Discover your unique sensory needs and how they impact your emotional well-being and mental health. Explore strategies to accommodate sensory preferences in touch, vision, taste, smell, and sound. Learn how to adapt environments for touch seekers, touch avoiders, and more. Find tips for accommodating sensory needs in children, including picky eaters and vestibular sensory needs. Get detailed strategies for auditory sensory needs, such as using white noise and noise-canceling headphones.
Understanding and adapting to individual sensory preferences can improve emotional regulation and mental health.
Exploring the 7 sensory areas can reveal whether one is a seeker, avoider, or neutral, guiding adaptive strategies for comfort.
Deep dives
Understanding Sensory Needs
Acknowledging and adapting to our individual sensory preferences can unlock a secret code to feeling more comfortable and regulated in daily life. Exploring the seven sensory areas reveals whether one is a sensory seeker, avoider, or neutral, informing ways to adapt for emotional regulation and improved mental health. Touch, proprioceptive, vision, taste and smell, vestibular, and auditory sensory needs are assessed and discussed.
Creating Sensory Accommodations
For touch seekers, incorporating tactile sensory tools, physical play, weighted items, sensory-friendly materials, and scheduled sensory breaks can provide comfort. Touch avoiders benefit from setting boundaries, predictability in physical contact, personalized clothing options, and space for self-regulation. Proprioceptive seekers find relief in heavy work activities, weighted items, tactile tools, and structured daily routines, while avoiders benefit from assertiveness, gentle movement options, and stability aids.
Tailoring the Environment for Visual Preferences
Visual seekers thrive in visually stimulating environments with colorful decor, visual schedules, and engaging visuals, benefiting from structured visual aids and environments. Visual avoiders prefer minimal, clutter-free spaces with muted colors, minimal decoration, and controlled lighting to reduce sensory overload, embracing simplicity and calm in their surroundings.
Addressing Taste, Smell, Vestibular, and Auditory Sensitivities
Taste and smell seekers enjoy a variety of foods, engaging in food preparation, creating sensory-friendly dining spaces, while avoiders benefit from respecting food preferences, quiet dining areas, and serving milder, less intense flavors. Vestibular seekers find comfort in active play, swings, movement breaks, and spinning equipment, while avoiders seek quiet and low-stimulation spaces, gentle movements, and warnings for changes in movement. Auditory seekers thrive with auditory stimulation like music, schedules, and active play, while avoiders require noise-canceling tools, quiet spaces, volume control over electronic devices, and controlled noise environments.
Have you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed, irritable, or simply drained by your surroundings? It's not uncommon to experience these emotions, especially in a world that's constantly buzzing with activity and stimuli. But what many people don’t realize is that these feelings could be closely tied to our sensory needs. Understanding and acknowledging our unique sensory preferences is like discovering the secret code to feeling more comfortable and at ease in our daily lives. In this Podcast, we’ll explore what your specific sensory needs are in each of the 7 sensory areas, and we’ll talk about how you can adapt to them. Because this can help you regulate your emotions and improve your mental health. So, let’s jump in.
Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell
Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction.
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode