Evaluation of the Impact of Psychomotricity on the Patients Body Experience in Palliative Care

Palliative care is part of a comprehensive approach to the person, in the advanced phase of a serious illness. The purpose of this care is to relieve painful symptoms, to promote comfort and quality of life. In the context of a serious illness, the sick person is confronted with body modifications that have an impact on his body experience, that is, on his feelings and on the image that he has of his body. Psychomotricity is a paramedical discipline that focuses on body-psyche links. The psychomotor therapist is authorized to take care of psychomotor disorders, as defined in the decree of competences. These psychomotor disorders appear in connection with the evolution of the serious illness and the presence of symptoms in these patients (ex: disorders of the tonic regulation, psychomotor disharmony, disorders of the representation of the body, etc.). In palliative care, the psychomotor therapist seeks to regulate these psychomotor disorders and thus to promote a more satisfying physical experience in the patient, through the use of different bodily approaches. Several studies have shown the beneficial effects of touching and moving the body in cancer patients, but no work evaluating the effects of the psychomotor approach (involving various body mediations) on the body experience of patients with cancer in palliative situation