Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-oriented approach to healing trauma and attachment difficulties. By working with physical sensation, movement and posture alongside thoughts and emotions, this method addresses what traditional talking therapies often miss: the way painful experiences become held in the body itself.
What is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy?
Your body remembers what your mind may struggle to articulate. Perhaps you have noticed tension creeping into your shoulders before a difficult conversation, or felt your stomach tighten when recalling a painful memory. These physical responses are not random. They represent the body’s own language of experience, one that conventional talking therapies often overlook.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy offers a different path. Developed by Dr Pat Ogden, this approach works directly with what your body holds, integrating physical sensation, movement, and posture into the therapeutic process. Rather than simply discussing past experiences, you learn to notice and work with the bodily patterns that keep old wounds alive in the present moment.
Research in Ireland highlights just how widespread trauma exposure is. A landmark study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found that over 82% of Irish adults have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, with approximately one in eight meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD or Complex PTSD. Yet many people carry the weight of these experiences without ever connecting their physical symptoms to their emotional history.
Who is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy For?
This approach suits anyone willing to develop awareness of their physical sensations and feeling states. You do not need to be athletic, flexible, or comfortable with your body. In fact, many people come to this work precisely because they feel disconnected from their physical selves.
What matters is a readiness to slow down and pay attention to what arises in the moment, to notice the subtle shifts in your posture, breathing, or muscular tension as you explore your experience. If you can develop this capacity for present-moment awareness, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can offer benefits without requiring you to repeatedly retell distressing stories from your past.
How Does Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Work?
The approach rests on a simple but powerful insight: trauma leaves its fingerprints not just on your thoughts and emotions, but on the very way you hold yourself, breathe, and move through the world. When something frightening happens, your nervous system mobilises to protect you. Sometimes those protective responses become stuck, replaying themselves long after the original threat has passed.
In a Sensorimotor Psychotherapy session, your therapist helps you develop what practitioners call ‘mindful awareness’ of these physical patterns. You might notice the way your jaw clenches when speaking about a particular topic, or how your breathing becomes shallow when certain memories surface. Rather than pushing through these reactions or analysing them from a distance, you learn to work with them directly.
This is not about forcing change. The method trusts in what Dr Ogden calls ‘organicity’, the body’s innate intelligence and capacity for healing. When you create the right conditions, your nervous system can often find its own way back to balance.
What Issues Can Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Address?
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy proves particularly helpful for experiences that seem resistant to traditional talking approaches. This includes both acute traumatic events (a car accident, a sudden loss, an assault) and the subtler but equally impactful wounds of developmental trauma: the chronic neglect, emotional unavailability, or repeated experiences of rejection that shape how you learned to be in the world.
You might find this approach valuable if you experience persistent physical tension or pain without clear medical cause, if you feel disconnected from your body, or if you notice yourself reacting to present situations with an intensity that seems disproportionate. Many people who have tried talk therapy without quite reaching the relief they sought find that adding body awareness to the process makes a meaningful difference.
Typically a session will last 50-60 minutes
What Happens in a Session?
Sessions typically last 50 to 60 minutes. Your therapist will guide you in tracking your physical experience as you speak, helping you notice connections between your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. You might explore small movements, changes in posture, or breathing patterns that feel supportive.
The pace is gentle. Creating a sense of safety within the therapeutic relationship is essential, as this allows the unconscious material held in your body to surface gradually, in ways you can process and integrate. There is no pressure to move faster than feels right for you.
Getting Started with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy at Mind and Body Works
Ireland has a rich history with this approach. It was among the first countries in Europe to host Sensorimotor Psychotherapy training, and skilled practitioners are available throughout the country. At Mind and Body Works, our therapists trained in this modality offer sessions both in person (across Dublin and Galway) and online.
If you have been carrying physical tension, emotional pain, or the lingering effects of difficult experiences, working with a body-oriented approach might offer a new avenue for healing. You can contact your chosen Mind and Body Works therapist directly through our booking system to arrange an appointment.