Trauma & PTSD Recovery
Trauma-Informed Pediatric OT · Brewer, Maine
Your child's behaviors aren't the problem. The nervous system is overwhelmed.
Trauma doesn't just live in memory. It lives in the body — in reflexes, in sensory responses, in the way a child braces for what comes next. At Sensory Therapy Place, we work at the level where trauma is actually stored: the nervous system itself.
What trauma looks like in a child's body
Trauma in children rarely looks like what adults expect. It doesn't always arrive as nightmares or flashbacks. More often, it shows up as behavior — and behavior that looks like defiance, sensory overreaction, or developmental regression is often the nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do: protect.
Common signs that trauma may be affecting your child's nervous system:
- Explosive meltdowns disproportionate to triggers
- Emotional shutdown, freezing, or dissociation
- Heightened startle response or hypervigilance
- Sensory defensiveness — aversion to touch, sound, or movement
- Regression in developmental skills
- Sleep disturbances and difficulty settling
- Difficulty with transitions, routines, or new environments
- Attachment challenges and difficulty trusting caregivers
- Chronic physical complaints without clear medical cause
- Aggressive or self-protective behaviors
Why occupational therapy — and why our approach specifically
Trauma is not just a psychological event. It is a full-body, neurological event. That's why occupational therapy — practiced through a neurodevelopmental lens — is one of the most powerful frameworks for trauma recovery available.
At Sensory Therapy Place, our trauma-informed OT practice goes one layer deeper than most: we work at the neurodevelopmental root of dysregulation. We're not teaching coping strategies on top of an overwhelmed nervous system. We're addressing the foundational architecture of that nervous system — the primitive reflexes, sensory processing patterns, and autonomic regulation capacity that determine how a child experiences safety in the first place.
Our neurodevelopmental framework for trauma recovery
What makes our approach distinct is the integration of neurodevelopmental science into every clinical decision. We look underneath the presenting behavior — to the nervous system architecture generating it.
Primitive reflex integration
Many children with trauma histories present with retained primitive reflexes — automatic survival responses from early development that never fully integrated. When a child has been exposed to chronic stress, these reflexes can become locked in a protective activation pattern, keeping the body perpetually braced for threat even in safe environments. Our reflex integration work directly addresses this physiological underpinning of hypervigilance. Learn more about primitive reflex integration →
Sensory processing and autonomic regulation
Trauma reshapes the autonomic nervous system. Children who have experienced adverse early experiences often develop exaggerated or blunted responses to sensory input, because their nervous system recalibrated its thresholds around the experience of threat.
Our sessions are designed to be neurologically safe — predictable rhythm, warm attunement, gentle touch, and consistency — because the therapeutic relationship itself is a regulatory tool. We train parents in co-regulation strategies they can use at home so the healing continues beyond the clinic. Read our article on the amygdala and stress in children →
Restoring routine and occupational identity
Trauma disrupts a child's sense of who they are and what they're capable of. When daily routines collapse — sleep, self-care, feeding, school participation — the child loses the developmental scaffolding that supports their growth. Our occupation-based interventions restore normalcy and agency through collaborative, activity-based work that rebuilds confidence from the inside out.
What a session looks like
1. Safety first — always
Before any therapeutic input, we establish felt safety. Predictable rhythm, consistent environment, warm attunement, and never pushing past a child's window of tolerance. The session itself is a regulation experience before it is anything else.
2. Neurodevelopmental assessment
We assess for retained primitive reflexes, sensory processing patterns, postural control, and autonomic regulation capacity — giving us a precise map of where the nervous system is stuck and where it has capacity for change.
3. Body-based intervention
Through intentional movement, therapeutic touch, sensory input, and reflex integration sequences, we work with the body's own neuroplasticity. We're not teaching the child to manage their trauma — we're helping their nervous system complete the biological processes that trauma interrupted.
4. Routine and occupation restoration
As the nervous system stabilizes, we rebuild the occupational scaffolding of daily life. Restored routine is not just functional — it is neurologically regulating.
5. Parent education and home program
Every session includes parent coaching. You receive specific co-regulation strategies, sensory tools, and environmental modifications to extend the therapeutic work into your home and your child's school day.
Who we serve
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- Medical trauma or early hospitalization
- Birth trauma or NICU history
- Attachment disruption or early neglect
- Domestic violence exposure
- Loss, grief, and family instability
- PTSD in children and adolescents
- Secondary trauma in caregivers
- Trauma related to chronic illness
- Adults with unresolved developmental trauma
Your child's nervous system learned to survive. We help it learn to live.
In-clinic in Brewer, ME · Telehealth available · No referral needed for self-pay · Mon–Fri 7:30AM–5:30PM
