Your sensory health matters. Heres why

[Music]

let me present you with three medical

mysteries

and as i present each situation see if

you can figure out what’s really going

on

and what they all have in common

first is gabby

she comes to me with her three-year-old

daughter eva and she tells me

eva doesn’t like her

never has not since birth

she tells me eva is a daddy’s girl

but to the extreme

it’s like she’s only comfortable with

dad

second

alex

13 years old and shockingly thin

he’s been in inpatient eating disorder

clinics twice

and nothing’s working

he has a very small menu of foods that

he eats pickles green olives and rice

he gets dizzy and fatigued and relies on

supplements for nutrition

his parents are terrified

and he gets bullied at school

but he just won’t eat

third is jasmine

35 years old and her marriage is in

shambles

jasmine and her husband have been to

counselling a few times and their

problems always boil down to sex

but this isn’t your classic sexual

dysfunction it’s not low libido in fact

jasmine really fancies her husband she

wants to be with him that way but sex

leaves her feeling

outside her skin and him feeling

rejected

okay so three cases a young child who

vastly prefers dad to mum

an adolescent who presents as having an

eating disorder and an adult who doesn’t

enjoy sex

despite wanting to

what do you think they all have in

common

physical abuse sexual abuse good guesses

but no

it could be depression

anxiety ptsd

but not in this case

these individuals all have

differences

in sensory integration

disordered if you like sensory

processing

now you may have heard of sensory

processing in relation to children or

autism and if so that is great

but it doesn’t end there you see because

we’re all sensory creatures

you learned about the five senses at

school i hope

vision taste touch smell and sound

but there’s also our sense of

equilibrium it’s here in our inner ear

and our sense of position that’s how you

know if your ankle is flexed or extended

without looking at your foot

we also sense our heart rate our bladder

status whether our stomach’s churning

parts of interoception

sensory integration is such a part of

everyday life that we take it for

granted it’s almost mundane

but it’s also a complex

neurophysiological process that we don’t

pay nearly enough attention to

i got into this work through an unusual

route

as a camp counsellor i was always the

one put with the difficult kids

the problem children that no one else

wanted to hang out with

but i really enjoyed them they were my

homies

and then after high school i went and

lived and worked for a year in an

orphanage in the special needs unit

and those children had very unique ways

of experiencing the world and so i

learned to adjust my approach

a softer voice for this child

and a more animated voice and face and

play for another

it wasn’t until i went to university

that i realized what i was learning

about thinking about responding to

is something called sensory integration

and processing

and then i realized that these problem

children

they weren’t a problem at all their

difficult behaviors

would dramatically diminish

as soon as we addressed their sensory

needs

as a society we’ve embraced the

importance of mental health

but it’s time that we come to understand

and recognize the impact of sensory

health too

let’s go back to our three cases from

before

gabby and eva her daughter

eva isn’t choosing to reject gabby

eva’s nervous system is in charge of

these reactions

either’s dad has a deep voice and firm

strong touch

mum

uses a higher pitched sing-song

motheries and a softer touch

sensory inputs that are distressing for

eva’s brain and body

so what’s the solution

well with eva and gabby

it’s a sensory informed parent coach

who spends time with them both waiting

and watching and wandering and tunes in

to eva’s signals

they coach mom

use a deeper register of voice

use firmer touch for holding hands and

cuddles

and they even encourage her

to play with eva on swings big enough

for both of them

because the movement of the swing helps

either be in her body

and engage with mum

gabby and eva get to know each other for

the first time

gabby and eva

fall in love

alex our teenager

who presents us having an eating

disorder isn’t choosing to be difficult

about food

and he doesn’t want to lose any more

weight

but he doesn’t know what’s in his mouth

whether it’s a piece of egg or a piece

of meat if he can’t see it with his eyes

and so learning to organize the muscles

of his mouth and tongue for chewing and

swallowing really hard

also a couple of semi-serious choking

incidences as a child

left him really scared and reluctant to

try new foods

alex finds a feeding therapist who’s

willing to try something different and

they use the food scientist adaptation

