching in your arm, is there something that needs to be expressed?
• When your shoulders start to tense, is there an emotion that goes with that?
• The sadness I see in your face, are there words you can put on it?

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Would Ask Michael:

• When Jennifer blows up at you, is there an image or feeling that goes with it?
• Remember the last time she blew up at you? What starts to happen in your body?
• What sensations do you notice now?
• What feelings accompany the sensations?
• What thoughts are you aware of as you notice?
• That tightness in your throat, is there a feeling that goes with it?
• The twitching in your foot and lower leg, is it telling you something?
• As your eyes dart away, is there a feeling that goes with that?

Helping Couples Discover Resources they Didn’t Know They Had

The most important part of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is that it helps couples discover resources in their bodies that they didn’t know they had. This is often done with experiments conducted during a session. For example, Michael is asked to look at Jennifer and touch her face tenderly with his fingers as she lets herself feel and take in his love for her. Or Jennifer and Michael are asked to stand back to back as Michael leans against Jennifer feeling her strength, letting some of it into his body.

The promise of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is that it frees couples to find hidden strengths in their bodies and in each other. In the words of Leonard Cohen, it helps them fill each other’s cracks with light. In the words of Jan Beatty in her poem Modern Love, it inspires them to see that the look in each other’s eyes is the beautiful sight. Only then can they genuinely regret that they didn’t make themselves ready for each other sooner and that now, in the present, they can’t give better, love each other more.

For more information on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, contact:

Andre Moore, LMFT
Marriage Couples Counseling in New York City
212 673 4618

Media Contact
Company Name: Marriage Couples Counseling & Life Coaching
Contact Person: Andre Moore
Email: Send Email
Phone: (646) 859-0189
Address:160 Bleecker Street, 9C
City: East New York
State: New York
Country: United States
Website: http://www.marriage-couples-counseling-new-york.com/