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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment
A book for clinicians and clients to use together that explains key concepts of body psychotherapy.
The body’s intelligence is largely an untapped resource in psychotherapy, yet the story told by the “somatic narrative”-- gesture, posture, prosody, facial expressions, eye gaze, and movement -- is arguably more significant than the story told by the words. The language of the body communicates implicit meanings and reveals the legacy of trauma and of early or forgotten dynamics with attachment figures. To omit the body as a target of therapeutic action is an unfortunate oversight that deprives clients of a vital avenue of self-knowledge and change.
Written for therapists and clients to explore together in therapy, this book is a practical guide to the language of the body. It begins with a section that orients therapists and clients to the volume and how to use it, followed by an overview of the role of the brain and the use of mindfulness. The last three sections are organized according to a phase approach to
developing personal resources, particularly somatic onesutilizing a bottom-up, somatic approach to memoryexploring the impact of attachment on procedural learning, emotional biases, and cognitive distortions.Each chapter is accompanied by a guide to help therapists apply the chapter’s teachings in clinical practice and by worksheets to help clients integrate the material on a personal level.
The concepts, interventions, and worksheets introduced in this book are designed as an adjunct to, and in support of, other methods of treatment rather than as a stand-alone treatment or manualized approach. By drawing on the therapeutic relationship and adjusting interventions to the particular needs of each client, thoughtful attention to what is being spoken beneath the words through the body can heighten the intimacy of the therapist/client journey and help change take place more easily in the hidden recesses of the self.
The body’s intelligence is largely an untapped resource in psychotherapy, yet the story told by the “somatic narrative”-- gesture, posture, prosody, facial expressions, eye gaze, and movement -- is arguably more significant than the story told by the words. The language of the body communicates implicit meanings and reveals the legacy of trauma and of early or forgotten dynamics with attachment figures. To omit the body as a target of therapeutic action is an unfortunate oversight that deprives clients of a vital avenue of self-knowledge and change.
Written for therapists and clients to explore together in therapy, this book is a practical guide to the language of the body. It begins with a section that orients therapists and clients to the volume and how to use it, followed by an overview of the role of the brain and the use of mindfulness. The last three sections are organized according to a phase approach to
developing personal resources, particularly somatic onesutilizing a bottom-up, somatic approach to memoryexploring the impact of attachment on procedural learning, emotional biases, and cognitive distortions.Each chapter is accompanied by a guide to help therapists apply the chapter’s teachings in clinical practice and by worksheets to help clients integrate the material on a personal level.
The concepts, interventions, and worksheets introduced in this book are designed as an adjunct to, and in support of, other methods of treatment rather than as a stand-alone treatment or manualized approach. By drawing on the therapeutic relationship and adjusting interventions to the particular needs of each client, thoughtful attention to what is being spoken beneath the words through the body can heighten the intimacy of the therapist/client journey and help change take place more easily in the hidden recesses of the self.
771 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 28, 2023
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a somatically oriented therapeutic approach developed by Pat Ogden that integrates principles of attachment theory, neuroscience, polyvagal theory, and interpersonal neurobiology (INPB), as well as techniques from therapeutic modalities, including dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), internal family systems (IFS) and somatic experiencing (SE),
If that sounds like a lot.
You’re right.
It totally is.
In fact.
It would be way TOO much if it weren’t so well written.
I could continue.
But suffice it to say.
This book is a clinical tour de force.
Spectacular.
Epic.
5/5 stars ⭐️
If that sounds like a lot.
You’re right.
It totally is.
In fact.
It would be way TOO much if it weren’t so well written.
I could continue.
But suffice it to say.
This book is a clinical tour de force.
Spectacular.
Epic.
5/5 stars ⭐️
September 18, 2020
This book is really good and really long. I actually don't mind the length because the information is solid. There are three reasons I didn't give this a full 5 stars. The first is because if you get the audio or kindle version you don't have access to the worksheets unless you hunt for the info that you can email them directly and get them. So, you for sure can get the worksheets if you don't have the hardback just you have to email them. The second reason though is that the worksheets look dated. Maybe that is intentional I'm not sure. However, it would be really nice if someone came around and updated them for a more modern look on these concepts. Finally, the last one isn't the book itself but the audio choice of the narrator. I felt like after just having read "Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors" where the narrator was a female soothing voice, hearing a man talk about these trauma/abuse it just seemed jarring. I think choosing a more soothing gentle feminine voice might have been a better option for many but maybe that is just my part responding. The book overall was really good and had some strong information backing up the amazing research and guidance of two amazing professional therapists in the field. I do recommend as a serious resource if you are dealing with complex trauma clients and want to look at IFS, body, and overall systemic dynamics that occur from this kind of abuse.
