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Sensory Room:

The Sensory Room at Chrysalis is a place to learn to regulate with sensory stimuli. We receive information about our world through the senses. The ones we think of most are smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), sight (visual), hearing (auditory) and touch (tactile). There are also proprioceptive and vestibular senses. Proprioception is the awareness of the body including movement and position. The vestibular sense relates to the position of the head and the sense of balance. The sensory room, as well as sensory toys within therapists' offices can help the child (or adult, for that matter) to regulate and ground using the senses. 

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The sensory room was created to be a calming space for the child. Many children who have behavioral health needs have problems with sensory dysregulation and/or can be calmed through modifying sensory input. The therapists in behavioral health may use the sensory room in response to individual patients based on their needs to help them learn to modulate affect, behavior and executive functioning. This is integrated with therapy related to behavioral health conditions. For instance, children with trauma histories hold their traumas both in cognition and in their bodies. Often when they are processing trauma, they need bodily movement such as using a balance board. This is typically a joint process between the child and the therapist. All children can benefit from sensory input and we notice that children with histories of trauma as well as those with executive functioning problems (ADHD) and those on the autistic spectrum are especially seeking of the sensory room.