In this article, you can read about sensory play and tips on how to facilitate sensory experiences.
Sensations and their value in the educational process
While words are the language of our rational brains, sensations are the language of our bodies. What we often forget is that before coming to words, all the information that we have about the world is just a bunch of sensory information – lights, sounds, textures, taste, temperature, etc. Our bodies process that sensory information and react with certain feelings and emotions. Our brains take all this raw data (sensory data, emotional responses) and process it through the lenses of our past experience, beliefs, cultural programming, and other conditioning. As a result of this process, we create new connections in our brain that link new sensory data to old knowledge. While our brain grows, we also rationalize our experiences and translate them into words – ideas, conclusions, questions, etc.
So sensations come first, and as more we are aware of our sensations, the better the quality of our experiences and learning. However, in today’s world, we often tend to numb our sensations. Time in front of screens, lack of movement, and lack of joy are all reasons to numb ourselves and limit our experiences of life.
In the last century, educators, artists, and psychologists were discovering more and more on the topic of how the human body and brain work. The Brazilian director Augusto Boal was busy exploring how our cultures and political systems, beliefs, and circumstances often create inner oppressions that block our life energies and bring rigidity to our lives. He claimed that part of this process is taking away movement and play from the body and replacing those with shame, guilt, and desire to be “good enough” for systems that are oppressing our very being.
To support people in the process of revitalizing their bodies, Boal developed a system of games and theatre methods that aim to awaken people. For returning people to their bodies, their senses, their imagination, and ultimately, their power.
Boal believed that play was the antidote to oppression—because oppression often begins when people stop feeling, stop questioning, and stop imagining.
The Core of Boal’s Method: Re-Sensitizing the Body
One of Boal’s most foundational practices is the “arsenal of the senses.” These are games and exercises that awaken what he called “muscular and emotional memory.”
Boal’s exercises were designed to:
- Unfreeze the body from cultural rigidity
- Make people see and feel each other again
- Build trust and vulnerability
- Return dignity to bodies that had been silenced or shamed
In the attached resource at the top of this page, you will find Boal’s book with games. You can read there about concrete games that you can easily do with groups and in that way support the groups in revitalizing their bodies and improving their presence
Here are some important principles that you can follow when you facilitate Sensory Play.
1. Play is Voluntary & Intrinsically Motivated
- Nobody is forced to play. That’s not play, that’s performance.
- The freedom to enter or leave is sacred.
- Joy and curiosity are the fuel.
2. Safe Yet Risky
- A paradox: play is a safe container to take real risks.
- It allows trying on new roles, behaviors, identities—without consequences.
- This makes play a perfect space for personal growth, conflict resolution, and social learning.
3. Process-Oriented
- There is no goal except the experience itself.
- It’s about presence, not productivity.
- It’s a form of becoming, not achieving.
4. Multisensory & Embodied
- Play engages the whole system: body, emotions, imagination, intellect.
- It awakens dormant pathways and integrates learning deeply.
5. Imaginative & Transformative
- Play bends reality.
- It opens doors to the “as if” — a space of possibility.
- In play, we rehearse who we could be, or relive who we were.
How Can We Bring Sensory Play into Working With People?
We can start with games that re-awaken the senses. Boal’s “arsenal of games” is a goldmine. Start with:
- Games about body awareness, consent, and power. Those can be simple movement practices, for example.
- Mirroring games (attunement and empathy).
- Playing with imaginary objects and situations. This way we improve our imagination and creativity.
- Games about team building – support learners to create connections with others and to find their place in the group.
- You can use archetypes and masks to allow people to explore different roles and qualities.
- Invite participants to explore parts of themselves they usually suppress (the fool, the king, the rebel, the seducer). This allows the inner child, the wounded part, or the aspiring part to emerge safely.
- Let participants build scenes, rituals, and symbols.
- This invites imagination into action and creates collective meaning.
Reflection – harvesting learning
Games on their own are a powerful generator of experiences and emotions. To process those experiences, create new connections in our brain, and learn, we also need to invite the element of quality reflective processes.
It is useful if you anchor play in real themes: power, identity, risk, trust, joy, conflict, etc. It is important to know the purpose of your game. We invite you to debrief with reflective questions. To learn more about those, you can read our article: “Debriefing and Reflection”.
Sensory play matters for the quality of learning experiences, bypassing the rational mind, inviting emotional and relational intelligence. It interrupts mechanical behavior and reconnects people to the present.
Thank you and enjoy your play!
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