Here I am with another update about the fun and interesting things my OT is having me do. (For posts about previous visits, including my sensory assessment, see the Occupational Therapy category, to the right of this post.)
For my third visit, I arrived in slightly better repair than I had for the previous ones. I was coming down with a cold, but I felt pretty grounded, and I’d actually enjoyed the drive. The OT spent a little while catching up on how I’d been doing, which didn’t take long, since she reads my blog! We decided that I should abandon the whole Therapressure brushing/bean bag/soft fabric therapy. She usually begins with the Therapressure protocol because, in kids, tactile defensiveness can be a big obstacle. For me, though, it’s not such a big problem, and it wasn’t worth the resistance it was triggering.
That issue being decided, we went into the gym. Yay!
First things first, of course. She ran the Thumper on my back for a few minutes. Pure heaven. If she’d run it for the whole hour, it would have been worth the drive. Then, she had me stand and watch a big red ball swing back and forth. I could track it with my eyes and was even allowed to move my head this time. Easy enough.
Next, on a big ceiling-to-floor whiteboard, she drew a picture of a sun over a house. She had me stand 10 feet away and then walk forward and backward while looking at the picture of the house. I walked forward just fine, but I got a little disoriented walking backward. I was afraid I was going to walk back too far and bump into something. She suggested I just count my steps going forward so that I wouldn’t worry. That solution worked fine.
Then, she asked me to walk forward looking at the picture of the house, and backward looking at the picture of the sun, moving my head up or down as needed. I did this exercise several times. It seemed okay, except that I started to notice that I was getting overloaded. At this point, we stopped and did a couple of grounding exercises. I did a hand press by pushing my palms against each other with my arms akimbo, and held the position for several seconds. Then, I did a hand pull by clasping the fingers of one hand with the fingers of the other hand, palms together, and pulling. Those two exercises helped. A lot.
The next exercise was great fun. I sat on a big peanut-shaped physioball and rocked from side to side. During this time, the OT drew a picture of waves under the picture of the house. Then, she put on some great Native American drum music. She asked me to focus on the picture of the sun for a few moments, then on the picture of the house, and then on the picture of the waves, all the while rocking laterally to the drum music. I love, love, LOVE rocking laterally, I love, love, LOVE hearing drum music, and I can hyper-focus on a visual like I’ve been doing it all my life (which, actually, I have been doing all my life), so this exercise was well within my comfort zone.
So there I was, rocking to drum music and focusing on visuals, and having a great time until the session was nearly over. Of course, I had to get grounded with the Thumper treatment again. How else was I to get in my car? I was so relaxed by the time it was done that I had trouble imagining how I was going to get up off the mat–especially because my head was on an insanely soft piece of fabric.
The point of all these exercises, as I understand it, is to help me a) expand my sense of space by moving in different directions, and b) overcome some of my gravitational insecurity by moving my eyes in a different direction than the rest of my body.
Since my OT reads this blog, she saw that I’ve been wanting to relearn Torah cantillation. So, for homework, she suggested that I put a big paragraph of Hebrew text on the wall, and then:
1. Walk forward and backward as I sing the words from right to left, going from top to bottom. I’m a little dizzy just thinking about it, but I’ll give it a try.
2. Sit and rock laterally as I sing the Hebrew text from right to left, going from top to bottom. This exercise sounds more inviting.
She also suggested that I drum and rock from side to side, so I’m getting my djembe out of the corner and doing some music with it. Between the singing and the drumming, I’ll get lots of vibrations going in my body, which will be soothing to my vestibular system, especially when I rock laterally.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.
© 2009 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
Sounds cool , how’d you find an OT that has her own gym? Wow! My OT sure didn’t. In fact, she didn’t have an office either. Maybe that was the problem, lol. She was not particularly helpful, shall we say.
It’s a small gym, in a small office, but they seem to have everything they need there. It’s a pretty cool place. There are three OTs. Mine has been an OT for 8 years, and the other two women have been OTs for 20 years. I found them after weeks of searching for someone who did sensory integration work with adults. Most OTs won’t work with someone on SPD issues if they’re older than 18. That’s why I have to drive an hour each way, but it’s well worth it.
This sounds wonderful, and I keep wishing I had such resources in my area. I’m enjoying reading about how this is going for you!
Thanks, Stat Mama.