Clay Field Therapy

Sensorimotor Art Therapy in Guelph:

Somatic Healing:
Work at the Clay Field ®

At Solis, we recognize that for many children, the most profound experiences happen before they have the words to describe them. If your child struggles with traditional talk therapy, or if you feel they are stuck in certain behaviours, Work at the Clay Field® offers a transformative, body-based path to healing.

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What is the Clay Field?

This is a specialized sensorimotor intervention. The clay field consists of a shallow wooden box filled with clay and a bowl of water. Guided by a trained clinical professional, the child interacts with the clay through touch and movement. Because the hands are directly linked to the brain’s emotional and sensory centers, this haptic experience through touching, digging, shaping, or flattening the clay offers children and youth a bottom up approach to express their internal world through movement and sensation without the pressure to use words.

Healing Developmental
& Pre-Verbal Trauma

When stress or trauma occurs during fetal development/in-utero, infancy or early childhood, before a child has language, it becomes locked in the nervous system. This can often stall or halt key developmental milestones, leading to:

Difficulties with emotional regulation and frequent meltdowns
Sensory processing challenges or being easily triggered
Gaps in motor skills or a lack of physical groundedness

Because the Clay Field is a haptic (touch-based) therapy, it bypasses the verbal brain and speaks directly to the nervous system. It allows children to physically work through early survival instincts and experiences, completing movements like reaching or pushing away that may have been interrupted by past trauma.

Learn more about Clay Field Therapy

Inside a Session: The Language of the Hands

It can be hard to imagine how therapy with clay can be therapeutic until you see it in action. We invite you to watch this short video by Cornelia Elbrecht, which offers a glimpse into the quiet, powerful world of the Clay Field.

This video beautifully illustrates how we use the clay to help children feel safe, capable, and regulated.

This video reflects the original language of the international Clay Field Therapy training program. Some terminology may differ from the language commonly used in current clinical practice, but the core philosophy remains one of curiosity, connection, sensory integration and supporting children through compassionate, developmentally informed care.

Questions You May Have as a Parent(s)/Caregiver(s)

Choosing the right therapeutic approach for your child can be a big and overwhelming decision, especially when traditional methods haven't felt like the right fit, or you're not noticing progress despite consistent efforts. Many parents come to us feeling a bit stuck, perhaps because their child struggles to put big feelings into words or is dealing with experiences that happened before they could speak.

Work at the Clay Field® is a somatic, or bottom-up approach that honours the connection between the body and the brain. We understand that you may have questions about how a haptic/tactile experience like clay can lead to emotional and developmental growth. Below, we have answered some common questions to help you determine if this body-centered path is the right support for your child’s unique journey toward wellbeing.

Who can benefit from Clay Field Therapy?

This approach is an evidence-informed sensorimotor (body-based) intervention used with children and teens experiencing a wide range of emotional, behavioural, and developmental challenges, including:

Developmental or Complex Trauma Histories:
- Including childhood sexual abuse (CSA), physical abuse, ongoing neglect concerns, ongoing exposure to domestic violence/ gender-based violence.
Early Attachment Issues:
- Disruptions in the primary bond at birth, separated due to medical concerns, separation to foster care or adoption.
Pre-Verbal Trauma:
- Stressors that occurred before the child had the language to process them (0–3 years old).
Medical Trauma:
- Experiences related to surgeries, prolonged hospitalizations, or chronic illness.
Anxiety and ADHD Symptoms:
- Challenges with restlessness, hyper-vigilance, or a constant "fight or flight" response.
Sensory Integration Challenges:
- Difficulty processing environmental stimuli or feeling disconnected from one's own body.
Difficulties with Impulse Control:
- Struggling to manage big emotions, physical outbursts, or boundary-setting.
Single Traumatic Events:
- Accidents, natural disasters, or witnessing a frightening event.

How is this different than other therapies?

Repairing Stalled Milestones

When a child is in a state of fight, flight or freeze due to trauma, their brain stops prioritizing developmental milestones like fine motor skills or social-emotional regulation.

In talk therapy, we might try to teach a child how to calm, or rationalize their experience through cognitive processing. However, this requires the pre-frontal cortex, that may not be online for children, this may look like talk therapies are not working.
In the Clay Field, the rhythmic, repetitive sensory experience naturally regulates the nervous system, without words or rationalizing/cognitive processing. This creates the safety the brain needs to "restart" those stalled developmental processes.

What if I don't know exactly what happened to my child?

We don’t need the story to support the healing.

One of the most supportive aspects of this therapy for parents is that we do not need to know the specific details of a trauma to treat it.

Pre-Verbal Memories: Trauma that occurs in infancy or early childhood is stored as physical sensations (tightness, heat, a sense of "collapse") rather than a narrative story.

The Body Remembers: Even if a child cannot remember an event, their nervous system does. In the Clay Field, these "body memories" emerge through the hands.
Resolution through Action: Instead of talking about the past, the child uses the clay to complete the physical impulses that were once frozen—like pushing away, reaching out, or creating a safe boundary. The healing happens through the physical act of doing, not the verbal act of telling