Sensory Integration Education

My clinical work with deaf clients with complex medical and communication profiles first brought me into the sphere of SI.  I was reading about sensory sensitivities and the impact these could have on autistic people's engagement and participation, and I could see those challenges showing up for lots of my clients, some of whom were autistic, but the majority not.  It piqued my interest, and I wanted to understand more.  My OT colleague steered me towards ASI, I started the modular training pathway in 2007, and never looked back! 

After I completed the Advanced Practice training in 2010, I wanted to explore more of the different applications of SI theory to practice.  I completed DIR Floortime training, Sensory Attachment Intervention training and the SOS Feeding Programme, as well as lots of short courses and workshops.  I was fortunate to be invited to join the SIE Education Team in 2012, teaching workshops and masterclasses across the UK and Ireland. 

When SIE took the pioneering decision to offer an online training course in ASI, I came aboard as the Content Lead for the clinical modules.  I work across the lifespan, and have taken a lead role in creating workshops and SI adaptations for different clinical populations, including for people with dementia.  Alongside my clinical work, I am a clinical mentor for SI3 and SI4.  At a national level, I am the RCSCLT National Clinical Advisor in Sensory Integration, the founder and Chair of the SI-SALT Clinical Excellence Network, and have presented at national and international conferences on ASI/SI.

I would say there are three different levels of how I use SI in my practice.  At it's broadest level, I use an SI lens all the time to interpret what I observe: using the neuro knowledge I have from my SI training to track back from behaviours that disrupt what a person wants and needs to do in their day to possible sensory underpinnings.  It is a core part of how I assess and reason clinically.  At a second level, I bring SI strategies and principles into almost all the therapy work that I do, across all settings. 

For example, I am always thinking about how to use SI as part of what I am doing to help the client up- and downregulate so they can get the most out of the session.  That might look like asking the client to help set up the equipment and resources to give them active prioprioceptive input, where in the past I might have just prepped the room myself in advance; or positioning resources so there is more stretching or turning their body when the client uses them. 

And then at a third level, for some clients ASI is the appropriate intervention approach within my professional remit, and for these people I use direct ASI therapy, usually peripatetic and working to achieve Fidelity where possible.  Having worked in some settings where I could use a dedicated ASI sensory room with suspended equipment, my experience is that while having access to an SI room is an amazing bonus and makes effective ASI therapy easier, it is also definitely possible to achieve comparable outcomes working creatively in different settings.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it!  I find it hard to imagine now trying to work without having access to knowledge about sensory integration as part of the clinical reasoning process, and I want to support others to understand when and where and how SI might fit in their clinical contexts.  Teaching and mentoring in SI for so long means that I've had experience of an enormously wide range of client groups, settings and challenges, and I'm really good at helping people find the 'way in' for the SI piece in their work.  It is an enormous privilege to work with OTs, Physios and SLTs so they can make the theory useful and easy to implement in practice.  Participation, engagement and connection are at the heart of the human experience, and SI is a crucial piece in that.

You can see a short video from Amy here.