Understanding these processes through her own research at Manchester and Brussels universities in Europe, has enabled Dr Jacqui to develop sensory processing exercises to help your brain reach a level that is more capable of organising information without becoming overwhelmed.

This is done using a combination of neurodevelopmental motor control exercises, primitive reflex inhibition and sensory integration exercises.

Note:

1. Home exercises are suggested for daily practice in order to achieve the necessary brain changes (neuroplasticity).
2. Programmes can be expected to take up to twelve weeks to complete.

When these exercises are combined with psychological desensitisation strategies anxiety and overwhelming feelings of “overload” can be significantly diminished.

Retraining the brain that copes by blocking out pain.

Blocking out pain, to cope, has a down-side. If you block out pain, you are also likely to block out healthy sensations which the brain needs for monitoring safety in your body. That can be threatening to your brain's safety systems. Anything that the brain thinks might be a threat may cause a 'pain output' (or tingling or some other distress output by the brain). Distress outputs are your brain's alarm system to warn you of the potential threat.

Sensory testing can reveal regions or patches of numbness or loss of sensory sensitivity, rather than too much sensitivity. You may not have noticed this before being tested.

If your brain focuses on pain, it reinforces those pain output pathways. That's why some people choose to block it out. However, if we can train the brain to focus on 'normal' sensations, past the pain, it reinforces healthy sensation pathways instead.