Emotorics · Atlas

1. Introduction

Version followed: Emotorics-EBMMP (Emotive Body-Movement-Mind Paradigm) of Yona Shahar-Levy, as set out in her chapter "Emotorics: A psychomotor model for the analysis and interpretation of emotive motor behavior" (Chaiklin & Wengrower, The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy, 1st ed. 2009, pp. 265–297; chapter 15 of the 2nd ed., Routledge 2016) and her chapter "Development and body memory: Emotorics" (Body Memory, Metaphor and Movement, John Benjamins 2012, ch. 20, pp. 327–340). Earlier name: BMMP (Body-Movement-Mind Paradigm; Hebrew author's editions 1996/2001, revised and enlarged 2nd ed. 2004). Her 2017 Hebrew book is titled Emotorica. Papers by her trainees also spell it "EpiMotorics"/"Epimotorics" and the author "Shachar-Levy". Documented in published sources: the chapters' titles, placement and abstract/keywords (Routledge contents page; Benjamins chapter page); the model's three-level structure (Israel Dance Diaries article); and the five-phase self-supervision model and its coding procedure (Shalem-Zafari's 2019 doctoral thesis, which used a scale Shahar-Levy adapted for it). Not publicly available: the full text of both chapters and of her Hebrew books. The coding categories and interpretive rules below are therefore reconstructed from papers by people trained in the method [uncertain].

What it is. Emotorics is a developmental, psychoanalytic and psychomotor model for observing, analysing and interpreting "emotive-motor behaviour". It treats the motor system as the physical executor of the self's drives, emotions, perception and relationships, seen developmentally [source: Israel Dance Diaries DT24; Studia UBB 2017]. It has three levels: a theoretical level; a "core-grammar" of emotive movement built on specific psychomotor diagnostic indexes; and a level of derived clinical implications [source: Israel Dance Diaries DT24]. Its author is an Israeli dance/movement therapist (DMT) and movement analyst. The method is used by DMTs, psychologists, educators and researchers, and is taught in DMT training programmes in Israel and several European countries [source: Israel Dance Diaries DT24; Shalem-Zafari 2019]. In the Routledge DMT textbook it sits in the part on tools integral to practice, beside Laban analysis and the Kestenberg Movement Profile [source: Routledge contents page]. Emotorics is a framework for movement analysis and interpretation, not a manualised treatment protocol. No session-by-session treatment manual appears in the published sources [uncertain], so it should not be presented as a manualised protocol. The only documented step-by-step procedure built on it is a five-phase self-supervision model for therapists (4.12).

How change happens (the model's view). Shahar-Levy holds the following:

Feelings, drives, conflicts and defences steer the moving body: whether it moves or stops, shows or hides feeling, takes initiative or stays passive.
From the start of life the body stores experience in coded form, as muscle tension and movement forms.
When a state of tension recurs or persists, it becomes an "emotive-motor memory cluster". This is a habitual pattern that narrows a person's emotional range [source: Skrzypek diss., citing Shahar-Levy 2001a, 2004, 2009, 2012].
Human anatomy supplies universal "binary core potentials". In a given person each potential can be dormant, partly actualised or fully actualised [source: European Proceedings 2018; Studia UBB 2017].

Therapy therefore aims to make a person's dominant, missing and blocked potentials visible, give them meaning, and widen the movement-emotional range by reactivating dormant potentials and their transitions. This aim is inferred from the assessment logic and the "reactivatable" notation; it is not stated as a treatment theory in the publicly available primary material [synthesis] [uncertain]. Two further parts of her own framing are documented, but only in outline. First, a typology of relational space that separates "the parental envelope space" from "the open interpersonal space" (keywords of the 2012 chapter) [source: Benjamins chapter page]. Second, the use of metaphor and imagery to bring unconscious content up through movement (Shahar-Levy 2017, as cited by Shalem-Zafari 2019) [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. How she applies either in session is not described in the available sources [uncertain].

