Dr. Sarah Vose, PT, DPT

10/28/2024

27 years ago

I’m a totally different person now. Reading this post doesn’t bring up any big emotions for me anymore. I think my brain has finally fully processed and stored all the memories from this time period. I guess that’s the result of all the work I’ve done over the last 4 years.

4 or so years ago I knew there had to be a different way to live. A more relaxed way with more ease, enjoyment, and happiness. I used to picture a version of myself that embodied those qualities. When I would envision that version of myself she was like 70+ years old before she achieved that energy.

Doing “the work” has allowed me to access that version of myself now. I might not feel that way every day but that happy, relaxed, at ease version of myself is there, just below the surface, easily accessible when I take the time to check in and connect.

Maybe in another year or 2 I won’t even have to do that to access her. Maybe I’ll just be her🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

05/25/2024

🔗Link to article in comments

Autism = development of PTSD from mild stressors = worsening symptoms of Autism = more sensitivity = development of PTSD from even milder stressors. It’s a viscous cycle.

This is why most people with ASD also have cPTSD.

PTSD develops when we don’t have the tools on board to process an experience and/or when we feel alone in that experience.
When someone with autism is reacting strongly to something that seems mild to others and are told they are being too sensitive or are making a big deal out of nothing, they don’t receive the validation and co regulation they so desperately need to help their brain and body process the event so it doesn’t result in PTSD.

Try to practice Compassion before Comprehension. Validate emotions even if you don’t understand why someone has them. You can always try to figure it out later but compassion is needed immediately.

The good news is that I’ve experienced first hand myself and with my patients that when you heal the trauma some of the autism symptoms also decrease. The viscous cycle can be reversed into a healing cycle with the right methods. (Highly recommend body based, bottom up methods)

🔗Link to article in comments

01/01/2024

“There’s absolutely, categorically no denying that some autistic people’s sensory experiences are the best thing to them about being autistic…. So there’s this extraordinary juxtaposition on the one hand of sensory joy and on the other hand, sensory distress sometimes within the same individual.”

I feel like the idea that your greatest strength is often also your greatest weakness is a common and accepted one.

For me this also applies to my tactile and interoceptive sensory systems.

My hypersensitivity in both areas helps me excel as a manual therapist. When I feel safe and comfortable my hypersensitivity, especially with interoceptive awareness, leads to an incredibly rich internal experience, beyond what my words could ever describe. (I often wish I had skills as a painter because I feel like that would be the best way to depict the experience.)

However, the same hypersensitivity often leads to distress. The texture and pressure of clothing can easily be overwhelming to the point where my brain function and emotional state is affected. I can become irritable until I’m able to change my clothing (or take off that damn bra). The slight internal sensations that travel up the vagus nerve to our brain and help create our emotions that would go unnoticed by many, I instantly detect. This sometime leads to rapid changes in my emotional state with seemingly no reason to the people around me.

Learning about neuroscience and what is happening internally has helped me tremendously. Unstanding why something is happening allows for more self acceptance and less judgement. Now I’m learning to apply the idea of impermanence to those slight internal sensations and emotions when they arise so I can pause and let them pass or respond (instead of react) when necessary.

As a society we often only notice the negative aspect of sensory hypersensitivity because it can lead to a “disruptive” autistic meltdown. Often the postive aspect of sensory hypersensitivity goes unnoticed because for many it is an internal experience. If you have an autistic person in your life are you aware of the joy their hypersensitivity brings? If you are autistic please feel free to share your sensory joy in the comments.

▶ Watch this reel https://www.facebook.com/share/r/Vx73c8PTZ1Bk4SA9/?mibextid=cQnZ3id

09/13/2023

Love when they figure out something new about the nervous system!!

https://neurosciencenews.com/hybrid-cell-discovery-neuroscience-23883/?fbclid=IwAR3MNIiaEd1WfL2qHKoczEUpBIeQvk8j84-B3FMR1gbvm-80SqvzJChPwtk_aem_AafVyFFk2HSpYtPIBEA7lpFDgwRgTvVXPKrTuq56oA_wfzAkScQlT6L_NEcgep2iteU&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Neuroscientists have unveiled a new hybrid cell, straddling the line between the well-known neurons and glial cells in the brain.

06/29/2023

03/27/2023

Interoception. It’s one of our senses yet hardly anyone knows about it, even medical professionals.

I’ve found that precision with interoception is often the key to diminishing or eliminating symptoms when I’m working with someone who has chronic pain, PTSD or both.

Interoception is our brains ability to sense and identify our internal bodily sensations. It goes beyond noticing that we’re hungry, tense, or have a full bladder. It also encompasses our ability to notice the sensations that occur inside our bodies when we experience emotions. A nervous belly, breath holding when scared, chest tightness with anxiety are all things we’ve probably heard of before and examples of interoception awareness.

We all know awareness is the key to creating change.