July 27, 2017
There are a lot of things that I really like about this book. It's written for clinicians and clients to work through together, though clinicians could also pick exercises to use with clients in sessions without clients using the book themselves. The exercises provided in the chapters and worksheets are extremely valuable, and may be applicable to interventions from a variety of modalities (including CBT, DBT, ACT, and interpersonal process approach, among others) in addition to sensorimotor psychotherapy. I am less keen on the worksheets themselves, as I found them a little unfriendly. I would adapt them, or use them as exercises in sessions--I would definitely recommend that therapists work through them together with clients, rather than sending clients off with them on their own.
I also absolutely love the author's description and understanding of dissociative processes, which extends well beyond dissociative disorders. Her non-pathologizing stance towards the "parts" of self promotes a sense of safety and acceptance for all of the client's experiences. To this end, I also appreciated the explanations of how to adapt the content when working with clients who dissociate--this information is valuable for work from other modalities as well.
I also absolutely love the author's description and understanding of dissociative processes, which extends well beyond dissociative disorders. Her non-pathologizing stance towards the "parts" of self promotes a sense of safety and acceptance for all of the client's experiences. To this end, I also appreciated the explanations of how to adapt the content when working with clients who dissociate--this information is valuable for work from other modalities as well.
May 8, 2023
While designed for practitioners, the book also works as personal self-therapy guide in the sensorimotor realm. It is unfortunate that more therapy isn't tied to bodily movement.
July 5, 2025
Four stars. As a therapist, I sometimes tell patients that "over-intellectualization leads to misery." There is only so much that talking about trauma can do to help a person heal — a person also needs to reconnect with their body. Pat Ogden and Janina Fisher's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment is a body-based (somatic) form of treatment designed to help patients heal from trauma from the inside out. I read this long book over 21 days in 2025, carefully reviewing the material and making printable files of the worksheets that conclude each chapter.
What the Book Is
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is not a theoretical text. It is a clinical workbook, designed to be used by therapists and their clients together within the therapeutic relationship. Ogden's introduction is explicit about this: the book emerged from Norton's request for a companion workbook to her earlier theoretical text Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy (Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006). Ogden was initially reluctant — she feared that exercises designed to be performed in solitude would undermine her conviction that the therapeutic relationship is the single most important element in clinical practice. The solution she arrived at was a book designed for dyadic use: therapist and client working through the material together, adapting it to the unique needs of each individual.
The book's foundational argument is stated plainly in the introduction: "The body's intelligence is largely an untapped resource in psychotherapy. Few educational programs in clinical psychology or counseling emphasize how to draw on the wisdom of the body to support therapeutic change, leaving therapists mostly dependent on a client's verbal narrative. Yet the story told by the 'somatic narrative' — gesture, posture, prosody, facial expressions, eye gaze, and movement — is arguably more significant than the story told by the words." This is the premise on which everything else rests.
The Three-Phase Structure
The book is organized around a three-phase model of trauma treatment that is standard in the field, drawn from Judith Herman's foundational work:
Phase 1: Developing Resources — establishing safety, stabilization, and somatic skills before addressing traumatic material. This section covers grounding, breath, posture, boundary awareness, and what the authors call the "window of tolerance" — the zone of arousal in which a person can process experience without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. The window of tolerance concept, developed by Daniel Siegel and drawing on Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory, is one of the book's most clinically useful contributions.
Phase 2: Addressing Memory — working with traumatic memories somatically rather than through verbal narrative alone. This includes chapters on implicit memory, dual awareness of past and present, the "sliver of memory" technique (working with small fragments of traumatic experience rather than full exposure), sensorimotor sequencing, and the recalibration of the nervous system. The chapter on memory reconstruction (Chapter 22) is the one I found most interesting, and I will discuss it further below.
Phase 3: Moving Forward — addressing the longer-term effects of trauma and attachment disruption on how a person moves through the world, forms relationships, regulates emotions, and experiences pleasure. This section connects somatic patterns to attachment history, beliefs, boundary styles, and relational behavior.
Key Concepts
Several concepts recur throughout the book and are worth naming for readers unfamiliar with the somatic therapy literature.
Procedural learning refers to the automatic, habitual patterns of movement, posture, and physiological response that the body learns through repeated experience. Traumatic experiences create procedural learning that persists even when the conscious mind has processed the event — a person may intellectually understand that they are safe while their body remains in a chronic state of defensive mobilization.
