256 - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Healing Trauma by Completing What Your Body Couldn’t Do Then w/ Jacquie Compton256 - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Healing Trauma by Completing What Your Body Couldn’t Do Then w/ Jacquie Compton
Adult Child
Andrea talks with psychotherapist and art therapist Jacquie Compton about sensorimotor psychotherapy and how trauma lives in the body as much as in memory. They share personal stories and practical examples of completing unfinished bodily actions to shift long-standing patterns from childhood.
1:12:48•11 Nov 2026
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Letting the Body Finish the Story
Episode Overview
- Trauma is held not just in stories but in the body through tension, posture and movement.
- Sensorimotor psychotherapy focuses on completing the actions that could not happen during traumatic events, such as pushing away or running.
- Working with small pieces of a memory (like shoulder bracing) can be safer and more effective than revisiting the full story.
- Beliefs such as "I am overwhelmed" can be unpacked by noticing how they show up physically and what those sensations need.
- Child states, including harsh inner critics, often formed to protect authenticity and secure love and belonging in unsafe environments.
“I’m interested in what you have to say, but I’m even more interested in the storyteller, and that’s the body.”
Curious about how others manage the lingering impact of childhood trauma in their adult lives? This conversation between host Andrea Ashley and psychotherapist and art therapist Jacquie Compton gives you a close-up look at sensorimotor psychotherapy and how the body “finishes” stories that the mind has told a thousand times. Andrea sets the tone with raw, funny honesty about growing up in a dysfunctional family and realising her childhood affected her far more than she thought.
From there, Jacquie shares her own history of having a chronically ill mother and believing, as a little girl, that staying awake at night could keep her mum alive. Those early experiences of fear, grief and responsibility ripple through her adult life and her work with trauma. Jacquie explains sensorimotor psychotherapy as a talk-based but body-focused approach that pays close attention to posture, tension, gesture and movement.
As she puts it, she’s “interested in what you have to say but … even more interested in the storyteller, and that’s the body.” You’ll hear how completing the actions that never got to happen – like pushing someone away or running – can shift long-held patterns of fear, overwhelm and self-criticism without needing to relive every detail of the past.
They also touch on nightmares, big "T" childhood trauma, and how somatic work can gently work with those experiences in small doses rather than flooding the nervous system. Jacquie describes practical examples of supporting a "push" movement in session and how that can lead to new beliefs like "I am strong", deeper breaths, and a more grounded way of moving through daily life.
If you’ve ever felt like your mind knows you’re safe but your body didn’t get the memo, this episode might get you wondering what unfinished stories your body is still holding – and what it might be like to finally let them complete.
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