ABSTRACT
Experience of working with forensic clients highlights the need to address both trauma and attachment deficits in order to develop and improve capacity to tolerate strong negative affect and improve relational functioning. Sensorimotor psychotherapy (SP), devised by Pat Ogden, incorporates a number of body-oriented techniques into psychotherapy. Mainstream psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or psychodynamic therapy pay scant attention to the pre-programmed physical response patterns that have evolved and are evoked in response to situations experienced as personally threatening for the individual. Training courses in SP are aimed at those who already have core mental health professional status. SP theory offers a helpful framework for all staff to understand and intervene in client psychopathology and acting out behaviour when understood within the context of perceived threat. SP is suitable for a broad range of clients and there are distinct aspects that make it useful in forensic practice where clients typically display a fairly high level of disturbance.
