SMARTmoves is invested in the growth and well-being of the whole person through embodied curiosity, creativity, and playfulness.
Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) originated in extensive work with traumatized children, adolescents, and caregivers at the Trauma Center of Brookline, a center of excellence for 35 years founded by Bessel van der Kolk that combined training, research and clinical work for traumatized people of all ages. Bessel’s vital message of the importance of the body for therapeutic work with trauma was a particular inspiration and support for the development of SMART. In addition to therapy for children and caregivers, we now extend SMART to adults and to special populations such as the deaf and hard-of-hearing, eating disorders, and the very young child, who have experienced trauma.
SMARTmoves was founded as a partnership in 2018 to continue the work of training and consultation in the SMART treatment method. Our training and consultation programs are designed to be accessible and interactive and to represent our trust and respect for the unfolding healing process.
Until 2020, all foundational training was provided in-person with an experiential component that gave participants the bodily sense of what SMART was all about. However, with the pandemic, we developed and now offer an online SMART Foundations training. The great advantage of increased accessibility for all encourages us to offer this as an alternative format going forward, in addition to in-person training.
SMARTmoves now has a physical location in an office suite in Auburndale, Massachusetts, which includes two SMART rooms. We aspire to continue the development of SMART through clinical work, training, consulting, and research, and to develop a community of like-minded therapists who are striving to make mental health treatment better for survivors of complex trauma across the lifespan.
Finally, in April 2020, our book, Transforming Trauma in Children and Adolescents: An Embodied Approach to Somatic Regulation, Trauma Processing and Attachment Building, by Elizabeth Warner, Anne Westcott, Alexandra Cook, and Heather Finn, was published by North Atlantic. This book fully articulates the SMART treatment model formulated from 12 years of experience and clinical evidence derived from review of videotapes with clinicians learning and practicing SMART across the country and abroad.
