PROGRAMS OFFERED

Tomatis® Sound Therapy

Eating a sandwich. Talking on the phone. Vacuuming the carpet. Throwing a ball. These actions all have one thing in common: they cause your brain to process sensation. It’s called “sensory integration,” and for most people, it’s effortless. Yet for millions of others, they pose a challenge. As many as 1 in 20 struggle with everyday activities: they have trouble organizing sensory signals into appropriate responses. This might result in an unusual aversion to noise and light, or the inability to engage in conversation, ride a bicycle, or use a pencil, fork, or knife. Poor sensory integration often goes undiagnosed and is not considered a stand-alone disorder.

When untreated, it can lead to low self-esteem, social isolation, communication difficulties and emotional or psychological struggles. Over 50 years ago, pioneering French physician Alfred A. Tomatis developed an effective solution. Focusing on hearing (our brain’s most important sensory integrator), he developed The Tomatis Method®, a sensory stimulation program that tones tiny muscles in the ear, building powerful multi-sensory pathways in the brain. Improving hearing transformed the way that Tomatis’ patients processed sensory information. Today, the Tomatis Method® and its patented technology literally changes the ear and how a child listens, restoring his or her potential for a full, rich, and confident life. This form of therapy is delivered as an intensive therapy either in the clinic or at home. It consists of listening to music for 2 hours a day for 13 days. This intensive form of therapy is typically repeated 2 more times with a 4-6 week break in between each intensive. It has demonstrated a profound positive impact on regulation, attention, emotion, communication, coordination, social interaction, developmental disorders and academic difficulties.

DIRFloortime®

DIR Floortime is a relationship-based therapy based on the development of our nervous system. The intervention is called Floortime because the parent gets down on the floor with the child to play and interact with the child at their level.  The goal is for adults to help children expand their “circles of communication.” They meet the child at their developmental level and build on their strengths.  Therapists and parents engage children through the activities each child enjoys. They enter the child's games. They follow the child's lead.  Floortime aims to help the child reach six key milestones that contribute to emotional and intellectual growth:

  • Self-regulation and interest in the world

  • Intimacy, or engagement in relationships

  • Two-way communication

  • Complex communication

  • Emotional ideas

  • Emotional thinking

Therapists teach parents how to direct their children into more and more complex interactions. This process, called “opening and closing circles of communication,” is central to the Floortime approach.  Floortime does not work on speech, motor or cognitive skills in isolation. It addresses these areas through its focus on emotional development.  Overall, this method encourages children to push themselves to their full potential. It develops “who they are,” rather than “what their diagnosis says.”

Forbrain®

Forbrain ~ use your voice to boost your brain. This is a tool, which is used primarily at home. It is used to help improve speech pronunciation and fluency, reading comprehension, active working memory, concentration and/or attention, energy level, confidence level and/or vocal quality. The Forbrain is worn by placing the wraparound headband behind your neck with the transducers resting on the bone in front of your ears, not in your ears. The sound (your own voice) is immediately picked up by the microphone and processed by a dynamic filter, which amplifies the “linguistic frequencies”. The child then hears his/her own voice with a concentration on the frequencies, which help promote improved listening, learning, attention and overall energy/mood. The sound is transmitted via bone conduction, vibration in one’s facial bones, on each side of the temporal bone. Between Tomatis® intensives, Forbrain is recommended for about 10 minutes per day.

Interactive Metronome®

The Interactive Metronome is a computer-based program, which improves timing in the brain or temporal processing. Good or efficient temporal processing allows for good attention to task, reading comprehension, remembering information, processing of speech and motor coordination. Children with ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Autism, Dyslexia, Brain Injury and Reading Challenges often have these neural timing deficits and benefit from this program. Interactive Metronome is typically delivered as an intensive program 3-5 times per week. The new dynamic audio-visual feedback games help to keep children interested and involved to encourage higher repetitions of the exercises. Interactive Metronome Home is a great alternative for those who cannot come into the clinic at as intensive rate allowing sessions to be completed at home while being monitored in the clinic.

Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration (MNRI® Method)

Dr. Masgutova, a Developmental and Educational Psychologist had an early interest in the study of reflexes. Her work is based upon the primary movements and reflex patterns, which we are born with, that are key elements of human development and are essential to our survival. They are also considered to be fundamental neurological building blocks for learned movement, higher-level skills and cognitive development. Often times, children with various challenges, have retained reflexes.

When child development is disrupted for whatever reason, over stimulation to sensory stimuli, brain injury, developmental delays or other stressful events, retention of certain reflexes occurs to help protect their systems. Work aimed at providing precise stimuli to activate the reflexes and other exercises to help the motor experience of the reflexes can create more efficient neurological pathways. We are therefore not trying to inhibit these reflexes, but allowing them to function more efficiently. This can have a positive impact on a child’s body awareness, attention to task, sensory processing, motor skills, self-image and interaction with others. This is a gentle type of intervention and can easily be carried over at home as part of your child’s home program. We use our knowledge from courses attended to incorporate reflex integration into our practice.

Handwriting Without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears is a wonderful way to learn to identify letters, the correct way to form letters, sizing and spacing when writing and how to use the lines when writing. It uses a multi-sensory approach to handwriting and can be adapted into a child’s current handwriting curriculum. It is an easy-to-learn approach, which is fun for children. Research shows that it is still important to learn to write. Children who learn to write by hand demonstrate improved creativity and fine motor skills. Because handwriting is being introduced at such a young age, it is important for children to learn the correct way to hold a pencil or the correct way to form a letter. It is especially important before bad habits begin that can have a negative impact on the speed and legibility of their writing later on. Handwriting remains the primary tool used to communicate within classrooms. With that being said, keyboarding is also important especially in today’s modern world. We often use Keyboarding Without Tears in conjunction with learning to write.

