Psychomotor therapy for individuals with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intellectual functioning presenting anger regulation problems and/or aggressive behaviour: A qualitative study on clients’ experiences

ABSTRACT

Background

Psychomotor therapy (PMT) is often applied in Dutch clinical practice to address aggressive behaviour in individuals with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intellectual functioning. However, the literature on clients’ experiences is lacking.

Methods

An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the semi-structured interviews of seven participants (19–60 years; four male, three female) who completed PMT targeting anger regulation problems.

Results

According to the participants, becoming aware of increasing tension and/or learning to downregulate the tension were the main goals of PMT. They emphasised both the possibility to learn by doing and the therapeutic alliance as essential to create a safe context, where participants can experiment with alternative behaviour. After completing PMT, participants perceived fewer aggressive outbursts and an increased self-esteem.

Conclusions

Participants in our sample experienced PMT as being helpful in targeting anger regulation problems and aggressive behaviour. The experiential nature of the program was perceived as a valuable aspect of PMT.

KEYWORDS:

• Mild intellectual disability
• borderline intellectual functioning
• psychomotor therapy
• anger regulation
• aggressive behaviour
• client experiences

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the residential facilities (Frion, Reinaerde, and Abrona), personal caregivers, and clients for participating in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. All authors have seen and approved the manuscript and agree to the order of authors as listed on the title page.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Dutch Research Council [Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek] (NWO) – Doctoral Grant for Teachers [grant number 023.004.138].