2. Framework

What the sources document [source: Studia UBB 2017; European Proceedings 2018; Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]:

Format. Movement is filmed, typically before and after an intervention; in the main published study, two fixed cameras that did not move, coding only segments where most of the body was visible [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. The film is cut into smaller movement phrases. Two trained raters code each phrase, and inter-rater agreement is checked (intraclass correlation, above 0.75 taken as high) [source: Studia UBB 2017; Shalem-Zafari 2019].
Coding. Phrases are coded on the Matrix of Binary Core-Potentials. In the 2018 pilot each of 44 indicators was rated 0 (dormant), 1 (actualisation potential), 2 (partial actualisation) or 3 (complete actualisation); the 2019 main study used 12 features (six pairs, see 4.4) [source: European Proceedings 2018; Shalem-Zafari 2019].
Profile. The coding produces a movement profile of the person's physical-emotional world. In the BMMS adaptation the profile is drawn as a matrix plus a circular diagram and read in four steps (see 4.7) [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS].
Interpretation. The profile is read against the person's environment and against the universal biological characteristics of emotive-motor behaviour [source: Studia UBB 2017].
Clinical contexts reported. DMT; self-supervision for therapists (4.12; pilot workshop at the 7th Expressive Arts Therapies Summit, New York, 2016; main study with 36 novice DMTs and 36 controls); observing patients with schizophrenia in music therapy [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019; Skrzypek 2017 BMMS].

Not given in the published sources on the method (the Routledge contents, the Benjamins chapter page, an Israeli DMT history article and a doctoral thesis that used the method) [uncertain]: a set number of sessions, treatment phases with entry and exit criteria, or a treatment manual. The only documented session structure is the five-phase self-supervision model (4.12), and even there the number of repetitions is not stated. The phases below are therefore my own working frame.

Working framework for a clinician [synthesis; it follows the model's assessment-to-re-assessment logic]:

Phase A, observation and profile (1–3 sessions).
- Goal: a baseline profile.
- Format: free or semi-structured movement, filmed with written consent, coded on the binary matrix.
- Move on when you can name the dominant poles, the dormant poles, the main blocked or fragmented transitions and at least one recurring cluster.
Phase B, formulation (1 session, with the client).
- Goal: link the profile to the client's history, relationships and current difficulty as a tentative hypothesis.
- Move on when the client recognises at least one pattern as "theirs" and agrees which pole or transition to explore.
Phase C, graded movement work (about 6–20 weekly sessions of 50–60 minutes, individual or group).
- Goal: activate dormant potentials and practise flowing transitions while staying within the client's tolerance, and talk through what emerges.
- Move on when the targeted potential appears spontaneously, without prompting, and the client can name the feelings that go with it.
Phase D, re-assessment (1–2 sessions).
- Goal: re-film and re-code, compare pre and post, and consolidate or set a new target.

3. Guiding principles

[source for the first nine principles: Skrzypek diss., citing Shahar-Levy 2001a/b, 2004, 2009, 2012; jbe-platform chapter page 2012]