Neuroception, a term coined by Stephen Porges, describes the nervous system's unconscious scanning for safety or threat — a process that operates below conscious awareness and that shapes physiological state, emotional tone, and relational behavior. Faulty neuroception — the nervous system's tendency to detect danger even in safe environments — is one of the central problems Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) addresses.
The triune brain, drawing on Paul MacLean's model, organizes the brain into three functional levels: the reptilian brain (survival responses), the limbic system (emotion and attachment), and the neocortex (cognition and language). Traumatic experience tends to activate the lower levels while impairing access to the upper ones, which is why purely verbal, cognitively-oriented treatment has limits with trauma — you are trying to reach the basement from the attic without a staircase.
Memory reconstruction is the concept I found most clinically interesting. Chapter 22 makes the case that memory is not a recording but a reconstruction: "We remember bits and pieces and then put them together in a manner that makes sense to us, which then becomes our 'memory.'" The therapeutic implication is that memories can be revised by intentionally orienting toward positive elements, resources, and moments of agency that were present during traumatic events but not attended to at the time. This is not the same as false memory creation — the events are not changed — but the narrative constructed around them can be broadened: "Although we can never change what happened, how we remember it can be revised, edited, and modified no matter how long ago the events happened."
A Clinical Note on Research
I want to be honest about the limitation I noted when I first read this book: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a relatively new model, and the research base supporting its effectiveness was not extensive at the time of publication. Mental health professionals must apply critical thinking to any model they adopt. Upon my initial reading I can say that the book is clearly written, the therapeutic model sounds useful for helping patients manage a variety of trauma-related problems, and the theoretical framework is coherent and grounded in solid neuroscience. Whether the specific interventions are superior to other evidence-based trauma treatments — cognitive processing therapy (CPT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), prolonged exposure — I cannot yet say from clinical experience alone. I will be better able to assess this as I use the material with my own patients over time.
The book is also explicit that it is not a standalone treatment and does not provide comprehensive training in SP. Therapists who wish to learn the full model are directed to the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute's training programs.
Verdict
Four stars. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment is a substantial, clearly written, and clinically thoughtful contribution to the somatic therapy literature. At 974 pages it is comprehensive to the point of being daunting, but the chapter structure makes it navigable as a reference rather than a cover-to-cover read. The worksheets at the end of each chapter are its most immediately practical feature. I recommend it to any clinician working with trauma who wants to expand their toolkit beyond purely verbal approaches — with the caveat that the research base should be consulted before committing to the model as a primary treatment approach.
Contents:
[Image: Book Cover]
Citations:
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment. W.W. Norton & Company.
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2020). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment [audiobook; P. Brion, Narr.]. Tantor Audio. https://www.audible.com/pd/Sensorimot... (Original work published 2015)
Title: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment
Author(s): Pat Ogden, Janina Fisher
Series: The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology #7
Year: 2015
Genre: Nonfiction — Psychology, Psychotherapy
Page count: 974 pages (PDF)
Date(s) read: 6/14/25–7/4/25
Book 139 in 2025
What the Book Is
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is not a theoretical text. It is a clinical workbook, designed to be used by therapists and their clients together within the therapeutic relationship. Ogden's introduction is explicit about this: the book emerged from Norton's request for a companion workbook to her earlier theoretical text Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy (Ogden, Minton, & Pain, 2006). Ogden was initially reluctant — she feared that exercises designed to be performed in solitude would undermine her conviction that the therapeutic relationship is the single most important element in clinical practice. The solution she arrived at was a book designed for dyadic use: therapist and client working through the material together, adapting it to the unique needs of each individual.
The book's foundational argument is stated plainly in the introduction: "The body's intelligence is largely an untapped resource in psychotherapy. Few educational programs in clinical psychology or counseling emphasize how to draw on the wisdom of the body to support therapeutic change, leaving therapists mostly dependent on a client's verbal narrative. Yet the story told by the 'somatic narrative' — gesture, posture, prosody, facial expressions, eye gaze, and movement — is arguably more significant than the story told by the words." This is the premise on which everything else rests.
The Three-Phase Structure
The book is organized around a three-phase model of trauma treatment that is standard in the field, drawn from Judith Herman's foundational work:
Phase 1: Developing Resources — establishing safety, stabilization, and somatic skills before addressing traumatic material. This section covers grounding, breath, posture, boundary awareness, and what the authors call the "window of tolerance" — the zone of arousal in which a person can process experience without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. The window of tolerance concept, developed by Daniel Siegel and drawing on Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory, is one of the book's most clinically useful contributions.
