About

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (SPI) is a professional educational organization that designs and provides the highest-level trainings and services to serve a global network of mental health practitioners*, and for the public at large. Seeking to enhance human relationships, our paradigm is substantiated by interpersonal neurobiology and impelled by mindfulness applied in interactive contexts.

*SPI is neither a regulatory nor licensing organization and therefore not sanctioned to certify, license, or otherwise bestow the legal authorization to practice as a mental health professional.

Our Mission

To deliver an unparalleled state-of-the-art somatic psychotherapy worldwide through education, practice, and research.

Our Vision

To harness the innate wisdom of the body to liberate human potential.

Our Principles

Organicity

Organicity refers to the internal wisdom of all living systems. Thus, the therapist does not “heal” the client; rather the healing power and intelligence is within and each person has their our own unique, mysterious and emergent growth path.

Unity

We exist within a complex organic system of interdependent parts. Unity acknowledges that we are all connected, and that we have individual and group differences. Although unity is ever-present, it is recognized and experienced more fully through communication.

Mind/Body/Spirit Holism

Mind, body and spirit are intimately related, essential aspects of each of us. We keep the whole person in mind, and consider mind body and spirit in context and relationship, rather than work with these elements in isolation.

Non-Violence

Our work is not forceful. We believe that people do not need to be “fixed” or changed. We avoid criticizing, judging, or pathologizing, and we encourage curiosity, and follow the natural organicity to promote change.

Mindfulness/Presence

We encourage awareness of present moment internal experience–both ours and our clients’–as well as the impact we have on others, and others on us, We strive to be in deep resonance with our clients, cultivating a state of presence that is conducive to intuition and inspiration.

Relational Alchemy

We recognize that each relationship has a unique nature that spawns something bigger than its parts. We honor deep, authentic connection as well as interpersonal challenges that are avenues of personal growth, accepting the imperfection of the human condition.

Dr. Pat Ogden, Founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

In the early 1970s, while working as a technician and yoga/dance teacher at a short-term psychiatric hospital, Pat Ogden became interested in the correlation between her clients’ disconnection from their bodies, their physical patterns and their psychological issues. Before the Diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Dr. Ogden recognized first-hand the way in which many of her patients were at the mercy of reliving the past, and that current treatment methods only seemed to trigger traumatic reminders. Recognizing the link between the body and psychological issues, she began to form the foundations of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® by joining somatic therapy and psychotherapy into a comprehensive method for healing this disconnection between body and mind. In 1981, after co-founding the Hakomi Institute, pioneered by Ron Kurtz, Dr. Ogden founded her own school, a branch of the Hakomi Institute, which is known today as the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (SPI).

What is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy?

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a therapeutic modality for trauma and attachment issues. SP welcomes the body as an integral source of information which can guide resourcing and the accessing and processing of challenging, traumatic, and developmental experience. SP is a holistic approach that includes somatic, emotional, and cognitive processing and integration.

SP enables clients to discover and change habitual physical and psychological patterns that impede optimal functioning and well-being. SP is helpful in working with dysregulated activation and other effects of trauma, as well as the limiting belief systems of developmental issues.

SP helps clients cultivate their strengths, while providing enough challenge to stimulate growth, long lasting change, and well-being.

The interview below of Dr. Ogden on The Trauma Therapist Podcast features discussion of a composite case, which helps highlight the use of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in practice.

Working With Trauma From the Bottom Up

by Dr. Pat Ogden | Trauma Therapist Podcast Interview - June 2020 - Episode 456

Ongoing Development of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Dr. Ogden is currently developing Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for children, adolescents, families, and couples with colleagues.

Several research studies to gather data on the effectiveness of SP are underway or in the process of publication at the following institutions:

Maudsley Hospital (London, UK)
Womens’ College Hospital (Toronto, Ontario)
Modum Bad Outpatient Clinic (Oslo, Norway)

Frequently Asked Questions

What can Sensorimotor Psychotherapy help with?

SP can bridge the gap when traditional “talk” therapy has not helped. SP can help with trauma and attachment related issues such as:

Anxiety
Having difficulty concentrating due to fear, upsetting thoughts, or unwelcomed physical (body) sensations
Intense and disturbing emotional reactions that seem out of place with the present situation
Post-traumatic stress: abuse, attack, accidents, flashbacks, nightmares. Feeling frozen or stuck in familiar circumstances without understanding why
Difficulty enjoying life, feeling hopeful, and experiencing pleasure
Relationship related wounds: neglect, harsh parenting during childhood, divorce, child-parent separations
Persistent and regular negative thoughts about one’s ability to achieve, be successful and deserving
Difficulty maintaining a job, a family, friendships and other relationships
Feeling detached from one’s self and the world

How does Sensorimotor Psychotherapy work?

SP is a comprehensive treatment approach developed by Pat Ogden, PhD. Some therapists use SP in addition to other treatment approaches to include the body as a valuable piece of one’s experience. SP is informed by research in physiology, neuroscience, psychology, and sociology. Several Hakomi principles also guide this approach, as Dr. Ogden founded a branch of the Hakomi Institute, Hakomi Integrative Somatics, which is known today as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.

SP uses a three-phase treatment approach to gently guide the client through the therapeutic process – Safety and Stabilization, Processing, and Integration. Therapist and client collaboration are essential to the SP approach. The therapist must pay close attention to the client to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by the process while simultaneously engaging their own abilities and capacities for healing.

It is thought that SP strengthens instinctual capacities for survival and assists clients to re-instate or develop resources which were unavailable or missing at the time the trauma or wounding occurred. Once resources are developed and in place, the traumatic event can be processed with the aid of resources.

SP is a well-developed approach with decades of success in the treatment of trauma and developmental wounds. With positive therapeutic outcomes solidly in place, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute aspires to embark on a program of research to study more closely how SP works and establish a strong, evidence base.

What do clients say about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy?

“I utilize SP as a stand-alone approach as well as incorporating it into my existing repertoire of therapeutic modalities. It has transformed my clients. Not only have they made progress, they have maintained their gains. They typically experience a sense of awe, as they become aware that they already possess the tools to heal. A client with complex trauma summed up the benefits of the SP approach, “There is more correspondence between my body and my brain!””

-R.L. Level I Alumnus

What is SP’s Connection to Ron Kurtz's Hakomi Method?

Pat Ogden, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Ron Kurtz, pioneer of the Hakomi method and founder of the Hakomi Institute, were close friends and colleagues from the early 1970s until his passing in 2011. Ogden apprenticed with Ron in the early 70s and was certified in Hakomi before any formal trainings were conducted at the institute. As Educational Director at Hakomi, she designed the original curriculum in its entirety. Alongside Kurtz, Ogden co-taught the very first Hakomi training and she was the first person to be certified in Hakomi. Dr. Ogden was named a Legacy Holder for the Hakomi Education Network by Kurtz.

With Kurtz’s blessing and support, Dr. Ogden founded her own institute in 1981. Initially named Hakomi Bodywork, and later Hakomi Integrative Somatics, Dr. Ogden pursued her interest in trauma, movement, and posture. Inspired by her work with sexual abuse survivors, Ogden developed an interest in trauma work that used the body as a vehicle for transformation, rather than as a means to access psychological issues, and in 2002, Ogden renamed her school, the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.