Sensory Integration Education

This year, SensorNet celebrates its 30th birthday, and Issue 65 is our anniversary issue. Three decades of bringing sensory integration education, research and practice to our readers, and to mark it, we've put together an issue that looks back at how far the field has come while keeping a firm eye on where it's heading next.

Here's a taste of what's inside.

Six Shifts That Changed the Field

When the first SensorNet landed on doormats in 1996, sensory integration (SI) was a niche clinical discipline known mainly within occupational therapy. Thirty years on, SI thinking shapes conversations in schools, homes, workplaces and policy.

In our anniversary feature, we trace six of the biggest shifts in how the field has thought, talked and taught about sensory integration. From the move out of the clinic and into classrooms and communities, to the language shift away from "dysfunction" and "deficit" towards "differences" and "needs", to the journey from a posted newsletter to a fully online learning platform. It's a look at how much has changed, and a reminder of what hasn't: the field's commitment to rigorous, evidence-informed, person-centred practice.

The Big Interview: Mim Ochsenbein

Our headline interview this issue features Mim Ochsenbein, OTD, MSW, OTR/L, an occupational therapist, social worker and educator whose career spans school-based practice, adolescent mental health and the developing Integrated Bodily and Relational Therapeutic Interaction (IBRTI) model.

Mim talks candidly about the misconceptions she'd most like to challenge (spoiler: it's not all about modulation), what she wishes postgraduate students understood about the brain-body connection, and why she believes mentorship, not just coursework, is essential to building advanced clinical reasoning. It's a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation for anyone thinking about where their own practice might go next.

Voices That Shape the Field

To mark 30 years, we've also looked back at some of the most memorable Big Interviews from recent issues, including Dr Shelly Lane and Dr Anita Bundy on the third edition of Sensory Integration Theory and Practice, Dr Georgia DeGangi on sensory processing and the emotional life of the child, and Professor Liz Pellicano on autistic flourishing and community-led research.

Read together, these conversations trace a thread running through the field: the growing recognition that sensory processing, emotional regulation and lived experience are inseparable, and that the art of therapy matters just as much as the evidence behind it.

Sensory Integration in Eating Disorder Practice

This issue also features an interview with Liz McWilliam, Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, who brings a sensory integration lens to her work with young people with ARFID. It's a practical, grounded look at how understanding sensory processing, from vestibular input to tactile sensitivities around food, can change the way young people and their families experience mealtimes.

Research, Awards and What's Coming Up

Elsewhere in the issue, we celebrate the 2025 SIE and Sheffield Hallam University Student Award winners, hear from Dr Aimee Piller on the future of sensory integration research, and share details of Dr Susan Allen's newly awarded PhD research into maternal stress and sensory processing differences.

We've also rounded up the latest journal research from across the field, covering ADHD, autism, ARFID, motor development and more, plus all the upcoming SIE training dates and CPD events, including the free Sensory Inclusion Summit 2026 this October.

Read the Full Issue

All of this, and more, is in SensorNet Issue 65, available now as part of the SIE Lifelong Learning Programme.

If you're not already a member, the Lifelong Learning Programme gives you access to SensorNet, live expert-led webinars, peer-support sessions and our short course library, all for less than £4 a week. Find out more about the Lifelong Learning Programme →