Comfort Your Nervous System
from the Inside Out
What is Sensory Nourishment?
(and what’s in it for you?)
​Sensory Nourishment is a sensible approach to shifting from fight / flight / freeze (and other F words) to the rest / digest / connect / create states of our nervous system. Your senses can be your most effective signals of physical and emotional safety, but only if you know how to put them to good use.
Have you ever been taught how to use touch to calm a racing a heart and redirect brain energy? Or that sight and sound can reduce cortisol and increase oxytocin? If not, you're not alone, and we're here to end this prevalent “Bio-Emotional Ignorance”. We invite you to discover the many gentle and lovely ways to help your body and mind work and feel better together.
Our clients & students report:​
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Relief from anxiety, rage, despair and other hard feelings
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Releasing guilt, shame, blame, and resentment
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Improved relationships at home and at work
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Burnout recovery
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Better handling of ADHD, PTSD, and OCD
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Insomnia relief and deeper rest
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Increased benefits of talk therapy
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Improved productivity and creativity
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Renewed access to hope and joy
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Science based! No new-age fluff:
Sensory Nourishment is a trauma-informed practice of self support in keeping with up to date neuroscience research and best practices in mental and physical health. The method doesn't replace professional or medical care, but can offer harm reduction when medical care is out of reach. Scientific research and therapeutic modalities that inform the method include Polivagal Theory, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Sensory Integration Therapy, Vestibular Physical Therapy, and others.
Always within reach, easy, and free:
You already have everything you need in your everyday environment and right at your fingertips (and mouth, and ears, and eyes). Sensory Nourishment skills are easy to learn, are accessible to people of all ages and abilities, and can be used anywhere, anytime, alone and with others.​ If you're ready to learn the method, you're in for a treat.
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Get a Taste of Sensory Nourishment:
Our free e-course Emotional First Aid with Self-Soothing Touch includes the "Brain Hug" and other gentle comforts. Click on the image to view the videos.
Who is Sensory
Nourishment for?
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Parents, teachers, caregivers
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Children, students, patients
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Healthcare providers, therapists, coaches
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First Responders
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Executives, leaders, teams, and groups
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Performers and artists
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Anyone wishing to share self-soothing skills with others
Mayrav NirHod, Principal Modi'in Democratic School​
Sensory Nourishment self-soothing skills help me, my staff, and our students of all ages, feel and learn better.
Offerings & Services
The Sensory Nourishment Curriculum
We offer online learning modules you can access from anywhere. All courses include videos and resources you can go through at your own pace. Group learning cohorts with live practice sessions and community support start in February and October. Click here for more.
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The Oxytocin Shower Hour (a monthly zoom online playgroup for adults)
A pajama party for your nervous system! We come from near and far to practice the skills in community.
Sign up to be invited.
Individual Coaching
One on one sessions (in person or via zoom) for learning the bio-emotional skills within the context of your own life, work, and relationships. We offer life, parenting, and executive coaching, as well as gentle non-medical support for people navigating grief, cancer, or chronic illness. See our coaching options here.
In-Person Training & Lectures
Open registration workshops are offered in community centers, libraries, or continuing education programs.
Sign up to be invited.
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Workplaces and school trainings: Teach students and staff, clients and practitioners, help your employees alleviate burnout, increase team collaboration, and support first responders like cops, fire fighters, nurses and social workers who face trauma and disaster. Contact us to plan tailored workshops.
Family Workshops: parents and/or grandparents invite us into their home. We start with a meal in which we share the principles of the method and explore the sense of taste. Then we practice and play with other skills and senses. We absolutely adore family workshops! Click here to explore.
Lectures and keynote speeches:
If you’re planning conferences and retreats and look for engaging content that will inspire your people and provide them with immediately useful insights and skills, let's talk.
Grief Circles & Support Groups
We hold a special place for supporting people and communities impacted by loss and grief. These circles include just enough sensory nourishment to enable a safe space for sharing tender stories and feelings. Whenever possible we hold space in person, but online circles can also offer effective solace. ​Info and testimonials
Sensory Jewelry
You don't need special equipment to engage the senses, but if earrings that support the vagus nerve and anxiety relief bracelets sound like fun, check out Yael's NEVER ALONE DESIGNS line of functional adornments.
Testimonials
B. N.
Mother of three, Ithaca, NY
Sensory Nourishment was my lifeline when living with an abusive partner and raising three neurodivergent children resulted in an autoimmune disease. I can't imagine getting through all this without being able to sooth my racing heart in family court, easy my anxiety before and after medical procedures, and increase my patience with my kids. I'm so thankful I got to learn it then. Now that life is much better, I still use it all the time.
