The Sensory Connection Program Conferences
Sensory Connection Program Trainings feature a "see, touch, and try" approach as well as many clinical stories that help to make the information meaningful as well as memorable. Trainings happen throughout the country in settings including state and private psychiatric hospitals, adolescent units, geriatric facilities, school programs, veteran's hospitals, trauma conferences and conferences for occupational therapy associations. These trainings are designed to meet the needs of the contracting programs and facilities and often focus on self-regulation, sensory groups, sensory rooms, restraint and seclusion reduction, and trauma informed care. Trainings can be multidisciplinary or OT specific and last a full day or a day and a half. They always include experiential opportunities and application labs to help participants integrate information and begin to set goals for implementation of sensory approaches.
Learn more about past "in-person" Sensory Connection Program Conferences
Follow this link for an example outline for a full day multidisciplinary training
Sensory Connection Program Online Conferences
The Sensory Connection Program is now offering on-line conferences. There are many possible formats, but one option for the equivalent of a two-day conference consists of eight hours of Video Taped sessions on chosen topics which participants can watch at their leisure followed by four experiential lab sessions using Zoom or a similar platform. Homework activities are provided and then used as part of the small group experiential sessions. This online format eliminates the need to travel to a location as well as all the costs involved. Participants are finding it easier to access these conferences because they can listen to the Video portion when it is convenient and only have to set aside a morning and afternoon for the lab sessions. There is much more time to digest and practice using the various techniques and assessment tools and integrate the information into clinical practice. Times for questions and answers are built into the experiential lab sessions. Before the conference informational handouts and slide handouts along with information on homework assignments are sent to participants along with the link to the video sessions. Our team will work with the program or facility contracting for online conferences to make sure the topics address their needs and challenges.
If you are interested in sponsoring an online workshop, please contact Karen Moore.
Learn more about the CAOT online workshop [pdf file].
Examples of Past Online Conferences
Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists
Sensory Modulation Approaches to Mental Health Interventions for Adults and Adolescents
September 2021, October - November 2021, February - March 2022
In 2020 we were contacted by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) to do a series of in-person sensory modulation workshops throughout Canada. As we worked together on arrangements for these conferences along came COVID and we were asked to consider changing to an online format. This seemed very daunting at first but turned out to be an exciting and very successful venture.
We began with planning an online workshop that would be offered twice, once in September and again at the end of October. We decided to offer a hybrid model meaning that the workshop would consist of 8 hours of video taped lectures presented by Karen Moore and a series of four Webinar Labs led by Peggy Ninow and Megan Flood. These workshops were sold out and so much in demand that the SCP Team was invited to do yet another workshop in February - March of 2022.
Learn more about the details of these CAOT workshops → [81 KB pdf].
Feedback and Takeaways from the CAOT Workshops:
"I appreciated the warm approach towards therapeutic use of self and the reminder to practice our own regulation in order to be most effective."
"The handout packages were awesome and will be practical and useful."
"I have already used some handouts with clients."
"Lots of excellent evidence-based tools to use immediately in practice."
"I liked the mixture of pre-recorded lecture at your own pace along with the live labs - labs were practical and relaxed."
"I felt the combination of pre-recorded lecture and live labs helped to integrate my learning. Practicing the strategies and having my questions answered was so valuable."
"The labs were a wonderful supplement and truly became the highlight of the workshop, especially with the presenters modeling the material in practical form."
"It was SO helpful having the research articles outlined throughout the lectures. Usually, you have to go digging to see how the article contributed to the presenter's ideas."
"I learned "OT's have a HUGE role in sensory approaches and supporting our clients in a mental health setting."
"I learned that "Empowering clients to understand their own sensory profile and supporting them to identify and implement strategies for themselves is incredibly powerful for their recovery journey."