A Sensory Success

When you work in healthcare, you don’t always get to see the immediate results of the impact that you have made on someone’s life. When you do get the opportunity to receive the positive feedback, it is both heartwarming and motivating. Such was the case for Ariana Dirk who is an Occupational Therapist at MHRH. This is her story below:

I had the pleasure of working with a family who had a little one with sensory processing differences that were impacting all parts of his day from eating, to playing, navigating big feelings, haircuts, and family outings. Through a series of treatment blocks, tons of hard work by him and his family who consistently worked towards their goals, we worked as a team to integrate all the strategies and tools into their everyday lives. The success is 100% due to him and his family and I was absolutely overjoyed to watch him grow and progress. From not being able to tolerate even looking at certain textures or being near certain foods to his mom telling me about him trying a new food, to being covered head to toe in our messy play activities, and finally being able to do swimming lessons. “I know it’s the weekend and I hope you see this on Monday BUT I seriously can’t thank you enough. I am not sure how we got to this point but I am crying all the happy tears. Thank you so very much!” Attached was a photo of her son lying stretched out on his back in the sand with his eyes closed and a massive smile on his face from a family trip to the beach. This is all we ever hope for when seeing our families; to help them do whatever it is that is important to them, so they can enjoy all the big and small moments in life that they weren’t able to do before.