This course presents the overview of an entry-level doctoral capstone experience of a third year occupational therapy student using sensory modulation as an emotional regulation technique in the inpatient mental health setting.

There are many different coping skills that we can use during times of emotional distress or crisis, and often times do require skill. One simpler way is to use our senses (such as touch, vision, and smell) to help deescalate this emotional distress to bring our nervous systems back to a more regulatory state.

Our body has seven senses that it can utilize to help regulate emotions: movement/vestibular, proprioception, vision, touch/tactile, taste/oral motor, hearing/auditory, and smell/olfaction. This project was meant as a way to implement these sensory modulation interventions in both an acute state of crisis for patients, as well as intervention for maintenance of emotional regulation. Education to utilize these strategies should be provided to both the patients and providers utilizing and implementing these sensory strategies.

This presentations highlights the 14-week journey of an occupational therapy student identifying the need of this intervention through an intensive literature review, and the process to create and implement group protocols to be used for patient treatment once the doctoral capstone experience was completed.