The body is the first ground of selfhood. It is the physical basis of primary self-experience and the first reference point to self, others and world. In practice: treat movement as primary clinical data, not as an illustration of what is said.
Psychic forces steer movement. Feelings, motivations, drives, conflicts and defences decide whether the body moves or stops, expresses or hides, initiates or waits. In practice: read stopping, hiding and passivity as meaningful, not as "nothing happening".
Universal structure, individual variation. Joint structure, muscle organisation and the hierarchy of spine and limbs set a universal "potential space". Each person's patterns vary within it. In practice: judge a pattern against the full human range, not against the therapist's own style.
Joints let impulses through or stop them. This allows motor flow or blockage, and widening or narrowing of the kinesphere (personal movement space). In practice: watch the joints and the size of the kinesphere for where flow stops.
Development proceeds outward. Infant motor development activates biological potentials for gradual expansion from the body into surrounding space. Movement goes out from the body and back toward it. In practice: sequence work from near-body to far space.
The body remembers. Memories are stored as muscle tension and movement forms. Recurring or persistent tension becomes an emotive-motor memory cluster that narrows emotional range. In practice: treat a chronic, repeated pattern as a possible memory trace, not as a habit to correct.
Body behaviour can "replay" early experience. Behaviour that seems unrelated to the present context may replay early memories. Interpretation is a "tentative reconstruction of the subjective meaning" of evoked fragments (2012 chapter). In practice: offer meanings as hypotheses and never assert them.
Biological-relational prototypes. Motor patterns and emotive body language develop from core biological-relational prototypes. In practice: read movement relationally, for example reaching, withdrawing or holding.
Movement shows the present state. Body and movement reflect physical and psychic states in the present moment. In practice: re-observe every session; a profile is a snapshot, not a trait.
Read in binary pairs. A measure is read together with its opposite, because a change on one side of a pair affects the other [source: Studia UBB 2017]. In practice: for each target, ask what is happening at the opposite pole.
Read conglomerations. Measures combine into meaningful clusters. Example: indirect movement plus inward direction may reflect a wish to withdraw from interaction [source: Studia UBB 2017]. In practice: interpret combinations, never a single feature.
Read in context. Profiles are interpreted in light of the person's environment and of universal biology [source: Studia UBB 2017]. In practice: take culture, setting, physical condition and medication into account before inferring psychic meaning [synthesis].
Dominance shows in presence or absence. A potential can dominate by being prominent or by being entirely absent [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]. In practice: a missing pole is as important a finding as an exaggerated one.
Dormant is not lost. A temporarily inactive potential can be reactivated under the right conditions [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]. In practice: frame targets as "not yet available" rather than as deficits [synthesis].
Transitions carry meaning. Transitions between poles are classed as flowing, blocked, fragmented or complementary [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]. In practice: often the target is the movement between poles, not a pole itself [synthesis].
Describe before you interpret. The BMMS adaptation is explicitly descriptive, while Shahar-Levy's model goes on to interpretation [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]. In practice: code first and interpret only afterwards, ideally with a second rater [synthesis].
Words and movement inform each other. DMT works on the interplay of cognition (words) and emotion (movement) [source: European Proceedings 2018]. In practice: close each movement sequence with verbal processing.

Description protects against projection. A shared descriptive movement vocabulary helps the therapist avoid projecting their own thoughts and feelings onto the client's material [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. In practice: write down what you see in Emotorics terms before you write what you think it means.
Relational space matters. Her typology separates the parental envelope space from the open interpersonal space [source: Benjamins chapter page, keywords only]. In practice: note whether a pattern appears in close, held space near you or out in open shared space [synthesis] [uncertain].

4. Intervention inventory

How this section is organised. The documented Emotorics procedures are observation, coding and interpretation (4.1–4.10), plus three reported uses (4.11–4.13). Of these, only the self-supervision model (4.12) has a published step structure. The movement interventions in Part C (4.14–4.22) are not part of published Emotorics. 4.14–4.18 are my own derivations from Emotorics concepts [synthesis]. 4.19–4.20 are general DMT techniques from Shafir (2016), which does not mention Emotorics. 4.22 is a generic closing step. A posture-correction item formerly at 4.21 was removed because it contradicts the model. Use Part C only as optional adjuncts, and describe it that way to clients and supervisors.

No Emotorics procedure in the sources uses touch. If you add touch:

Explain first, ask, offer a no-touch alternative, agree a stop signal, and check in during and after [synthesis].
Touch requires specific training and supervision, and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow.