Clinical Advisor
Virginia Smithson LCSW-R
Virginia (Gina) Smithson is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in private practice in Ithaca NY. Gina began as an advocate for children in hospital settings, then worked at The Alcohol and Drug Council and at Counseling and Psychological Services at Cornell Health. Areas of specialty include anxiety, creativity, identity exploration, life transitions, and more. Gina believes that sensory approaches are essential and loves Sensory Nourishment because she finds it highly effective for herself and her clients. Gina helps us design and teach the curriculum and spread the method within the clinical counseling community.
Click here for Gina's therapy practice
About Us
Creator & Founder
Yael Daphna Saar
Yael Saar, the Creator of the Sensory Nourishment method, has been supporting mothers and families since 2012 as the founder of the Mama's Comfort Camp international support network. A nonprofit project of the Center for Transformative Action at Cornell University, MCC offers safe spaces for mothers of all ages and stages in peer support forums and in the "Motherhood is a Joke" comedy writing and performance program. A postpartum depression and breast cancer survivor, Yael developed the Sensory Nourishment Method to support herself in healing from both challenges. Formerly a Suicide Prevention Crisisline phone counselor, she is now part of the Suicide Prevention Coalition in Tompkins County. She has been putting her ADHD brain to good use as a poet, artist and comic, and wrangling two boys who will always be her babies no matter how tall they grow. But most importantly, her life's work is bringing the life affirming practice of Sensory Nourishment to parents, children, elders... in short, to everyone with a fried nervous system--since the pandemic and in today's shifting hard times.
Yael's origin story, as featured in New York Times' Conception series in 2018
Dr. Brian Shaw
Cardiologist, Cayuga Medical Center
Dr. Brian Shaw earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he also completed his internal medicine residency. He then completed his cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowships at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, New Jersey. He is board certified in cardiology, interventional cardiology, and endovascular medicine, He practiced in New Jersey before moving to Ithaca, joining CMA in 2021.Dr. Shaw helps us make sure our tools and skills always follow medical best practices. He believes that self-support is a severely underutilized resource for harm reduction, so he’s helping us change that.
Dr. Elizabeth Horst
Family Physician, Cayuga Family Medicine
Dr. Betsy Horst is a Board Certified Family Physician in ithaca, NY. She graduated from the Philadelphia College of Family Medicine in 2014, and did residency in Family Medicine at York College.
She has interests in ties of mental health and physical health and particularly in how intentional engagement with the nervous systems can reduce the need for medical intervention and/or medication use while still improving quality of life and increasing well being. She finds embodied emotional support to be a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Our Advisory Team
Free Resources
Emotional First Aid with Self-Soothing Touch
Our free video e-course
The Pressure Release Valve
a Self-Soothing Touch skill for navigating relationships, a short video we created for Relationships Australia
Get in Touch
Ask us about:
Coaching: executive, team, and one on one coaching Offered in person/online, in Ithaca, NY, and beyond
Family & Friends Workshops: kids, parents, elders learning the skills together at home.
Conference & Key Note Speeches:
Inspiring story, practical life skills
Retreats & Nature Experiences: beach, forest, desert, spa, savoring the senses to replenish body and soul
Support Groups & Grief Circles
In person and online
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you offer medical or mental healthcare?
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No. We offer education and coaching, not healthcare. Engaging with our work signifies your understanding of this important difference. Sensory Nourishment is a trauma informed method that teaches self-support that does not replace medical or mental health care. Our services are recommendations only, and should not be confused with medical advice. Mental health and medical providers trained in the method may offer Sensory Nourishment informed treatment in their medical or therapy practice. Click here
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If I take your workshops, can I teach Sensory Nourishment to others?
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Yes, the scope depends on the specifics. You're always welcome to share skills with your family and loved ones. If you're an educator, a therapist, or a provider, you can share the skills with your clients/patients/and students based on the scope of the specific training you participated in.
Only people who have completed our certification training are authorized to teach workshops and classes.
Do you offer certification training for practitioners?
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Yes. If you love this work you can learn to offer workshops and trainings or teach groups in professional settings. Sensory Nourishment skills can increase the efficacy of talk therapy and other coaching methods, can help medical providers improve their bedside manner and increase patient cooperation and treatment plan compliance. For others sensory Nourishment can become a source income with deeply meaningful work.
The next certification cohort will begin in Spring 2026.
Sign up for the wait list here.
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Do you work internationally?
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Yes! thanks to the magic of zoom and airplanes. So far we've worked with clients in 4 continents and take pride in our time zone- mastery! We are happy to cross oceans and distances with advance planning and travel arrangements.​
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Other questions? Click here to ask using our contact form.
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Gina Smithson LCSW-R in private therapy practice, Clinical Advisor of the Sensory Nourishment Method