Phase 2: Addressing Memory — working with traumatic memories somatically rather than through verbal narrative alone. This includes chapters on implicit memory, dual awareness of past and present, the "sliver of memory" technique (working with small fragments of traumatic experience rather than full exposure), sensorimotor sequencing, and the recalibration of the nervous system. The chapter on memory reconstruction (Chapter 22) is the one I found most interesting, and I will discuss it further below.
Phase 3: Moving Forward — addressing the longer-term effects of trauma and attachment disruption on how a person moves through the world, forms relationships, regulates emotions, and experiences pleasure. This section connects somatic patterns to attachment history, beliefs, boundary styles, and relational behavior.
Key Concepts
Several concepts recur throughout the book and are worth naming for readers unfamiliar with the somatic therapy literature.
Procedural learning refers to the automatic, habitual patterns of movement, posture, and physiological response that the body learns through repeated experience. Traumatic experiences create procedural learning that persists even when the conscious mind has processed the event — a person may intellectually understand that they are safe while their body remains in a chronic state of defensive mobilization.
Neuroception, a term coined by Stephen Porges, describes the nervous system's unconscious scanning for safety or threat — a process that operates below conscious awareness and that shapes physiological state, emotional tone, and relational behavior. Faulty neuroception — the nervous system's tendency to detect danger even in safe environments — is one of the central problems Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) addresses.
The triune brain, drawing on Paul MacLean's model, organizes the brain into three functional levels: the reptilian brain (survival responses), the limbic system (emotion and attachment), and the neocortex (cognition and language). Traumatic experience tends to activate the lower levels while impairing access to the upper ones, which is why purely verbal, cognitively-oriented treatment has limits with trauma — you are trying to reach the basement from the attic without a staircase.
Memory reconstruction is the concept I found most clinically interesting. Chapter 22 makes the case that memory is not a recording but a reconstruction: "We remember bits and pieces and then put them together in a manner that makes sense to us, which then becomes our 'memory.'" The therapeutic implication is that memories can be revised by intentionally orienting toward positive elements, resources, and moments of agency that were present during traumatic events but not attended to at the time. This is not the same as false memory creation — the events are not changed — but the narrative constructed around them can be broadened: "Although we can never change what happened, how we remember it can be revised, edited, and modified no matter how long ago the events happened."
A Clinical Note on Research
I want to be honest about the limitation I noted when I first read this book: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a relatively new model, and the research base supporting its effectiveness was not extensive at the time of publication. Mental health professionals must apply critical thinking to any model they adopt. Upon my initial reading I can say that the book is clearly written, the therapeutic model sounds useful for helping patients manage a variety of trauma-related problems, and the theoretical framework is coherent and grounded in solid neuroscience. Whether the specific interventions are superior to other evidence-based trauma treatments — cognitive processing therapy (CPT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), prolonged exposure — I cannot yet say from clinical experience alone. I will be better able to assess this as I use the material with my own patients over time.
The book is also explicit that it is not a standalone treatment and does not provide comprehensive training in SP. Therapists who wish to learn the full model are directed to the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute's training programs.
Verdict
Four stars. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment is a substantial, clearly written, and clinically thoughtful contribution to the somatic therapy literature. At 974 pages it is comprehensive to the point of being daunting, but the chapter structure makes it navigable as a reference rather than a cover-to-cover read. The worksheets at the end of each chapter are its most immediately practical feature. I recommend it to any clinician working with trauma who wants to expand their toolkit beyond purely verbal approaches — with the caveat that the research base should be consulted before committing to the model as a primary treatment approach.
Contents:
Introduction
Section One: Getting Started
Chapter 1: Essential Principles
Chapter 2: Orientation for Therapists
Chapter 3: Orientation for Clients
Section Two: Basic Concepts and Skills
Chapter 4: The Wisdom of the Body, Lost and Found
Chapter 5: The Language of the Body: Procedural Learning
Chapter 6: Pay Attention: The Orienting Response
Chapter 7: Mindfulness of the Present Moment
Chapter 8: Directed Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity
Chapter 9: The Triune Brain and Information Processing
Chapter 10: Exploring Body Sensation
Chapter 11: Neuroception and the Window of Tolerance
Chapter 12: Three Phases of Therapy
Section Three: Phase 1: Developing Resources
Chapter 13: Appreciating Your Strengths: Survival and Creative Resources
Chapter 14: Taking Inventory: Categories of Resources
Chapter 15: Somatic Resources
Chapter 16: Grounding Yourself
Chapter 17: Core Alignment: Working with Posture
Chapter 18: Using Your Breath
Chapter 19: A Somatic Sense of Boundaries
Chapter 20: Developing Missing Resources
Section Four: Phase 2: Addressing Memory
Chapter 21: Implicit Memory and Your Resource Repertoire
Chapter 22: Reconstructing Memory: Finding Resources in a Painful Past
Chapter 23: Dual Awareness of Past and Present
Chapter 24: Sliver of Memory
Chapter 25: Restoring Empowering Action
Chapter 26: Recalibrating Your Nervous System: Sensorimotor Sequencing
Chapter 27: Emotions and Animal Defenses
Section Five: Phase 3: Moving Forward
Chapter 28: The Legacy of Attachment
Chapter 29: Beliefs and the Body
Chapter 30: Making Sense of Emotions
Chapter 31: Moving through the World: How We Walk
Chapter 32: Boundary Styles in Relationships
Chapter 33: Connecting with Others: Proximity-Seeking Actions
Chapter 34: Play, Pleasure, and Positive Emotions
Chapter 35: Challenging Your Window of Tolerance
Afterword
[Image: Book Cover]
Citations:
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment. W.W. Norton & Company.