A. Documented observation and analysis procedures

4.1 Filmed movement sample

Purpose: to get raw material for coding. Use it at baseline and at re-assessment [source: Studia UBB 2017; European Proceedings 2018; Shalem-Zafari 2019].
Steps:
- Get written consent for filming, covering storage, who sees the film and when it will be deleted [synthesis].
- Fix the camera so most of the body and the movement space are in frame. The published study used two fixed cameras that did not move and coded only segments where most of the body was visible [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019].
- Give a constant prompt, such as free improvisation or a set movement task. The same prompt must be used pre and post, so the comparison holds [synthesis].
- Film a few minutes. The self-supervision study used a 7-minute eyes-closed improvisation (4.12), and its pilot analysed only the beginning and end segments [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. No standard duration for clinical samples was found [uncertain].
- Close the sample with a brief verbal check-in.
Example language (illustrative): "For the next few minutes, move in whatever way your body wants. There is no right way. I'll film so we can look at it together later."
Watch for: self-consciousness about the camera, which itself changes movement. Note it as data, and consider a warm-up first [synthesis].

4.2 Segmenting into phrases

Purpose: to break the stream into codable units [source: Studia UBB 2017].
Steps:
- Watch the film through once without coding.
- Mark phrase boundaries where movement starts, stops or changes quality.
- Number the phrases.
Watch for: phrases that are too long and blur transitions. Transitions are coded separately (4.6).

4.3 Visible-movement check

Purpose: the first analytic question is whether visible movement occurs at all [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS].
Steps:
- For each phrase or body part, note whether it moves visibly.
- Code stillness as stillness. Stopping is itself psychically steered (principle 2).
Watch for: stillness that is held through tension rather than through rest. Distinguish the two by the energy modifiers (4.4).

4.4 Coding movement modifiers on the Matrix of Binary Core-Potentials

Purpose: the core descriptive step [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS Table 3; Skrzypek diss.; European Proceedings 2018; Studia UBB 2017; Shalem-Zafari 2019].
Steps: for each phrase, record which pole of each pair is active. Pairs named in the sources:
- Energy: muscle tone; relaxation versus contraction; low versus high intensity; tension and force.
- Form and space:
  - relation of body parts to the body centre and axis;
  - trunk–limb activation and joint activity;
  - inward versus outward direction;
  - archetypal body shapes (round-curved versus straight-linear);
  - horizontal versus vertical alignment;
  - pro-gravity versus counter-gravity;
  - wide range and extension;
  - symmetry and rotation;
  - emotive-motor discharge.
- Tempo: quick versus slow.
- Regulation and modulation:
  - fragmented versus continuous;
  - transition versus fixation;
  - repetition versus variation;
  - direct versus indirect;
  - differentiation, intentionality and type of attention;
  - motor inhibition and regulated progression;
  - oscillation shifts and vibration (wavy movement).
- Number of measures: the 2018 pilot examined 44 features. Shalem-Zafari's 2019 main study used 12, as six pairs: inward/outward, round/straight, horizontal/vertical, quick/slow, fragmentary/continuous, indirect/direct. Shahar-Levy translated and adapted the scale from Hebrew for that study [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. The full official list and its definitions are in the primary texts, which are not publicly available [uncertain].
Watch for: coding your expectations. Code blind to history where possible, and use a second rater [synthesis]. In the pilot, vibration or wavy movement was hard to identify on video [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019].

4.5 Rating actualisation (0–3)

Purpose: to grade how available each potential is [source: European Proceedings 2018].
Steps: rate each indicator as follows.
- 0 = dormant
- 1 = actualisation potential
- 2 = partial actualisation
- 3 = complete actualisation
Watch for: confusing a score of 0 with an inability caused by physical limitation. Check medical and motor status first [synthesis].

4.6 Circle-diagram profile (BMMS notation)

Purpose: to make the profile visible at a glance. This is Skrzypek's BMMS rendering, built on Emotorics. Shahar-Levy's own diagram conventions may differ [uncertain].
Steps [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS]:
- Draw each pair as P0 (small circle, inner ring) and P1 (larger circle, outer ring).
- Mark a temporarily inactive potential with a small dot.
- Mark dominance: red circle for P0, red rectangle for P1. Dominance can come from prominence or from total absence.
- Code each transition as flowing, blocked, fragmented or complementary, and note any interweaving.
- Draw coloured lines for clusters, meaning recurring patterns.