The more precise you are with your awareness of exactly what organ or tissue is involved with the internal sensation(s) you are experiencing the more potential there is for change. (This is where an anatomy nerd, like a PT, comes in handy 🫀🫁🧠🤓)

You don’t need to see someone else though to start increasing your interoception awareness. Take 2 minutes, find a quite spot, close your eyes, and scan your body. Think about how your body feels from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. Notice any areas of tension, any areas of heat, any areas that feel different from the rest. The important part is to just notice them, NOT judge or change them. Just notice that they’re there and acknowledge their presence ✌️

If you’re a PT or body worker I’d love to know if you work on interoception awareness with your patients. If you do, drop a 🧠in the comments and if you don’t give me an 💪

💆‍♀️🌿💆🏻‍♂️🧠🙏

02/24/2023

I’ve gone back and forth about whether to write this post or not for a few months now. I think my fear about sharing this comes from my fear of rejection and my experience with the incredibly ableist society we live in. I’m also afraid that my share here may change the way others see me or value me, especially professionally.

However, not sharing feels like hiding a part of myself and I don’t want to do that anymore. The information I share here hasn’t changed the way I function or the way my mind works. I’m still the same person I’ve always been, I just understand myself better (which means I’m kinder to myself 💖). I’ve always tried to use my experiences to help others so hopefully my own insights here will help someone else that may be struggling.

My whole life I’ve always felt like there was something wrong with me, something that needed to be fixed. Where things came easily to others, I seemed to struggle no matter how hard I tried.

Trigger warning ⛔️ mentions of SA below, stop here if that’s an issue for you

🖤I was too blunt.
🖤I lacked tact.
(Sometime to the point I was considered rude)
🖤I struggled to work with others (I still do, hence my fabulous solo business 💁🏻‍♀️)
🖤I struggle(d) with transitions
🖤Last minute schedule changes were a nightmare for me
🖤I could never just go with the flow
🖤Starting in 6th grade I struggled with creating and maintaining friendships
🖤I never seemed to fit in
🖤I could get along with those older and younger than me but struggled with others in my peer group
🖤When I started dating I had an intensity others thought was crazy
🖤I needed my environment to be/look a certain way in order to function
🖤Clothes had to feel a certain way for me to be able to function
🖤When I was younger, older men repeatedly made inappropriate advances toward me or just straight up SAed me
🖤I was described as an empath and highly sensitive person
🖤I struggled with school (until I hit my PT specific classes in my 3rd year of college, my area of interest)

When I was growing up I was always just told I needed to try harder, do better, push through, change.
As an adult I thought if I could change in the right ways life would be easier. This led to years of therapy which slowly helped to remove all the layers of the onion to discover the truth at the core.

After spending a decade in therapy and the past 2.5 years working with a team of professionals (sensorimotor trauma therapist, a craniosacral therapist, a mindfulness based cognitive therapist, and an Ayurvedic/biomagnetic therapist) I felt like I had resolved most of the trauma I had previously attributed to causing the feeling that there was something fundamentally wrong with me. Even though most of the trauma seemed to be gone (I’m still working through some of the fine details from an early childhood experience), there was still some disconnect between me and those around me.

So for my 40th birthday I decided to gift myself my first ever neuropsych evaluation. (I’m weird, I know 🙃)

It turns out, I’m autistic.

Mine is classified as Level 1 on the autism spectrum (it would have been called Asperger’s years ago but they’ve rightfully cancelled him since he was a horrible n**i)

I also have moderate inattentive ADHD, am clinically brilliant (their words, not mine), and still meet the criteria for PTSD. I have fluency issues with reading and writing so it’s like there’s a traffic jam in my head when reading to learn or when trying to get my thoughts down in writing which is sooo frustrating. (Now I know why I’ve put off a certification that requires 12 essay questions for years despite my desire to complete it and expertise in the area.)

When the evaluator described what people with similar profiles to me report, she described me to a T. It was so incredibly validating.

It’s taken me a few months to process all of this information about myself and I’m sure I have more processing to do but as I work to deconstruct my internalized ableism, value myself as a being, and truly love myself for maybe the first time in my life I now know there’s nothing wrong with me that needs to be fixed.

I’m simply neurodivergent.

It’s our ableist society that is broken. In an effort to be myself and not a version of myself that conforms with an unhealthy society I will be slowly working to unmask more.

If you have questions about something I’ve written here, something I’m doing in person or just questions about neurodivergence in general please always feel free to ask.

If you made it to the end, thanks for being here and I’d love if you could share some ableist view you’ve deconstructed in your own life in the comments. I’ll start…

08/30/2022

For a long time I couldn’t pin point what I wanted this account to be. I knew that I was doing things differently than most physical therapists and I wanted to share every aspect of what I was doing. That left things here a little confusing and chaotic so I thought I’d do an introduction and set the expectations for what you’ll be seeing on this account from here on out.

Hi! I’m Dr. Sarah Vose, PT, DPT, MS, CIDN & Trauma Sensitive Certified Practitioner. I’ve been running my own PT business for almost 10 years now and it is more successful than I could have ever imagined. It took me a while to realize what set me apart, the theme of why patients were seeking me out and what I was doing differently.

That difference is trauma informed treatment.

For the past 2 years I’ve been refining my skills in this area and while I will always have more to learn I think it’s so important that other physical therapists, occupational therapists, and health care professionals in general understand the basics of providing trauma informed care. So that’s what you’ll be seeing on this account, information regarding the importance of and how to provide trauma informed & trauma sensitive care.

I can’t wait to connect with you and other providers looking to support their patients on a deeper level. I’m beyond excited to build a network, a community of trauma sensitive providers.

If you choose to follow along please feel free to send me a DM or drop a comment below to let me know you’re here!