What is it ?

Clay Field Therapy is a very new and unique functional therapy which focuses on haptic perception, the language of the hands.*

Designed to help clients complete any incomplete developmental milestones, Clay Field Therapy can accelerate the repair of delays to a child’s development caused by environmental or trauma interruptions. (Clare Jerdan, 2024)

Also called touch therapy by its founder Cornelia Elbrecht, the clay field offers a here and now sensory experience with a large box of smooth clay, a bowl of warm water and a sponge. Despite this simple setting, a clay field session has the potential to allow clients of any age to safely access and integrate traumatic memories held in the body, in a gentle intuitive way, without having to consciously think about or re-tell their story.

How does it work?

The key to the effectiveness of Clay Field Therapy lies in the connection between touch and movement. As I touch the clay, it touches me. When I project a motor impulse (movement) into the field, I receive sensory feedback. There is a sensorimotor feedback loop.

If the natural rhythm of this feedback loop, created in our bodies when we interact with our environment, has been interrupted by trauma, a client’s nervous system may be stuck in “shutdown/freeze” or “fight/flight,” and be unable to take in sensory feedback.

With hands in the clay, in the safety of the therapeutic setting, new solutions and ways to move forward can be found, allowing for a shift out of these states.

What happens in a session?

Once seated and settled in front of the clay field, adult clients are invited to close their eyes, bring their hands into contact with the clay, and focus purely on the haptic sense - the experience of touch - trusting their hands to “know” what needs to happen and to find movement patterns that are satisfying. They are encouraged to follow whatever impulse their hands and body feel, to focus on exploring a relationship with the clay, and with the self.

Clients often leave a session in awe at how such a simple setting can produce such profound results.

*Pictured: an adult client follows the impulse to remove all the material from the box.*

Safety in Sessions

Safety is the foundation, the cornerstone and the golden rule of all trauma-informed therapy.

In Clay Field sessions, the therapist must remain fully present, holding the space, while the client is focused inwards. The therapist closely follows the client’s hand movements and body language, encouraging them to trust their hands and let their inner knowing guide the process.

If a client experiences a sensation or meets an area or shape in the clay, that is perceived as threatening or uncomfortable, the therapist will gently guide them to ”pendulate” from whatever this is, towards a place that feels safe. This could be bringing the hands out of the clay and resting them in the warm water, holding onto the solid sides of the box, or opening their eyes and orienting in the room in present time.

With such re-orientation, and realising they are safe in the here and now, clients will usually choose to return to the clay and continue their process, so as to complete the necessary action cycles which can bring the nervous system out of shock/freeze or shut-down, allowing them to reach a sense of completion and integration.

*Pictured: At the end of a session, a client experiences the felt sense of being centred, still, and at rest within their body.*

How can it help?

A session in the clay creates an opportunity for clients to reconnect with parts of self which may have been suppressed or hidden earlier in life, in order for them to survive. It allows them to fully understand with their body, that whatever has happened in the past, is in the past, and they have indeed survived. In this way they can re-discover and learn to trust in their own ability to heal.

Many clients will leave a session feeling that they have found new solutions to old problems or have reconnected with who they really are. They feel more fully “themselves.” It is common for people to find that unexplained physical symptoms decrease, and old habits or relationship patterns become easier to deal with or change.

Clay Field Therapy® can restore a sense of ease, calm, wholeness and wellbeing.
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For more information on Clay Field and Sensorimotor Art Therapy, go to

https://www.sensorimotorarttherapy.com/clay-field-therapy

*For a detailed discussion on haptic perception see

https://www.sensorimotorarttherapy.com/blog/2019/5/17/haptic-perception-as-i-touch-the-clay