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COURSE OBJECTIVES
 
* Understand the key features of sensory defensiveness and how it disrupts occupational performance
* Demonstrate knowledge of clinical strategies for the treatment of sensory defensiveness across a variety of age and disability groups, including developing client awareness, creating a “sensory diet”, and applying a direct treatment approach to various clinical populations.
* Identify symptoms of sensory defensiveness at different ages, using a specialized clinical interview
* Provide direct clinical management for clients being treated for sensory defensiveness
* Have an overview of the emerging psychological and neuroscience theories related to this condition as a basis for further study and research.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Sensory defensiveness is a serious sensory modulation problem that is often misidentified and infrequently treated effectively. This workshop will introduce an in depth, clinical approach to treating sensory defensiveness. Sensory defensiveness will be described across multiple age and diagnostic groups. The relation between sensory defensiveness and emerging psychological and neuroscience theories of behaviour will be considered.

The evening clinical labs offered in the course consist of training in specific assessment and treatment techniques, including the protocols developed by Patricia Wilbarger. Practicum exercises incorporate detecting and analyzing sensory-based behaviour, activity planning (the “sensory diet”), and the management of individual cases using advanced clinical reasoning procedures.

Clinical work over four decades and advances in basic neuroscience has resulted in a specific, multidimensional treatment approach for sensory defensiveness that has a dramatic impact on many clients. This integrated approach is client-centered and requires advanced clinical reasoning. Direct training is vital for appropriate application of the Therapressure Technique (Wilbarger approach) for treating Sensory defensiveness.
 
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Physical Therapists, Physicians, Pediatricians, Psychologists and Other Mental Health Professionals.  Other participants may apply for attendance, for review on a case by case basis.

FACULTY PROFILE

Patricia Wilbarger, MEd, OTR, FAOTA, is an Occupational Therapist and Counseling Psaychologist who has been working with some aspect of sensory processing theories for over forty years. She is a cofounder of Sensory Integration International and Avanti Projects. She has lectured worldwide and has contributed to the development of sensory integration organizations in several countries.

Ms. Wilbarger is well-known for her clinical work with newborns, infants, and children with diverse diagnoses. She was one of the first Occupational Therapists to work in the public schools and the neonatal intensive care unit. She lectures nationally and internationally on sensory processing disorders and sensory integration, and is currently in private practice in Santa Barbara, California.

Julia Wilbarger, PhD, OTR, received a Bachelors Degree in Physiological Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, a Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy from Boston University, and a PhD in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Denver, Colorado. She has worked as an OT in early intervention with high risk and developmentally delayed infants and toddlers. She has worked with children of all ages in outpatient and school practice. She is certified in the administration of the SIPT and trained in NDT, and served as a clinical specialist in sensory integration at The Children’s Hospital, Denver. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the University of Winconsin, Madison in the Department of Kinesiology where her research program is focused on understanding the foundations of sensory and affective processing disruptions in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.