4.7 Four-step profile reading

Purpose: to read the profile systematically [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS].
Steps:
1. Highlight the active potentials.
2. Determine which potentials are dominant, and whether they dominate by prominence or by absence.
3. Examine transitions and interweaving.
4. Examine clustering.
Example finding (from the source case): a cluster of trunk contraction plus high intensity, with fragmented transitions across several pairs.

4.8 Conglomeration and contextual interpretation

Purpose: to move from description to meaning [source: Studia UBB 2017; Skrzypek diss.].
Steps:
- Read pairs together.
- Look for combinations (for example, indirect plus inward suggesting a wish to withdraw).
- Relate them to the client's environment, history and relational patterns.
- Check them against universal biological characteristics.
- Write the result as hypotheses [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "When you moved toward the edge of the room your movements curved inward and became less direct. I wonder whether something in you pulls back when you get close to contact. Does that fit at all?"
Watch for: over-interpretation. Keep any meaning the client does not recognise provisional.

4.9 Two-rater coding

Purpose: reliability [source: Studia UBB 2017; Shalem-Zafari 2019].
Steps:
- A second trained rater codes the same phrases independently.
- Check agreement. The published study used the intraclass correlation and took values above 0.75 as high reliability [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019].
- Compare the codes and discuss any discrepancies before interpreting.
Watch for: outward and continuous movement had the lowest agreement in that study (0.62 after the intervention), so check those codes with particular care [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]. If no second rater is available, code the film again after a delay [synthesis].

4.10 Pre/post comparison

Purpose: to track change [source: European Proceedings 2018; Studia UBB 2017].
Steps:
- Re-film with the same prompt (4.1).
- Re-code and re-rate.
- Compare the scores on the targeted pairs. The study used Wilcoxon tests for its small sample; a clinician can simply compare profiles side by side.
How you know it's working: targeted dormant potentials are rated higher, and transitions move from blocked or fragmented toward flowing [synthesis].

B. Documented clinical uses

4.11 Reading "replayed" body memories in session

Purpose: to notice and tentatively interpret body behaviour that seems unrelated to the present context and may replay early memories. The 2012 chapter presents her own diary episodes of such behaviour, each followed by her reflection within the Emotorics typology [source: Benjamins chapter page; jbe-platform chapter page, Shahar-Levy 2012].
Steps:
- When an incongruent movement appears, note it without interrupting. Examples: a sudden curling, a repeated gesture, a freeze that does not fit what is happening.
- Write it down after the session in a professional diary, as Shahar-Levy did.
- Code it with the typology: which core motor-prototype, modifiers and memory cluster it shows, and whether it occurs in close "parental envelope" space or open interpersonal space (typology terms from the chapter's keywords; how she applies them is not described in the available sources) [source: Benjamins chapter page] [uncertain].
- Reflect on its possible developmental and relational meaning.
- Offer the meaning to the client tentatively, or hold it, depending on the alliance [synthesis].
- Her detailed procedure is in her chapter, whose full text is not publicly available [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "Just now, while you were talking about your sister, your hands folded in toward your chest. Would you like to stay with that movement for a moment and see what it's like?"
Watch for: a sudden change in state, such as a glazed look or loss of contact. That signals possible traumatic re-experiencing, so move to grounding (section 5) [synthesis].

