About Psychomotor PBSP Australia
Psychomotor PBSP Australia is an incorporated not-for-profit association dedicated to advancing the practice, training, and accessibility of Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor therapy across Australia.
We support therapists in developing deeper and more effective ways of working with attachment, trauma, and the lasting impact of early relational experience.
Our Purpose
Our work is grounded in the understanding that many of the challenges brought into therapy are shaped by unmet developmental needs.
PBSP offers a way of working that is both precise and deeply human—supporting therapists to facilitate experiences that restore what was missing, rather than only exploring what went wrong.
What is PBSP? | Psychomotor Therapy Australia
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What is PBSP? | Psychomotor Therapy Australia *
Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) is a body-based, relational psychotherapy developed by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso.
It integrates attachment theory, neuroscience, somatic awareness, and structured experiential processes to support meaningful psychological and emotional change.
At its core, PBSP understands that many difficulties arise from unmet developmental needs such as:
safety and protection
nurturance and support
belonging and place
the ability to be oneself within appropriate limits
Rather than only revisiting the past, PBSP creates carefully structured experiential processes that support new internal experiences of these needs being met.
This allows new emotional and relational patterns to emerge at both a psychological and embodied level.
Understanding the PBSP Approach
If you’re interested in learning how these processes are applied in practice, you can explore our training programs.
Contemporary developments within PBSP, including concepts such as roles and relational dynamics, further support therapists to work effectively with resistance, transference, and overwhelm in a way that is both contained and respectful.
For further reading and recommended texts, you can also visit our resources page.
Many aspects of PBSP align with current understandings in neuroscience, particularly in relation to embodiment, empathy, and the relational shaping of the self. PBSP is internationally recognised for its effectiveness in working with complex trauma, disorganised attachment, and early developmental injury, and is referenced in The Body Keeps the Score by leading trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, highlighting its contribution to the field of trauma therapy.
Developed in the 1960s by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso, PBSP is a structured, body-based therapeutic approach designed to address the lasting impact of unmet developmental needs, trauma, and abuse.
At the heart of PBSP are carefully guided experiential processes, often referred to as structures, which support clients to identify and work with emotional patterns held in both mind and body.
Through these processes, clients are supported to create new, meaningful experiences that symbolically meet core developmental needs such as place, nurturance, support, protection, and appropriate limits.
A key element of the work is microtracking—a refined method of following moment-to-moment shifts in the client’s experience. This allows therapy to unfold with precision, supporting awareness, integration, and emotional regulation.
Bessel van der Kolk Testimonial
"This is the only thing that really works!"
Training & Accreditation
Training in Psychomotor PBSP Australia or
Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor is a body-based, trauma-informed therapeutic approach developed by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso. While it is widely known as PBSP internationally, it is often referred to as Psychomotor within Australia.PBSP is both educational and experiential.
Our programs combine online learning, live Zoom sessions, and annual in-person intensives in Australia.
Training is led by Curt Levang (PhD), Lead PBSP Trainer (USA), who works closely with the Australian community throughout the year and facilitates annual immersive trainings supported by international PBSP trainers.
Participants are supported to develop both understanding and embodied clinical skill as they progress through the training pathway.
Training in PBSP is both educational and experiential.
Our programs combine online learning, live Zoom sessions, and annual in-person intensives in Australia.
Training are led by Curt Levang (PhD), Lead PBSP Trainer (USA), who works closely with the Australian community throughout the year and facilitates annual immersive trainings supported by international PBSP trainers.
Participants are supported to develop both understanding and embodied clinical skill as they progress through the training pathway. You can learn more about accreditation pathways here.