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2020). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment [audiobook; P. Brion, Narr.]. Tantor Audio. https://www.audible.com/pd/Sensorimot... (Original work published 2015)
Title: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment
Author(s): Pat Ogden, Janina Fisher
Series: The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology #7
Year: 2015
Genre: Nonfiction — Psychology, Psychotherapy
Page count: 974 pages (PDF)
Date(s) read: 6/14/25–7/4/25
Book 139 in 2025
July 31, 2025
Absolutely worth a read (and re-reads!)
July 6, 2021
Very informative and illuminating view into psyche and soma relationship with focus on soma and it’s mesmerising inner intelligence
July 26, 2023
a dense text with many potentially useful takeaways in each chapter if the therapist and client are able to do a separate analysis of how to apply interventions appropriately for each client's specific cultural, physical, and trauma-related needs. perhaps one could get more out of taking a course rather than reading this book?
critiques:
- the authors discuss variations in client backgrounds and cultures infrequently and without any detail.
- binary cis-normative examples and case studies
- there is no discussion of how to vary physical therapeutic interventions to meet the needs of disabled clients.
- reads as a highly directive and manualized approach despite authors saying it is not a manualized approach (again, i imagine discussion of the nuanced application of this approach might be better received in a training versus reading the book on one's own).
critiques:
- the authors discuss variations in client backgrounds and cultures infrequently and without any detail.
- binary cis-normative examples and case studies
- there is no discussion of how to vary physical therapeutic interventions to meet the needs of disabled clients.
- reads as a highly directive and manualized approach despite authors saying it is not a manualized approach (again, i imagine discussion of the nuanced application of this approach might be better received in a training versus reading the book on one's own).
December 11, 2025
As a Belgian clinical sexologist working mostly with clients who experience vulvovaginal pain and/or sexual trauma, I found this book to be a rare gem. Ogden explains complex neurobiological and trauma-related processes with impressive clarity, while offering concrete, body-based interventions that translate beautifully into clinical practice.
I regularly use several of the worksheets and exercises with clients, especially when working with chronic pelvic pain, dissociation, or difficulties reconnecting with bodily signals. The blend of solid science, compassionate language, and immediately applicable techniques makes it one of the most useful resources on my shelf.
I recommend this book often to fellow sexologists, it’s a truly valuable guide for anyone supporting clients in trauma recovery and body reconnection.
I regularly use several of the worksheets and exercises with clients, especially when working with chronic pelvic pain, dissociation, or difficulties reconnecting with bodily signals. The blend of solid science, compassionate language, and immediately applicable techniques makes it one of the most useful resources on my shelf.
I recommend this book often to fellow sexologists, it’s a truly valuable guide for anyone supporting clients in trauma recovery and body reconnection.
May 21, 2021
A great beginning in to being Sensorimotor Informed for yourself and clients. A lead in for those wondering if further SP training is the right path for them as this speciality requires care and a qualified skill set for ethical practice. Listened to the audio and am planning on purchasing the text to have access to the handouts and particular client directed chapters.
Read
November 8, 2022if you have the time just get this and not trauma and the body, fairly comprehensive though the worksheets were slightly repetitive. interesting how some of the work intersects with asiaworks/new field/other coaching techniques, though much more attention is on stabilisation and managing arousal
May 24, 2020
More on trauma from one of the greats in the field. This is a text-book, so best for people who are practicing in some way, or plan to.
December 1, 2020
An amazing exploration of the way our body expresses the innermost workings of our brain and how to understand its language.
Read
June 1, 2026Didn't finish
June 22, 2026
has some good exercises.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews