What Is Sophrology? A Plain-English Guide to the Method

Sophrology is a structured relaxation method that combines breathing, gentle movement, body awareness and visualization. It was created in 1960 by Alfonso Caycedo, a Colombian-born neuropsychiatrist working in Madrid. Today it’s widely used in France and Switzerland, where people turn to it to manage stress, sleep better and prepare for exams, competitions and births.

In English-speaking countries it’s still little known. If you’ve only seen it described as “the new mindfulness”, this guide explains what the method actually involves, where it came from, and what the evidence does and doesn’t show.

Sophrology in one paragraph

A sophrology practice is a sequence of short exercises, usually guided by a calm voice. You start by relaxing your body section by section until you reach a state between waking and sleep, where your body is loose but your mind stays alert. In that state you do simple movements in time with your breath, then pause to notice what you feel. Many exercises also ask you to recall a pleasant memory or to picture a future situation going well. Much of it is done standing or sitting with your eyes closed, and a practice can last anywhere from five minutes to an hour.

Where the name comes from

Caycedo built the word from three Greek roots: sos (harmony), phren (mind or consciousness) and logos (study). He described sophrology as the study of consciousness in harmony.

The new word also had a practical purpose. His early work drew on clinical hypnosis, and he wanted a name that kept his method apart from hypnosis and the reputation it had at the time.

A short history

Caycedo was born in Bogotá in 1932 and studied medicine in Spain. Early in his career at the Provincial Hospital of Madrid, he was troubled by the harsh psychiatric treatments of the day, including electroshock and insulin-induced comas, and set out to find gentler ways of helping patients.

His search took him through clinical hypnosis, the phenomenology of the philosopher Edmund Husserl, and two Western relaxation methods that became direct ancestors of sophrology: Edmund Jacobson’s progressive muscle relaxation and Johannes Schultz’s autogenic training. He coined the word “sophrology” in October 1960 and opened the first department of clinical sophrology in Madrid that December.

In 1963 and 1964 he worked in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, with the psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger. From 1965 to 1968 he travelled in India and Japan, studying yoga, Tibetan Buddhist meditation and Zen. Back in Spain and settled in Barcelona, he turned what he had learned into a set of practical exercises he called Dynamic Relaxation. His aim was to let Western practitioners use Eastern techniques simply, without adopting their religious or philosophical frameworks.

He created the first three levels of Dynamic Relaxation in 1968 and kept developing the method until 2001, when the twelfth and final level was complete. He also trademarked the name Caycedian Sophrology to distinguish his own teaching from the many schools that had grown up around the method. Caycedo died in 2017.

Sophrology’s big public moment came through sport. Ahead of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, the Swiss doctor and dentist Raymond Abrezol, an early student of the method, was asked to prepare four Swiss skiers. Between them they came home with three Olympic medals, and Abrezol went on to work with athletes in many other sports. From there, sophrology spread through the French-speaking world into schools, workplaces and maternity care.

What happens in a session

Sessions vary between practitioners and schools, but most follow a similar shape.

1. A short conversation. You talk about what you’d like to work on, such as sleep, stress, an upcoming event or simply feeling better in yourself. A good practitioner also asks about your health.
2. Basic relaxation. The sophrologist guides you through a slow scan of the body from head to feet, relaxing each area in turn. The aim is the relaxed but alert state that sophrologists call the sophroliminal level.
3. Dynamic Relaxation exercises. Simple movements linked to the breath. A classic example: breathe in, hold the breath briefly while pumping your shoulders up and down, then breathe out and let your shoulders drop.
4. Pauses to notice. After each exercise you stay still for a moment and observe whatever you feel: warmth, tingling, heaviness, calm or nothing in particular. There’s no right answer.
5. Visualization. Depending on your goal, you might recall a positive memory in detail or rehearse a future situation going calmly.
6. Coming back. The session ends with deeper breaths and small movements to return to full alertness. Some sophrologists then ask you to describe your experience in a few neutral words.

Between sessions you practice at home, often with short audio recordings. The idea is self-training: over time, you learn to use the techniques on your own, whenever you need them.

