Psychosensory Therapy

Sensory input affects our emotions. For example, a person can experience exhilaration when listening to music, longing when hearing an old familiar song, or pleasure when being massaged. For example, novelist Marcel Proust's journey as described in Remembrance of Things Past began with the sensation of a spoonful of tea and madeleine pastry:

How does sensory input produce this extrasensory response? An extrasensory response is those feelings that arise unbidden and are outside the properties of the sense receptors. Touch, for example, is perceived through receptors imbedded in the skin that measure pressure, position, pain, temperature, texture, and movement. But being held by a person one loves evokes a sensation beyond perception. Whether smelling the chicken soup wafting from a restaurant, stroking a pet, or enjoying a beautiful sunset, all senses can evoke responses beyond those of simple sensory input. In general, people take for granted all that happens to them during their hectic daily routines, and many miss the opportunity to use what is sensed to create happiness and calm—literally not stopping for that moment to “smell the roses.” From whence arises this emotion? Although the mechanisms by which sensory input produces these extrasensory responses are not well understood, it must somehow involve the “meaning,” learned or innate, of the input to the organism. But can sensory input be used therapeutically? This entry describes a group of techniques called psychosensory therapy, the application of sensory input to treat symptoms, behaviors, mood, and thinking.

Some psychosensory therapies produce a permanent change, whereas others require long-term maintenance therapy. A partial list of the psychosensory therapies follows.