SENSORY
Calming Self-Injurious Behavior
with a Simple Touch
By Tal BADEHI
The hardest part of treating people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is observing
self-injurious behavior. It is especially difficult for the individual’s family and carers to
witness self-harming with such aggression when they do not always understand the
reason or cause of the trigger.
T
herefore, I take my clients’ needs very se-
riously, and I work on a one-on-one basis,
using personalized techniques to help iden-
tify the cause, lessen the distress, and pre-
vent self-injury. Mary (not her real name),
is one of my clients. She has an ASD diag-
nosis complex-needs. Before Mary attend-
ed my sessions, she would often display reparative
self-injurious behavior, involving hitting herself in-
cessantly around the eyes and temples. The hitting
was affecting her vision and could eventually lead to
blindness. Mary’s carers had no choice but to make
her wear a protective helmet (made from foam-like
rubber). It covered most of her head, leaving only a
small opening at the front of the face, and causing
Mary to sweat a lot.
The Shiatsu treatment
As I had already learned, people with autism expe-
rience different sensory-regulation than neurotyp-
ical people do, so I thought Mary might hit herself
to pacify some sensory stimuli around her eyes and
temples. Assuming so, I tried placing my hands on
Mary’s temples and forehead and just stayed there,
seeing what happened. I was astonished to see the
self-hitting immediately stop. Not only did it end,
but Mary started smiling and laughing! She seemed
to enjoy the touch on her sore temples very much.
Mary takes part in weekly Shiatsu sessions. As she
comes to the treatment and lies down on the Shiatsu
mat, she keeps banging her head. During the Shiatsu
session, Mary becomes relaxed, and the beating stops
for short moments. Therefore, I remove Mary’s hel-
met during the sessions so she can get some relief
from it and I can get to treat her around the head and
neck. I place myself in a position that allows me to
protect Mary’s head if she tries to hit herself. What happened here?
I have noticed Mary sometimes lift her hand towards
her head but holds herself and stops the movement
before the strike. Witnessing this made me think
that her self-hitting might not be voluntary and that
she is trying to stop herself, with little success. I won-
dered how I could assist her in taking control of her
movements. In my understanding, either Mary felt pain around
her afflicted temples and eyes, or she required the
stimuli of touch in those areas. She was not able
to satisfy these need without hitting herself forci-
bly and perhaps exacerbating the situation in the
process. The relaxing effect of Shiatsu, combined
with placing hands on the sensitive areas, probably
20 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 72