Soundsory is a multi-sensory home based program for the brain and body. It helps improve both motor and cognitive abilities with specifically designed music processed with neuro-acoustic modifications and can also be completed with a series of movement based exercises.

Soundsory helps improve: Attention, Motivation, Spatial awareness, Hand eye coordination, Social skills, Balance, Posture, Rhythm and timing, Body awareness, Handwriting, and Learning difficulties.

The music has been specifically recorded to emphasize the rhythm of sounds in order to activate body movement. A patented dynamic filter makes the higher-pitched sounds crisper while softening lower pitches. Combined with tempo changes from song to song, Soundsory stimulates our hearing and balance systems. This challenges the brain and helps form neural connections. The sound is transmitted using both air and bone conduction to deliver unique and efficient stimulation to the vestibular and auditory systems. Together, the ear and brain are retrained to process sensory information more quickly and accurately for better balance, coordination, and motor skills. 

The program consists of listening for 30 minutes per day for 5 to 7 days per week for 40 days total. A 2 to 3 week break is taken in the middle between days 20 and 21. It is okay to miss up to 3 days of listening in a row and pick back up where you left off. If more than 3 days are missed in a row, it is advised to start the program over.

Infant Health

Pre and post frenectomy care: 

Bodywork is a necessary part of pre and post operative care associated with Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs). TOTs can include a tongue tie, lip tie, and buccal ties. Babies with TOTs often have oral motor dysfunction which impacts infant health and interferes with feeding, sleeping, and breathing. TOTs can also impact the structure of the musculoskeletal system as children grow. We provide craniosacral therapy in conjunction with oral motor re-education techniques to both prep the baby’s mouth and body for the procedure, as well as to help with recovery and re-learning motor patterns for successful feeding and healthy breathing. 

Some signs/symptoms of TOTs include:

  • Difficulty latching or staying latched (to breast or bottle)

  • Clicking sound while feeding

  • Milk dripping out of the mouth while feeding

  • Reflux

  • Open mouth posture

  • Tension throughout the body

  • A high narrow palate

  • Difficulty holding a pacifier in the mouth

  • Pain for mom while breastfeeding

Torticollis:

Torticollis occurs when tight muscles cause your baby’s head to turn to one side. This one sided preference causes asymmetry and can impact development. Consistent pressure on one part of the skull can lead to plagiocephaly and other differences with how the face and head shape develop.

Some signs/symptoms of torticollis include:

  • Your baby’s head turns to one side and their chin tilts to the other

  • One of your baby’s shoulders is higher than the other

  • Asymmetrical facial features

  • Stiff or tight neck muscles

Safe and Sound Protocol

Trauma, sensory processing difficulties, and developmental differences may cause us to view the world as unsafe as we misinterpret cues from our environment as a threat. This limits the body’s ability to heal and recover. The SSP has music that is filtered through an evidence-based algorithm that highlights specific sound frequencies that help regulate the autonomic nervous system and improve auditory processing, leading to more groundedness, resilience, and a better social connection. This improvement in nervous system regulation helps to decrease the fight or flight response. When we perceive the world as safe it frees up our capacity for higher level learning and engagement. The SSP consists of 5 hours of music that can be done in the clinic while providing a therapeutic environment, or it can be completed at home.

The SSP may help with reducing symptoms and supporting overall health and resiliency for people seeking support with:

  • Neurodevelopmental differences such as Autism and ADHD 

  • Auditory and other sensory processing differences

  • Learning difficulties

  • Sleep

  • Trauma history

  • Eating difficulties and gut dysfunction

  • Depression and anxiety

Feeding / Oral Motor

Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding (SOS):

The SOS Approach is a results-driven feeding program with 30 years of proven clinical experience helping children learn the skills they need to eat well.

Values of the SOS Approach include:

  • Starting with each child’s and family’s unique strengths to help children learn to eat at a pace that works best for their body, using intrinsic motivation to help build skills for eating,

  • Following typical development as our “blueprint and map” to help teach the skills for eating, while recognizing each child’s individual neural capacity, learning abilities, physical needs and environment may mean that they have a different path,

  • Using clinical reasoning to choose foods to help a child learn the skills needed to eat a varied and nutritious diet in a manner that respects their unique strengths and differences,

  • Engaging the child in play-with-a-purpose (matched to that child’s cognitive age and interests) to support skill development. We playfully invite the children to join us in a journey about learning to eat, and

  • Helping to educate society on the research behind feeding challenges.

The SOS Approach Utilizes Systematic Desensitization to teach a child new skills in a manner that respects the child’s readiness to learn those skills. This is very different than other programs using extinction, exposure, or negative reinforcement. When systematic desensitization is used correctly, the child is always in charge of the pace of progress. A child is invited to play with an adult moving up and down a series of Steps to Eating based on the child’s interest, engagement and comfort level with the play. The therapist continuously evaluates the child and responds to the child’s cues.

Nutritional Therapy

Using a bio-individual, holistic approach, our therapist will work with families to understand the underlying possibilities of what may be impacting each client's unique nutritional needs and deficiencies. Nutritional Therapy Practitioners support the body's innate ability to heal by addressing the importance of:

  • Nutrient-dense food

  • Nutrient supplementation recommendations

  • Lifestyle choices

  • Culinary wellness & exploration

  • Client/Family coaching

  • How social and personal components influence health