Clark College Sensory Room

Open and inviting sensory room featuring bean bags, a couch, and chairs. A desk adorned with coloring utensils, a journal, headphones, and more. The space is enhanced with decorative plants, a painted wall embellished with star stickers and a whiteboard.

Located in Health Sciences (HSC) 124 inside the Counseling and Health Center (near the Brown parking lot off Reserve Street).

Students may check out the room at the Counseling and Health Center front desk for up to 30 minutes at a time. Open for walk-ins during CHC in-person hours.

The Sensory Room is a dedicated space where Clark students can go to unwind and decompress. A variety of multi-sensory tools are available to help calm the senses, enhance focus, provide comfort, promote relaxation, and decrease feelings of stress and overwhelm.

Historically, sensory rooms have been created for individuals with sensory processing challenges like ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, Depression or PTSD. In recent years, more colleges like Clark are offering a sensory space for ALL students.  Everyone experiences stress and self-regulation is an important skill for personal and academic success.

The idea and design of the Clark College Sensory Room came from neurodivergent Clark students in the campus Autism Support Group (offered every term through the Counseling and Health Center). Their initial request for a multi-sensory space led to campus funding to further support students, neurodivergent and neurotypical alike.

A row of plants, a box filled with essential oils, and a tabletop chime displayed on a window sill. An alternate perspective of the sensory room reveals the entrance door, a massage chair, and a bulletin board. A potted plant sitted on a coffee table. Below the table is a basket of magazines and adjacent to it is a yoga ball for additional seating and comfort. A door adorned with a colorful welcome sign, opening to reveal the interior of the Clark College sensory room. Comfortable seating arrangement featuring a couch adorned with pillows and a foot massager at one end. Next to it is a side lamp. Basket of fidgets for added tactile engagement. Assembled wordboard with numerous word pieces on slips of paper. Adjacent to it is a mini basket filled with various fidget toys.

Sensory Items available to students include:

  • Aromatherapy
  • Art supplies
  • Balance board
  • Bean bag chairs
  • Coloring books
  • Exercise ball
  • Fidgets 
  • Foot massager
  • Heating pad
  • Hot tea
  • Journal/Sketchbook
  • Massage chair
  • Mints/Lifesavers
  • Noise machine (nature/ white/pink/brown noise)
  • Noise canceling headphones
  • Photobooks
  • Rainbow light
  • Rocking chair
  • Salt lamp
  • Sensory putty
  • Snacks 
  • Sound chime
  • Sunlight lamp (for Seasonal Affective Disorder)
  • Textured pillows and faux sheepskin
  • Weighted blanket
  • Weighted neck wrap
  • Zafu meditation cushion