4.12 Self-supervision: Authentic Movement plus Emotorics

Purpose: a structured self-supervision procedure that therapists, especially novices, can use between supervision sessions. It links bodily experience of a clinical situation with verbal-cognitive understanding, and complements rather than replaces ordinary supervision [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019; Studia UBB 2017]. It was piloted as a workshop at the 7th Expressive Arts Therapies Summit, New York, 2016.
Steps: five phases, paraphrased from the thesis's table [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019]:
- Phase 1, identify the subject (pen and paper, as long as needed): write the clinical event or presenting problem in no more than one page.
- Phase 2, movement warm-up (movement equipment, music optional): get to know the space, connect with the body, and let your state shift toward the subject.
- Phase 3, "allowing the moment to move you" (7 minutes; filming optional): with eyes closed, imagine the situation in detail, wait for an urge to move, then improvise as a free association in movement.
- Phase 4, self-witnessing (no time limit): first describe the movement in Emotorics vocabulary (therapists without DMT training may use another movement language), then free-write one sentence in the first person singular.
- Phase 5, observation and evaluation (no time limit): reread your texts, write thoughts about the patient, yourself and the relationship, write one sentence in the first person plural, then connect both sentences to the Emotorics description.
- If filmed, two raters can code the film (4.2–4.9) and compare it with a later sample (4.10).
- The thesis does not say how often or for how long the model is repeated [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "Write down the moment with the client that stays with you... Now close your eyes, picture it in detail, and wait until something in your body wants to move."
Watch for: the phase-4 description sliding into interpretation; keep it descriptive first. The studies were small (pilot of six or fewer; main study 36 novice therapists against 36 controls), so do not treat profile change as validated outcome evidence. The earlier paper describes an Authentic Movement mover–witness format, while the thesis table describes solo self-witnessing; say which you are using [synthesis].

4.13 Emotorics observation within music therapy (BMMS)

Purpose: to add body and movement observation where musical observation alone is not enough. It was used with patients with schizophrenia [source: Skrzypek 2017 BMMS; Skrzypek diss.].
Steps:
- Film the music therapy session.
- Select sequences.
- Code contact readiness, posture and playing movement with the modifiers.
- Build the profile descriptively, without interpreting.

C. Adjunct movement interventions (NOT part of published Emotorics: own derivations or general DMT, tagged)

4.14 Pole-to-pole exploration of a binary pair [synthesis]

Purpose: to make a dormant pole available by starting from the client's dominant pole. Use it after the profile shows one pole dominating and its partner at 0–1.
Steps:
- The client stands or sits comfortably.
- Invite them to amplify the familiar pole for 1–2 minutes. Example: contracting, making small, moving inward.
- Ask them to reduce it by half.
- Invite the smallest possible step toward the other pole. Example: one hand opening outward.
- Alternate several times at the client's pace.
- Stop. The client notices sensation and feeling, then puts it into words.
Example language (illustrative): "Let the curling-in get a little bigger... now half as much... now just let one hand find its way out, as little as you like. What happens inside when it does?"
Watch for: the new pole appearing without prompting, and the client linking feeling to it. Sharp anxiety or a quick return to the dominant pole means you should slow down.

4.15 Transition practice (fragmented or blocked to flowing) [synthesis]

Purpose: to work the movement between poles where the profile shows blocked or fragmented transitions.
Steps:
- Choose two poles the client can already do, for example quick and slow.
- Ask them to move from one to the other over a slow count, then over a faster one.
- Then without counting, letting the change happen on its own.
- Talk through where the change catches.
Watch for: freezes at the same point in the transition. Explore what feeling sits there.

4.16 Graded kinesphere expansion [synthesis, based on Shahar-Levy's developmental principle via Skrzypek diss.]

Purpose: to widen a narrow personal space, following the outward developmental sequence.
Steps:
- Start with movement close to the body, for example breathing into the hands.
- Progress to mid-reach: arm's length while seated.
- Then far-reach: standing, stepping, travelling.
- Return to the body each time. Movement goes out and comes back.
- Let the client set the edge they can tolerate.
Example language (illustrative): "Reach out only as far as still feels like yours... and bring it back home."

