French psychomotricity

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Julian de Ajuriaguerra · 1974 · Paris, France

What it is

French psychomotricity is a regulated health profession and clinical discipline, not a single manualised therapy. It works on how tone, movement, sensation, emotion, representation and relationship fit together, across the lifespan. In France it works on medical prescription. The profession was…

Format

• Phase 2: Therapeutic project. Choose goals, the mediation(s), individual or group format and the frame (fixed day, time, room). The frame should be stable and rhythmic.
• Phase 3: Treatment course. The format depends on the method:

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• There is no single published phase manual for the discipline. The pathway below is the regulatory and clinical sequence the sources describe.
• Phase 1: Intake and psychomotor assessment (bilan psychomoteur). Typically 1–3 sessions. Goals: anamnesis, then assessment of psychomotor development, tonic-emotional regulation, dynamic and fine coordination, balance, laterality, spatio-temporal organisation, body schema and body image. In pain or somatic settings, also cover the history of the pain and its emotional, behavioural, cognitive and sensory dimensions.…
• Phase 4: Reassessment and ending. Reassess regularly (in the Bullinger approach, a yearly sensorimotor assessment) and adjust the project. Criteria for ending (all beyond the reassessment requirement): the goals set at the bilan are met on reassessment; the patient carries regulation into daily life (Jacobson's "differential relaxation" and Wintrebert's final "re-adaptation to daily life" are the method-specific…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• See the contraindications under 4.4 and section 5.
• Fear, hypothermia, seizures. Have pool safety procedures in place.
• Distress when the pattern is interrupted. Extend it; do not suppress it.
• Being alerted without then orienting means the stimulus is too strong. Reduce it.
• Body work must not replace medical pain management. Coordinate with the pain team.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.