clinic – Active Play Therapies

Thoughts from a Therapist: Showcasing Sensory Clinic Spaces

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 28 June 2024.

In this month’s Thoughts from a Therapist blog, Anna Willis gives us a sneak preview of what she’ll be presenting at this year’s online SIE Conference. In her presentation ‘Showcasing Sensory Clinic Spaces’, she explores the creative side of designing and implementing sensory clinic spaces – from the basic “we’ve only got this space, let’s squeeze a swing in” to the Star Institute Treatment Clinic in Colorado!

I’ve had a busy month pulling together my presentation for SIE’s Conference in September. My presentation is Showcasing Sensory Clinic Spaces and I had a lot of fun revisiting old rooms, trawling through my old photo and video reels of work from years ago and visiting spaces to take videos of rooms in action.

I did wonder whether seeing therapy spaces would in fact be interesting to anyone else… and decided that, for me, I’m always so curious about where other people do their therapy, what it looks like, what their favourite pieces of equipment are and what they don’t rate – that I’m hoping there are lots of you out there too who are equally curious! It became a visual buffet of a wide range of sensory rooms from the basic “we’ve only got this space, let’s squeeze a swing in”, to, wait for it… the Star Institute Treatment Clinic in Colorado!

My mentor and sensory guru, Virginia Spielmann, very kindly let me quiz her all about sensory clinic favourites, regrets and advice, as well as giving me a host of videos I’ve merged together to show you all the wonders of what must be one of the best SI rooms in the world!

Whilst doing my research for the presentation, I realised the breadth of creativity there is in doing Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI). We often don’t have access to giant rooms with lots of fabulously sturdy beams just crying out for suspension points. And instead, we may have a water bed and a gym ball. Or a bus.

That’s right. A bus! I’ve come across a couple of buses kitted out as sensory gyms and they look fabulous. Bar the obvious challenges of available space, they can be made to be so versatile and flexible, whilst having the added bonus of being entirely mobile and rent-free (although I guess parking spaces may be an issue!) Although the bus didn’t make it into my final presentation, I certainly had fun exploring the creative side of sensory clinic spaces and I hope you enjoy my celebration of this at the SIE Conference later this year.

I hope I’ve inspired you all to go and buy a bus now!

Anna

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over ten years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism.

Thoughts From a Therapist: In Suspense For New ASI Space

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 29 August 2021.

This is a new regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over 10 years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism. This month, Anna discusses her excitement about a new ASI space.

“Whilst scrolling on Facebook one day, I did a double take at a photo that set off my SI Geek Alarm. Suspension points!

“Since having to close my clinic space due to maternity leave, and then COVID-19 pushing services online, I have been mainly focusing on sensory assessments and emotional regulation. However – since restrictions eased, I’d started wondering about renting a space out, investigating the local village halls. But here was a different opportunity – a gymnastics hall renting out evenings to an aerial fitness business who had installed suspension points! I called the owner and went to visit.

“Wow – SO many sensory opportunities! It had a sprung floor, sunken trampolines (including a runway style one!), a foam crash pit – as well as 3 suspension points already in situ, load tested and maintained. Financially though, the cost of renting the facility was just unfeasible for one therapist and one family. But it was too good an opportunity to miss – so this Autumn term, myself and another Advanced ASI Practitioner are going to be using this fabulous facility together, seeing two families in the space at once to provide ASI-OT.

“I’m also running a CPD session for the gymnastic coaches after speaking to the owner about the 8 sensory systems and praxis! It is a giant facility so plenty of room for multiple families, but it isn’t something I’ve tried before. In America, it’s more common to have a couple of children in a sensory gym at once – but I haven’t heard of it happening so much in the UK. I’m excited to see how this works – and shall report back on our progress!