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