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.
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.