Could Weighted Blankets Help Your Clients?
Have you ever considered using a weighted blanket in your therapy practice? Read on to learn how weighted blankets helped my most anxious clients. In November of 2014 I was in my last semester of grad school when my supervisor asked me to make a weighted blanket for the offices where I was doing my internship. I had little prior experience with weighted blankets, but I agreed to make them. I began offering them to my most anxious clients in session. I was surprised by the results. My very agitated clients changed from anxious to calm in a matter of minutes. The most common request, after placing the blanket on them, was, “Could you turn out the lights and could I have a few minutes by myself?”
The impact was real. My clients felt soothed by the blanket.
As I grow as a therapist I continue to learn new ways that my clients can benefit from a weighted blanket. Here are a few.
Trauma Client
I’ll never forget greeting a client that has endured significant trauma. I opened the door to my office, to see this new client slowly walking around the lobby, as if she were floating like a balloon. Upon entering my office I offered her the weighted blanket. It seemed to bring her back to the present, providing the grounding she needed to complete the intake.
Trauma Therapies
Weighted blankets are very beneficial during trauma therapies such as Brain Spotting and EMDR. Utilizing these therapies can include engaging big emotions and the hardest parts of our clients stories. Using the weighted blanket can make it safer to engage these difficult experiences. Some clients are able to tolerate memories from under the blanket that they are not able to tolerate on their own.
As a transition into the therapy office
Clients often walk into the therapy office still focused on work, picking up kids, and things they need to get done at home. Taking a few minutes to be under the weighted blanket at the beginning of the session is a great way to help the client leave the day behind and focus on therapy.
As a comfort during couples counseling
Couples counseling can be deeply emotional. Couples can utilize a weighted blanket as a refuge during session. The weighted blanket can reduce the intensity of emotion and allow the couple to communicate without emotional flooding.
As a tool in session
One therapist told me how he helped a spouse recognize the importance of her own voice. The therapist asked the woman to hold the blanket folded up. “Your voice has weight, your voice has just as importance in this marriage as your husband. From time to time she would hold the blanket in session to remind herself of how important her voice is.
I hope these suggestions provide ways to utilize weighted blankets in your practice. Weighting Comforts is a social enterprise in Nashville, TN. We are offering a $30 discount for any CPH client that purchases a weighted blanket. See what we have to offer at www.weightingcomforts.com. Use Code CPH30
About our Guest Author: Donna Durham has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Trevecca Nazarene University. She is the Founder and President of Weighting Comforts. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband of 25 years.