4.17 Centre-to-periphery and trunk–limb sequencing [synthesis]

Purpose: to address a split between trunk and limbs, such as limbs moving while the trunk stays held, or a weak link between centre and axis.
Steps:
- Begin by letting a small movement start in the spine or trunk.
- Let it travel out to the shoulders, arms and hands, or the hips, legs and feet, and back again.
- Repeat slowly.
Watch for: joints where the movement stops. Shahar-Levy treats joints as passing or stopping motor impulses.

4.18 Modulating tempo, repetition and variation [synthesis]

Purpose: to loosen fixation, meaning a repetitive pattern that does not vary.
Steps:
- Mirror the client's repeated movement first.
- Then introduce one change at a time: speed, size, direction or body part.
- Ask what changes in feeling.
Watch for: relief, or alternatively loss of a self-soothing function. If the repetition regulates the client, keep it available.

4.19 Mirroring and attunement [source: Shafir 2016 – general DMT, not Emotorics-specific]

Purpose: to sense the client's emotional state and offer support.
Steps:
- Move beside or facing the client and reflect their movement qualities, not an exact copy [synthesis].
- Alternatively, imagine performing their movements yourself to deepen empathic resonance.
Watch for: discomfort at being copied. Reduce the mirroring to subtle matching of qualities.

4.20 Embodying a problem or attitude [source: Shafir 2016 citing Bernstein 1995 and Mills & Daniluk 2002 – general DMT]

Purpose: to find and process the feelings around a problem or relationship.
Steps:
- Invite an improvisation of the problem, then of a possible solution, or of the client's attitude toward the person.
- Code which poles appear (4.4) [synthesis].
- Talk it through.
Example language (illustrative): "Show me in movement how it feels when your manager walks in."

4.21 Not used: posture cueing

Posture cueing from general DMT (head up, chest open, between-session practice; Shafir 2016) is deliberately left out of this guide, because it corrects a pattern toward a norm. Emotorics reads chronic patterns as possible memory traces to understand, not habits to correct (principle 6).

4.22 Verbal processing after movement [source: European Proceedings 2018, cognition–emotion interplay; steps synthesis]

Purpose: to connect movement experience with words. Close every movement intervention this way.
Steps:
- Pause in stillness for about 30 seconds.
- Ask for sensation first, then feeling, then images or memories.
- Then ask for the link to current life.
- Note the client's own words for the pattern.
Example language (illustrative): "What did you notice in your body? ... and what feeling came with it? ... does it remind you of anything?"

Note on emotive-motor discharge. Emotorics codes discharge as a form/space modifier. No source describes it as deliberately induced. If you invite cathartic discharge such as hitting cushions, stamping or loud sound, screen first and exclude these clients [synthesis]:

pregnancy;
cardiovascular or respiratory illness;
epilepsy;
recent injury or surgery;
psychosis;
severe dissociation;
active suicidality;
recent trauma without stabilisation.

Keep it brief, and finish with regulation (4.16 returning toward the body, then 4.22).

5. Handling problems

Neither the published sources on the method nor Shahar-Levy's published abstracts address clinical difficulties, so all guidance in this section is [synthesis], grounded in Emotorics principles where noted. One safeguard is documented: describing movement in the shared vocabulary before interpreting is meant to reduce the therapist's projection [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019].

