A Note on Consistency Over Intensity

The most common clinical error in introducing sensory integration work is front-loading. Clients are enthusiastic; the first few sessions feel transformative; they do an hour of protocol on day one and then never again. The neuroplastic recalibration that ASI produces requires consistent, frequent, appropriately-dosed input over time. The brain changes slowly and lastingly, not quickly and intensely.

Think of it as watering a plant rather than flooding it. Twelve minutes every 90 minutes, seven days a week, will produce more lasting nervous system change after four weeks than a two-hour intensive done once.21 The 90-minute rhythm honors the ultradian biology of the nervous system rather than imposing an external schedule upon it.

For RSD clients specifically, who often have significant difficulty with self-care consistency due to executive function challenges and shame-based self-neglect, the framing matters enormously. This is not a treatment you perform when you are struggling. It is nervous system hygiene — the daily tending of the hardware on which your entire emotional and relational life runs. Everybody needs this. Almost no one has it.

Client Protocol Sheet 1