Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) is a therapy developed for children and youth with developmental complex trauma and their caregivers. With knowledge of the impact of traumatic experience on development, behavior, and body, mind and brain, and preliminary knowledge of sensory integration, we set out to explore the effects of sensory motor engagement on arousal regulation. For 10 years, we practiced, taught others, and studied clinical videotape, and, discovered the high-octane effect of sensory motor engagement on somatic regulation. In practice, this body-based engagement proved to be the foundation and fuel for embodied and verbal trauma processing and for attachment-building in action.
SMART is a ‘bottom-up’method, harnessing sensory motor inputs for regulation at the brainstem level to generate an individualized regulation toolbox. Young children become fully embodied the moment they start to play with the equipment such as physioballs, a small trampoline, crash mats, and a tunnel available in the SMART room. Latency-aged children regulate themselves through full-body play, and access help from others more easily. And adolescents, either spontaneously or with a bit of encouragement, engage their bodies and connect more easily with their therapists. Therapists report it is no longer “like pulling teeth”; their teen clients talk spontaneously about their concerns and life experiences, both historical and present, while in an aerial hammock or jumping on a mini-trampoline. Adults, while needing support and encouragement to access playfulness, frequently find immediate relief with exploration of use of equipment and are motivated to develop an individualized regulation toolbox.
Watch me, and bring your favorite ‘movement chair’, a physioball, balance disk or weighted blanket.
Elizabeth Warner, EdM, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist with 40 years of experience working with children and families in psychiatric inpatient and outpatient settings, schools, mental health clinics and residential treatment, as well as in her private practice. Early in her career, she spent 15 years working with severely disordered children including traumatized children and their parents, using innovative treatment methodologies and videotape for process study at the Language & Cognitive Development Center.
Since 2006, her focus has been on development of innovative treatment for children from 1.5 years to 22 years whose lives have been impacted by chronic stress and complex trauma, as well as acute stress, and their caregivers. As project director at the Trauma Center at JRI, a center of excellence in trauma treatment, training and research, she oversaw development, training, and consultation in Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) for outpatient, in-home, therapeutic day school, and residential treatment settings in the US, Canada and Hong Kong. She also collaborated with JRI community-based therapists to develop SMART applications for in-home therapy and constructed two videotape coding systems for studying regulatory processes in treatment. As a co-founder and partner in SMARTmoves LLC, she continues to train and consult to therapists in the US and abroad. She is conducting research through videotape study and treatment outcome studies, in order to test out hypotheses about the impact of sensory motor interventions and somatic regulation. Dr. Warner maintains a private practice for adult psychotherapy and parent consultation.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Elizabeth Warner is the co-founder and partner of SMARTmoves, LLC. and maintains a private practice. She receives compensation as a consultant. Dr. Warner receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Elizabeth Warner is a member of the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
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The Development of Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)
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How does somatic regulation drive trauma processing & attachment-building?
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