Dr. Leroy, head of the REPII day hospital, discusses a patient with nurse Adéline Serez.
“The trauma affects the mind but also manifests in psychocorporal reactions,” summarizes the nurse. “This is why the approach by the psychomotor therapist is being worked on because, on parts of the body that have been affected by an act of violence, malice, or an accident, there can be areas of the body that are hypoesthetic, anesthetic, or hyperesthetic, and we will stimulate these areas during exposure therapies” (during exposure therapy, the patient is gradually exposed to their trauma to achieve desensitization).
Psychomotor therapist Alice Poirier treats a young woman in a session. “This patient experienced sexual violence as a child, which had an impact on her body. So, when certain parts of the body are stimulated, there are intrusive symptoms that occur, so the goal is to desensitize them.” The patient must stimulate different areas of her body with a ball, gradually approaching the vaginal area at her pace, observing and working on her reactions. When she feels too much stress, the therapist asks her to ground herself, come back to reality using various techniques, such as naming five red objects in the room before continuing the session.
In some cases, bodily manifestations like movements and uncontrollable tremors take center stage. Generally, in the second week of the cycle, caregivers ask patients to perform exercises and observe the manifestations in their bodies. Sometimes, it’s noises or jolts (from a train) that “reactivate” the patients. In these cases, the work can be adapted to desensitize the patients.
In the case of a car accident, caregivers can, for example, move the patient’s wheelchair or place a weight on their chest where the airbag deployed. “In the case of physical aggression with strangulation, we will also do in vivo exposures, asking the person to gradually massage their neck with cream to desensitize that area of their body, and recognize that today, they are safe.”