of the sos approach by dr k toomey

and they start with his preferred foods

they start with pickles

and so just enjoying a pickle

he gets to try and lock down the

qualities of the food he’s eating is it

salty crunchy sour sweet

they play biting and spitting games they

sit in front of mirrors and play motor

control games and they get little cubes

of pickle and put them on toothpicks and

put them on his back teeth

and then he just masters moving his

preferred foods around his mouth and he

does he starts to master feeding and

eating

and it opens the door for him to be able

to work on his trauma with a mental

health professional

and then there’s jasmine

jasmine who finds touch really confusing

she was a clumsy kid at school

she uh feels like that now with her

husband like she’s trying to dance with

two left feet sometimes she doesn’t know

which shoulder he’s touching her on or

where he’s kissed her

but she does know she has to grip her

teeth and bear it

otherwise he’s going to take it

personally

jasmine and her husband find an

occupational therapist with advanced

training and sensory integration and

together they establish what works for

both of them

they drop soft touch from their

repertoire no more neck kissing or

nuzzling

and he gives her a deep firm massage to

down regulate her nervous system

they also find a really great vibrator

that helps jasmine get aroused without

adding in extra touch

so

these three cases could easily have been

labeled

bad daughter bad mother bad student bad

wife but that simply wasn’t the case at

all

so for parents for educators for doctors

for any of us when we’re out in public

and we see someone acting in a way that

we think is a bit strange

let’s stop before we label them and

consider if they might be dealing with a

sensory issue

sensory integration

and sensory integration and processing

are parts of everyday life

so if we want to be a bit more

understanding

we need to hold this in mind

you’re all familiar with the concept of

hangry

when you’re so hungry that you’re angry

but you don’t actually join the dots at

the time but as soon as you eat you

revert back to your regulated functional

self

well hangry applies to all things

sensory

and so if we can remember that

then we can be a bit more understanding

have a bit more grace remembering that

someone else might not be experiencing

things the way that we are

so for all of us for you if you want to

flourish

if you want to be happier healthier

have be more productive more joyful more

loving then we need to start

paying attention to our sensory needs

there’s a fun side to this too sensory

health and sensory informed living

doesn’t just end at the therapy center

it stands far beyond that

take exercise for example the fitness

industry would have us believe that

there’s only a few

valid types of exercise at any one time

and right now it’s strength training

high intensity interval training and

running

but running isn’t a moral issue

if you like running it’s because that’s

what works for your sensory systems

that’s what works for your body

running doesn’t make you a superior

human

i’m sorry it’s true

and if you don’t like running then

that’s okay you can figure out what

works for you

take my son for example he really likes

horse riding and there’s nothing that

makes him feel as calm and grounded as

when he rides a horse postures online

legs are firm heels in

moving with the warm horse the rich

smells

it connects him to his body like nothing

else

and when he misses a session

we all know he’s going to have a tougher

week at school

but someone else might not like horse

reading for horse riding for the same

reasons he likes it and this isn’t about

whether horseback riding is good or bad

this is about you figuring out what

works for you

this extends to the workplace and to

school as well

many people did really well during work

from home and it wasn’t because of the

convenience

it was because they had complete control

over their sensory environment

think about it what works best for you

is it bright lights or muted lights

music in the background

silence perhaps one song on repeat

do you do your best work sitting at a

desk standing or floor sitting

do you do your best work in a suit or in

sweats

some people really are most comfortable

wrapped in a blanket in a darkened room

and we might judge them as lazy or

unprofessional but if that’s what meets

their sensory needs

then they will be more productive and

happier employees if we can provide that

your sensory experience of life is like

no one else’s

so own it

pause several times a day and do a body

scan

figure out what works for you

become a detective of your sensory

preferences

and the master of how you feel

because how you feel

changes everything

thank you

[Music]

you