Sensory Modulation Resource Manual

09/09/2026

She could smell a disease doctors couldn't detect for over a decade.

Joy Milne, a retired nurse from Perth, Scotland, first noticed something odd about her husband Les back in the early 1980s. His scent had changed — a heavy, musky smell that hadn't been there before. She assumed he simply wasn't washing properly and told him so, more than once, causing real tension between them. It would be twelve years before Les was finally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

It wasn't until the couple attended a Parkinson's support group that Joy realized what she'd actually been smelling. Walking into that room, she was struck by the exact same scent on every single person there. Her nose, it turned out, was picking up on something science hadn't caught yet. Joy has hereditary hyperosmia, a rare condition that gives her a vastly heightened sense of smell.

In 2012, she mentioned her theory to Dr. Tilo Kunath, a neurobiologist at the University of Edinburgh, after one of his talks. He was skeptical, understandably. So he decided to test her. Researchers handed her 12 plain T-shirts to smell — six worn by people with Parkinson's, six worn by healthy volunteers. Joy wasn't told which was which.

She got all six Parkinson's shirts right. Then she flagged a seventh, insisting that person had the disease too, even though he'd been placed in the healthy control group. The researchers assumed it was her one mistake.

Eight months later, that man was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Joy hadn't made an error at all. She had detected the illness before medicine could, using nothing but her sense of smell.

That single result changed the direction of Parkinson's research. Scientists discovered the scent comes from changes in sebum, the oily substance produced by skin, altered by the disease long before visible symptoms appear.
Working alongside Joy for over a decade since, researchers at the University of Manchester have gone on to develop a simple skin swab test that can detect Parkinson's biomarkers in just a few minutes, with reported accuracy above 90%.

Les passed away in 2015. Joy has spent the years since working with scientists to make sure what she noticed in her own home never goes unnoticed again.

07/09/2026

Introductory Sensory Modulation Course
On Demand Webinar Series

Focuses on Sensory Modulation and its application with regard to a range of support and living environments.
This includes:
* inpatient mental health units,
* community supports
* high dependency units
* residential, rehabilitation and respite facilities

Purchase individually or as an organisation package with live introduction and final Q and A session
Available worldwide!

Presenters are experienced Mental Health OTs and published authors

06/09/2026

01/09/2026

Members of Occupational Therapy

May be interested in attending the Pain Management Interest Group meeting where Julie and Carolyn are presenting.

31/08/2026

LISTS: Leisure Interests, Sports Through the Senses.
LISTS is a Leisure Interest Checklist organised according to sensory experiences and environments .

Activities are also grouped according to:
* primarily indoors or outdoors
* by self or with others

We developed LISTS in response to a couple of clinical scenarios:

1. A person who was interested in exploring leisure activities that she could do at home.

2. A young person admitted to a mental health unit with a love of nature and who had interests but they were just not on any checklist!

3. Sometimes sensory differences were an enabler or a barrier of exploring interests and so it was useful to explore leisure interests according to the senses.

4. Checklists can be pretty dry so we incorporated some unusual interests in the checklist to encourage humour or curiosity!

Free to download on the Sensory Modulation Brisbane Free Resources page
*Italian translation available

30/08/2026

Sensory Based Interventions (SBI) in Schools

OTs who work with children and in the school environment may be interested in this new article by Margaret Morris.

"Occupational Therapy Best Practices in U.S. Public Schools: Alignment with Federal Legislation and State Licensure"in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy.

"School occupational therapy practitioners are well-versed in the use of SBIs in collaboration and consultation with the interprofessional educational team (Benson et al., 2019; Watt et al., 2024), without adding ASI® with fidelity. One benefit of SBIs is the ability of school practitioners to collaborate with the team to place the intervention in context, wherever and whenever the student's participation outcomes benefit from the sensory strategy during their day. A scoping review by Watt et al. (2024) reports generally mixed evidence for SBIs, and both Benson et al. (2019) and Watt et al. (2024) advocate for further data collection on SBIs tied explicitly to student participation goals. It is imperative for researchers not to conflate the implementation of SBIs and ASI® as similar in the published literature; doing so only perpetuates the challenge in researching the effectiveness of both categories."

(Thankyou Greg Santucci for highlighting this article)

Sensory Modulation Brisbane uses the DIN model as a SBI.

The DIN model proposes that sensory modulation interventions work by:

(1) strengthening the person's (and/or educators') sensory awareness;
(2) changing the environment; and
(3) changing occupations.

Alterations to sensory input can be explored and applied through:

* Decreasing or eliminating the sensory input,
* Increasing the sensory input,
* New sensory input introduced.

23/08/2026

Warmth and Hugging Strengthen the Feeling of Being You

A growing body of research shows that temperature signals from the skin help shape bodily self-awareness, influencing how connected we feel to our physical selves.

Warmth and touch strengthen the feeling of body ownership by engaging interoceptive pathways that link sensation to emotion and identity.

Disruptions in thermal perception can weaken this sense of embodiment, contributing to detachment in several mental health and neurological conditions.

These insights may inform new therapeutic strategies that use temperature-based or tactile interventions to support grounding and wellbeing.

https://neurosciencenews.com/temperature-hugging-body-awareness-30020/

17/08/2026

Julie and Carolyn have developed a course based on years of clinical experience in working with people who found bathing really challenging.

* The person who hears voices when they try to shower
* The person who experienced trauma in the bathroom and hates being in there
* the autistic child with sensory and anxiety challenges
* People who feel that a shower needs to be done in a certain way and does not have the energy for that.

Julie and Carolyn provide practical guidance and solutions to suit most challenges in bathing!



#

10/08/2026

Clinicians working in mental health need a broad toolbox including grounding skills.

This webinar provides a deep dive into grounding skills and content includes:
Brief description of Dissociation, Panic, Disconnection and Flashbacks
Pickle juice, vinegar, mustard as strategies including
why it works.
Other Sensory Modulation strategies that are grounding
This 2 hour 30 minute pre-recorded webinar series and powerpoint presentation focuses on grounding strategies .
The videos are divided up into 9 smaller videos.

Throughout each webinar, participants will be invited to pause the recording for the opportunities to reflect on content or engage in an activity to help consolidate learning.
A 31 page workbook is also accessible for participant use.

Grounding Strategies for Dissociation, Panic, Disconnection and Flashbacks This webinar provides a range of Grounding strategies for you to try. Content includes: Brief description of Dissociation, Panic, Disconnection and Flashbacks Grounding Strategies Workbook

06/08/2026

Are you interested in assistive technology and autism?

Do you want to increase understanding of neuroaffirming approaches to AT assessment & prescription for autistic people? The next ARATAaus webinar (available real time and on-demand via recording) is being delivered on Wednesday 19th August 2026 at 4pmAEST by Carolyn Fitzgibbon (Sensory Modulation Brisbane and OTSi).

Details and registrations via link in comments