Our Approach

In our work with children and teens, we utilize an innovative, body-centered modality called Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART), a powerful tool for those who haven’t seen success with or aren’t good candidates for more traditional play or talk therapy.  SMART is a groundbreaking therapy that helps children and young adults who have experienced complex trauma reconnect with their ability to regulate their bodies and their nervous systems. 

SMART sessions take place in our "SMART room" at our downtown Boise office and include the use of therapeutic equipment that you may be familiar with from other settings, including  sensory swings, weighted blankets, balance beams, fitness balls, and cushions. SMART sessions focus on three core elements: somatic (body) regulation, attachment building, and trauma processing. By allowing children and teens with body memories of trauma to work through those memories using the body itself, a SMART session opens up new avenues of healing without requiring the experiences to be processed verbally.  The process of moving the body through a safe space, with the support of an attuned therapist, is transformational for children and teens for whom processing difficult experiences verbally is not possible or unappealing.

To learn more about SMART, please visit https://smartmovespartners.com/smart-therapy-approach/

While children need to move their bodies to process traumatic memories, many adults who have experienced trauma also benefit from a body-centered approach.  For some people, trauma that occurred in childhood is not stored in narrative memories that can be processed verbally.  Others have spent time in talk therapy but still feel the echos of trauma memories in the body, showing up as unexpected triggers, relational difficulties, anxiety and depression, and physical ailments unable to be explained by medical testing/diagnosis. Our work with adult clients draws on training in Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as well as Polyvagal Theory and attachment research. These modalities share common themes in their focus on how trauma can be stored in the body and nervous system. 

We have a very relational approach to working with our clients, walking side by side to help reconnect with the wisdom of the body and to collaboratively explore the changes our clients would like to see in their lives.  We are committed to fostering a compassionate therapeutic environment for healing and growth for all clients.