A Multimodal Approach to EMDR-Sandtray-based Therapy Defining Complex Trauma and Dissociation
A transdiagnostic approach to mental health treatment that addresses the limitations of traditional symptom-based diagnoses.
A Multimodal Approach to EMDR-Sandtray-based Therapy
Defining Complex Trauma and Dissociation by Ana M. Gomez
This article outlines an embodied, transdiagnostic approach to mental health treatment that addresses the limitations of traditional symptom-based diagnoses by focusing on underlying experiential processes common across disorders. Drawing from somatic psychology, neurobiology, and trauma studies, Caldwell proposes that therapeutic change occurs through cultivating awareness of bodily states, disrupting rigid patterns, and restoring flexible engagement with experience. She presents five core therapeutic processes—interrupting habitual patterns, restoring self-regulation, exploring felt sense, refining movement responses, and integrating new experiences—as foundational to supporting psychological healing. By centering the body as a site of transformation, the model offers a versatile, process-based framework suitable for a wide range of clinical presentations.
