Revealing OT’s Role in Mental Health

Young children who have experienced trauma may need help with sensory processing strategies in addition to mental health support, occupational therapist Alyssa Mason (MNLEND 2020-21) told educators, mental health workers, case managers, and other attendees recently at the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health annual Infant & Early Childhood Multidisciplinary Conference.

Mason discussed the basics of sensory processing, how it interacts with our functional engagement with the world and our mental health, and how exposure to trauma affects those connections.

“In early sensory processing, we’re creating our sensory system and figuring out how we’re going to interact with the world. When trauma occurs in those early years, it can change the connections we’re making in our sensory processing system,” said Mason, who earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy at the University of Minnesota. “Then when we see sensitivities and big emotions in older kids, a lot of times we learn there were a lot of sensory processing differences when they were really young that were affected by trauma.”

Mason is a pediatric occupational therapist at M Health Fairview’s Pediatric Therapy Clinic in New Hope, Minnesota. She has also worked as a preschool teacher and a children’s mental health case manager, and has contributed to online study courses in occupational therapy for educators and podcasts on supporting the sensory needs of young children for the Center for Inclusive Child Care.

“I didn’t realize how much occupational therapy has a role in mental health until I got into OT and discovered how truly broad it is,” Mason said. “Now I recommend to multidisciplinary teams to be sure to have OT in the group, even if it is just doing an assessment to see if sensory issues are part of the puzzle or not. A lot of people came up to me after the conference and said they didn’t know OT did all of that. When they know more, they can do more. Sometimes, we need to address sensory systems and not just the cognitive side.”

Her MNLEND experiences continue to inform her work today, she said, as she interacts with parents from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as different perspectives on therapy approaches.

“In LEND we practiced pausing our own agenda and this continues to come up as more neuro-affirming practices emerge,” she said. “I work with families from different perspectives and need to respect those while still supporting children to be functional in their daily living activities. I start with their priorities, then build a relationship so that eventually we address all the concerns in a way that makes sense for everybody.”

Mason and her partner, Patrick Luong, have a young daughter, Saniyah. After another family member had twins born prematurely several years ago, Mason struck up a conversation with an occupational therapist brought in to work with the infants. The practice combined so many of her interests, she said, she was hooked.

“It really is exciting to think about where these connections among disciplines could lead.”