Stuck client: the profile does not change, or the same cluster keeps returning.
- Respect the cluster first. In the model it may hold a stored memory (principle 6).
- Shift the target from a pole to a transition (4.15), or to a smaller unit: one joint, one body part.
- Re-check whether the "dormant" pole is physically limited (pain, medication, neurological condition) rather than psychically held.
- Invite the client to amplify the stuck pattern itself (4.14). It often loosens once it is made deliberate.
Resistance to moving, or self-consciousness.
- Treat stopping and hiding as meaningful (principle 2).
- Work seated and in small movements. Start with a hand or the breath.
- Postpone filming. Let the client choose music or silence.
- Name it gently. Illustrative: "Not moving is also something your body is doing. What is it like to stay still?"
Overwhelm, flooding or dissociation (for example during 4.11 or 4.14).
- Stop the exploration.
- Orient: eyes open, name objects in the room, feel the feet on the floor.
- Return to near-body, continuous, slow movement (4.16, inward phase).
- Lengthen the verbal processing (4.22).
- At the next session, agree a stop signal and work at lower intensity.
- If dissociation is frequent, stabilise before any memory-oriented work.
Non-adherence to between-session practice. Emotorics itself prescribes no homework.
- Reduce practice to a single noticing task, such as noticing when the chest collapses.
- Or drop it and keep the work in session.
Ruptures, for example the client feels "read", judged or exposed by the analysis.
- Acknowledge the power imbalance of being observed and coded.
- Share the profile collaboratively, as hypotheses (principle 7).
- Invite correction, and drop any interpretation the client rejects.
- Repair openly. Illustrative: "I may have said too much about what your movement means. You know your experience better than any chart does."
Modality-specific difficulties.
1. Over-interpretation. A single feature is never read alone (principle 11). Code before interpreting, and use a second rater or a delayed re-code.
2. Cultural and contextual bias. Gaze, space, directness and expansiveness have cultural norms. Read the profile in context (principle 12).
3. Medical confounds. Neuroleptics, pain, motor disorders and fatigue change tone, tempo and range. Take a medical and motor history before Phase A, and liaise with the physician when needed.
4. Video data. Get written consent for recording, storage, access and deletion, and store files securely under local data-protection law.
5. Psychosis. The model has been used observationally with patients with schizophrenia. Keep movement structured, reality-oriented and short, and avoid open-ended regression or memory work.
6. Suicidality. If risk emerges, pause the movement work. Do a standard risk assessment and safety planning, including lethal-means counselling about secure storage and removal, and involve crisis services as indicated.
7. Training gap. Emotorics coding needs specific training. It is taught in DMT training programmes in Israel and several European countries; for example, a graduate of her teacher training (2006–2010) has taught a course on the Body-Movement-Mind Paradigm at David Yellin College since 2008 [source: Shalem-Zafari 2019 thesis and CV]. Check current programmes directly before relying on this [uncertain]. Until trained, use only the descriptive steps (4.1–4.7), and get supervision before interpreting.

Sources

Web sources

Primary works cited (full text not publicly available) [uncertain]

Shahar-Levy, Y. (1996/2001a). A Body-Movement-Mind Paradigm (BMMP): Analysis and interpretation of emotive(-relational) movement. Jerusalem: author's edition (Hebrew).
Shahar-Levy, Y. (2001b). The function of the human motor system in processes of storing and retrieving preverbal, primal experience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 21, 378–393.
Shahar-Levy, Y. (2004). The visible body reveals the secrets of the mind: A Body-Movement-Mind Paradigm (BMMP) for the analysis and interpretation of emotive movement and movement therapy (revised and enlarged 2nd ed.; Hebrew title MeHaguf Hagalui Lesipur Hanefesh Hasamui). Jerusalem: Printiv (Hebrew).
Shahar-Levy, Y. (2009). Emotorics: A psychomotor model for the analysis and interpretation of emotive motor behavior. In S. Chaiklin & H. Wengrower (Eds.), The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy: Life Is Dance (pp. 265–297). Routledge. Chapter 15 in the 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2016; 2nd-ed. pages not confirmed).
Shahar-Levy, Y. (2012). Development and body memory: Emotorics. In S. C. Koch, T. Fuchs, M. Summa & C. Müller (Eds.), Body Memory, Metaphor and Movement (ch. 20, pp. 327–340). John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/aicr.84.24sha
Shahar-Levy, Y. (2017). Emotorica: A body-movement-mind paradigm for studying emotional movement (Hebrew).
Shahar-Levy, Y. (198-?). The mechanism of part-into-whole re-activation in psychophysical functioning: A case study. Master's thesis, Antioch New England Graduate School.

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