A new somatics and attachment theory treatment protocol for therapists working with children and adolescents who suffer from complex trauma and neglect, using movement and sensation to target the neurological structures that support emotional and behavioral regulation.
ELIZABETH WARNER, PSYD, is the lead developer of the Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) complex trauma intervention model and Director of the SMART program, part of the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute. She has worked with children, adolescents and their families of diverse backgrounds in outpatient private practice, residential treatment, schools, and psychiatric inpatient settings, and lectures and trains therapists throughout the US as well as in Canada and Hong Kong. HEATHER FINN, LICSW, is Clinical Director and a practicing psychotherapist at the Trauma Center. She is the lead author of a case study demonstrating the utilization of the SMART model in the Journal of Child Adolescent Therapy. ANNE WESTCOTT is a senior faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and co-developer of the Trauma Center's SMART program. She is the coauthor of the Hidden Strengths Series, a set of children's books inspired by Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, designed to present children's distress in realistic yet digestible ways. ALEXANDRA COOK, PHD, is the Associate Director of the Trauma Center, where she has worked for over 20 years. She is the co-author of With the Phoenix Rising- Lessons from Ten Resilient Women who Overcame the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse.
"SMART is a ground-breaking new approach to treating traumatized
children, based on the combination of keen clinical observation,
sensory integration, and a deep understanding of the latest
advances in the neuroscience of trauma. A focused, embodied, and
engaged sense of self depends on learning to integrate sensory,
muscular, emotional, and cognitive input, which is profoundly
damaged by early trauma and disrupted attachment. With simple and
affordable equipment, SMART creates a sensory space that helps
children activate their sensory and physical needs and expressions,
which in turn helps them to befriend their internal sensations and
manage their actions and interactions. SMART fosters this core
foundation for becoming a functioning human being, and thus it can
help children to access and activate their rational brains and
become full partners in connection, play, learning, and
language."
-Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD, founder and medical director, emeritus
at the Trauma Center, president of the Trauma Research Foundation,
professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine,
and author of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in
the Healing of Trauma
"Incredible! SMART is a revolutionary approach that exquisitely
weaves together the authors' profound clinical wisdom and
observations with the science and theory of the leading thinkers
and scientists in our field. A must-read for mental health
professionals, this book will help move us forward, updating the
common, but narrow lens focused only on behavioral and top-down
approaches. Keeping regulation and relationships at the heart of
the approach, combining what we now know about the embodied brain
and the far-too-often neglected sensorimotor system, this book will
expand the perspective on and efficacy of the practice of many
professionals, and it will support integration for so many families
impacted by trauma."
-Tina Payne Bryson, LCSW, PhD, best-selling coauthor of The
Whole-Brain Child and The Power of Showing Up and
founder of TheCenterforConnection.org
"Housed within the framework of the tenets of Sensory Integration,
the authors have developed a triune intervention model that threads
together the aspects of somatic regulation, trauma processing, and
attachment-building in order to widen the window of tolerance for
the dysregulated behavioral, emotional, and relational challenges
faced by children and adolescents with a history of developmental
trauma. The Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)
intervention model addresses the most fundamental mechanisms of
traumatized children in a bottom-up, nonverbal language treatment
option that not only prompts kids to ask-Do I get to play in
there!-while peeking into his or her therapist's office, but more
fundamentally, helps them make meaning of their traumatic
experiences through the combined therapeutic actions of movement
and sensory processes. Thus, while SMART focuses on the body it
nonetheless changes a child's state of consciousness. This book is
a clinical must-read for therapists who treat traumatized children
or adolescents."
-Marilyn R. Davillier LCSW, MSSA and Ed Tronick, PhD, founders of
the Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship, University of
Massachusetts Boston
"I am so grateful for the commitment of the authors to provide
clinicians with an additional, accessible treatment model to help
the children in their care heal from the devastating impact of
childhood trauma. People-especially children-experience
overwhelming sensations and feelings that they are unable to put
into words. SMART's emphasis on helping children take effective
action using their whole body to better understand and regulate
these sensations and feelings is central to healing."
-Steve Gross, MSW, chief playmaker and founder of The Life is Good
Playmakers
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