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How to create a calming room?

  • 3 January 2023

A safe and therapeutic space designed for calming

The ‘calming room’ is a specific space that helps regulate the level of activation or aggression and helps mouve us towards a state of “calm” by combining chromotherapy, music therapy and aromatherapy with the aim of returning to a state that allows one to function in a more autonomous and regulated manner.

A calming room

Why do we need a calming room?

Accompanying behavioral problems

It is especially important to pay attention to individuals’ needs who struggle with behavioral challenges or intellectual disabilities, when it involves deficits in self-awareness, self-control, self-regulation, emotional enrichment, empathy and social skills.

To address the serious behavioral problems that arise in people with high levels of excitability, it is essential to consider a preventive, proactive model, with communicative intervention, functional analysis of behavior, and also an adaptation of environments to their reality, seeking emotional stability.

A safe and therapeutic space designed for calming

Therapeutic applications in the room

  • CHROMOTHERAPY: a method of harmonization through colors since they exert a physical, psychological and emotional influence, depending on the color range chosen. The associated response is usually related to well-being, tranquility and harmony. In this room the predominant colors used are:
    • The color blue: Refreshing and relaxing for our nervous system, moderates our energies, and facilitates the appearance of states of tranquility and calm.
    • The color green: Produces sedative, restorative and refreshing effects. We use it as a relaxant for those occasions when we are fatigued.
    • The color violet: Used to combat states of anguish and fear and helps to diminish and/or eliminate the impulses of rage and violence.

The blue color is refreshing and relaxing

The green color produces sedative effects

The violet color combats states of anguish

 

  • AROMATHERAPY: Application for therapeutic purposes of natural aromas and essential oils, given the direct influence of smell within the limbic system and hypothalamus, regulators of our emotions and physiological functions. In this room lavender aroma is applied for its sedative and relaxing effect.
  • MUSIC THERAPY: Use of music and its elements to satisfy physical, emotional, mental, social and cognitive needs. In this case we will play relaxing music with slow cadences.

How do we do it?

Create a safe and comfortable space

A calming room made with Qinera’ SHX technology

A calming room made with Qinera’s SHX technology

The first premise in designing this room is that it should be a safe space, for the user and for the people around him/her. For this purpose, the walls, doors and corners are padded in white, favoring the absorption of color related to the lighting.

The modular furniture system allows you to combine them to suit your needs or the activity you want to perform. A custom-made tatami is installed on the floor, which is stable enough to walk on and at the same time cushion possible falls or blows.

💡TIP: It is important that the calming room has a pouf that can be transformed into a mattress.Pedro on the vibroacoustic transformable pouf

This is an open space in which there is a pouf that can be transformed into a mattress, so that the user (or therapist) can position themselves as he/she prefers. All the lighting, projection and loudspeakers are elevated and an air extractor introduces the lavender aroma. The user is constantly supervised by a monitoring system.

Can be controlled from outside

External control room

In an adjoining room or closet, a central computer is installed with the SHX System that allows us to control the projection, music and lighting.

In addition, through our SHX program we can design the blue, green and violet sensochromatic packages in one-minute cadences, with music and a relaxing projection, so that the stimuli are applied in the room automatically during 30-minute sessions. Thanks to the monitoring system, we can observe what is happening, and we can regulate the lavender aroma, turning on or off the air extractor.

💡TIP: It is recommended that the temperature and the blinds (if any) are also controlled from this space.

Your own room

Multisensory rooms are environments for controlling sensory stimulation aiming at helping its users in a therapeutic way by providing a variety of benefits. They are ideal for therapy, learning, stimulation, relaxation and fun. A calming room allows you to have a protected and safe environment to guide you towards a calm state.

If you want to know more about the benefits it can offer you and your users, please write to us.

Written by:

Bibiana Escribano

Occupational Therapist. Specialist in pshycomotricity, music therapy and sensory integration.

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