Éadaoin Bhreathnach is a Consultant Occupational Therapist & Attachment Counsellor. She worked for fifteen years in the National Health Service as a clinical practitioner and in senior management. During that period she set up the first Sensory Integration Clinic in Britain and Ireland and organised a two-year Occupational Therapy programme in Videle Orphanage in Romania. Éadaoin founded the Irish Sensory Integration Association. She later collaborated with colleagues in England and Scotland to establish the Sensory Integration Network UK and Ireland.

In 1990 she set up in private practice to further develop her professional interest in Sensory Integration and Attachment Trauma. Statutory Agencies only referred their most challenging cases (children and adults), who either struggled with, or resisted all interventions. She observed they shared common traits such as a heightened and a persistent sense of fear, an over or under reaction to sensory experiences, and difficulty engaging with others. She knew from her Sensory Integration training that regulation of arousal states is imperative before the individual can engage in tasks or with others. Her training in Attachment (Crittenden’s Dynamic Maturational Model) also informed her how individuals are

disposed to behave when their core fears are activated. Clinical observations led to a new awareness of how trauma impacts on sensory processing and led to changes in her clinical intervention. She developed her trauma model Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI).

Éadaoin is the author of The Scared Gang series that helps children to recognise their own survival and attachment patterns through The Scared Gang characters. Each character represents a different pattern and tells children how they can self regulate through theuse of food and sensory-based activities. These books are widely used as a therapeutic tool by professionals working in the field of Attachment Trauma. Her latest publication The Scared Gang Are Asked to Tell is a resource pack to enable narrative work and emotional regulation.

Éadaoin’s work has been presented in UK, Spain, Italy, Finland, Turkey, USA, Australia and New Zealand. She supervises students completing their Clinal Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Hertfordshire University. Together with Steve Farnfield (Author of the CAPA) and Nick Smith (SAI Trainer) she is currently exploring childhood attachment patterns and associated arousal states and sensory motor behaviours, using the Childhood Assessment of Play and Attachment (CAPA). In 2024 Éadaoin received an Honorary Fellowship from Sensory Integration Education for her outstanding contributions to the advancement and promotion of Sensory Integration education, practice, and training.