Sensory Reactivity, Stress, and Resilience
Connie Lillas, RN, MFT, PhD and Diane Parham, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
About the Webinar
During this webinar, we will review Sensory Reactivity from an ASI perspective including assessment and evidence-based intervention. We will discuss the relationship between sensation and arousal and implications for dysregulated responses and adaptive versus toxic stress. Given that toxic stress interferes with one’s joy in life, long-term health, and fulfilling relationships, considerations for intervention will include addressing arousal regulation, sensory regulatory tools, and titrating the therapeutic challenges that build stress tolerance to support individuals to feel safe and secure in their actions and interactions.
Connie Lillas, RN, MFT, PhD
Connie Lillas, RN, MFT, PhD is the Director of the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF) Institute: Research to Resilience, with a background in high-risk maternal-child nursing, family systems, and developmental psychoanalysis. In her private practice, Connie specializes in dual diagnoses across both developmental delays and mental health concerns. In her community work, she specializes in training cross-disciplinary teams in local, national, and international communities, based upon her co-authored book — A Neurorelational Framework (NRF) for Interdisciplinary Practice, which is a part of the W. W. Norton Interpersonal Neurobiology Series. Her energy currently is placed towards her having launched her authored Interactive Manual Workbook titled Three Steps to Resilience in January. Here, a common language and shared approach using the NRF can be used for holistic healthcare outcomes aimed to reduce and eliminate toxic stress in infants, children, and their parents by providing customized and collaborative care.
Diane Parham, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Diane Parham is Professor Emerita in the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program at the University of New Mexico (UNM). She earned a B.A. degree in Occupational Therapy (OT) from the University of Florida, an M.A. in OT from the University of Southern California (USC), and a Ph.D in Education from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining the UNM faculty in 2007, she taught at USC for over 20 years. She has taught SI certificate courses sponsored by USC for over 25 years, including an intensive 4-month graduate course on Ayres SI theory and practice at the private practice of Dr. A. Jean Ayres. Among her publications are a textbook, Play in Occupational Therapy for Children, and an assessment tool, the Sensory Processing Measure, now in its second edition for assessment across the lifespan.