The three ingredients

Breathing. Most exercises are paced by the breath, often with a long, slow out-breath or a brief, gentle pause after breathing in.

Body awareness through movement. Caycedo’s Dynamic Relaxation is called dynamic because you’re often standing and moving slightly. Tensing and releasing muscles, turning the head or lifting the shoulders makes physical sensations easier to notice than lying perfectly still.

Visualization. Sophrology deliberately works with positive images: pleasant memories, calm places and successful versions of events you’re facing, such as an exam, a birth or a difficult conversation.

What sophrology is not

• It isn’t hypnosis. You stay aware and in control throughout, and the aim is for you to be able to practice independently.
• It isn’t a religion or belief system. Caycedo borrowed techniques from yoga and Buddhist meditation but left the religious context behind.
• It isn’t a medical treatment. Sophrology is a complementary practice. It can sit alongside medical or psychological care, but it shouldn’t replace it.

What does the research say?

The scientific evidence on sophrology is still limited, though it’s growing. A few examples:

• In a 2020 randomized trial in Spain, 70 primary care patients with moderate to high anxiety took either a four-week group sophrology program or a program of general physical and mental health advice. The sophrology group reported larger reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms.
• A multicenter randomized trial published in 2026 offered 200 young people with congenital heart disease eight remote one-to-one sophrology sessions. Compared with standard care, the program improved their health-related quality of life, but not their cardiopulmonary fitness.
• A 2026 UK pilot study randomly assigned 100 adults with chronic pain to an eight-week online sophrology program or a control group. The sophrology group showed signs of better wellbeing and lower use of pain medication. The authors called for a larger study, including a closer look at why some participants dropped out.
• In a 2018 trial with 74 children hospitalized for asthma attacks, a single sophrology session added to standard treatment produced a slightly larger improvement in peak expiratory flow than standard treatment alone.

These studies are small, their results vary, and some were carried out by researchers connected to sophrology schools. Taken together, they suggest sophrology may help some people feel calmer and cope better. They don’t show that it cures any condition.

Some hospitals already offer sophrology as supportive care. The Institut Curie in Paris, one of France’s leading cancer centers, lists it among the complementary approaches available to its patients.

Is sophrology right for you?

People often come to sophrology when they want something more active than sitting meditation, when they’re preparing for a specific challenge, or when stress is starting to affect their sleep.

It’s generally gentle, but check with your doctor first, and tell your sophrologist, if you’re pregnant or have a heart or breathing condition, epilepsy, a psychiatric condition or a history of trauma. Relaxation practices occasionally bring up uncomfortable feelings, and a good practitioner will adapt the exercises for you.

Where to go next

• Try our 10-minute sophrology exercise for stress.
• Read how sophrology compares with meditation, mindfulness and hypnosis.
• Look up unfamiliar terms in the sophrology glossary.
• When you’re ready for guidance, see how to find a qualified sophrologist.

Further reading

• Dominique Antiglio, The Life-Changing Power of Sophrology (Yellow Kite, 2018).
• Philip Carr-Gomm, Empower Your Life with Sophrology (CICO Books, 2019).

Sources

1. “Sophrology” and “Alfonso Caycedo”, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026. History, timeline and influences of the method.
2. Van Rangelrooij K, Solans-Buxeda R, Fernández-García MJ, et al. Effectiveness of a 4-week sophrology program for primary care patients with moderate to high anxiety levels: a randomised controlled trial. Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría. 2020;48(5):200–208.
3. Moreau J, et al. Remote sophrology in congenital heart disease: the SOPHROCARE randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. 2026.
4. A pilot study assessing the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of an 8-week sophrology intervention for people with chronic pain in the UK. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. 2026;32(4):e70474.
5. Romieu H, et al. Efficiency of physiotherapy with Caycedian Sophrology on children with asthma: a randomized controlled trial. Pediatric Pulmonology. 2018;53(5):559–566.
6. Institut Curie. Complementary approaches at Institut Curie.
7. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Relaxation techniques: what you need to know.