Chair, Director of Advocacy & Leadership

Dr. Sultan Alfawaz, Saudi Arabia/USA

Dr. Sultan Alfawaz is a Saudi Arabian occupational therapy consultant based in Riyadh & Los Angeles, California with over 14 years of experience in child development, sensory integration, autism, and sensory feeding. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Occupational therapy at Brunel University, his post-professional master (MA), and his post-professional clinical doctorate in occupational therapy (P.P. OTD) at the University of Southern California. Dr. Alfawaz completed his clinical residency at Pediatric Therapy Network (PTN), Torrance, California in 2013. His doctoral thesis focused on norming the newly psychometric test “Structured Observations of Sensory Integration-Motor”. He has worked and volunteered in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Dr. Alfawaz serves at the Standing Committee of the American Association of Occupational Therapy (AOTA)-Children & Youth.  Dr. Alfawaz is a senior adjunct professor at Alfaisal University. He currently splits his time between working in the US as a visiting consultant and in Saudi Arabia as the head of occupational therapy services at the Center For Autism Research, King Faisal Specialized Hospital & Research Center. 

Dr.  Alfawaz was the 1st Saudi occupational therapist to obtain the American Board in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) and SIPT certification in 2012 and to achieve a Post Professional clinical doctorate in Occupational therapy. He is an internationally and locally recognized clinician and lecturer. He currently leads the Middle East and North Africa normative data collection for the Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration (EASI). Dr. Alfawaz is the head of the ethical Committee at the International Council Education of Ayres Sensory Integration.  Dr. Alfawaz is the coordinator of Ayres Sensory Integration ® courses at Alfaisal University. He’s excited for this opportunity to assist his country and local clinicians to better assess and understand children with sensory integrative disorders and to effectively plan more effective interventions that help children to actively participate and maximize their potential in life.

Director of Education & Research

Dr. Aja Roley, USA

Dr. Aja Roley is a licensed Occupational Therapist who received her Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California (USC) and her Occupational Therapy Doctorate from Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). Her doctoral work focused on access and promotion of advanced clinical reasoning, mentorship, and post-professional training in Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI) via online and multimedia platforms. She has an advanced practice certificate in neuroscience from TJU. 

Dr. Roley is the clinical director and owner of Centerpointe for Children, a pediatric private practice in Irvine, California. She specializes in the evaluation and intervention of infants, children, and young adults with learning and behavior difficulties, developmental delays, autism, attention deficit disorder, feeding and toileting difficulties, anxiety disorders, and visual impairment. She utilizes ASI in her play-based and child and family centered therapeutic approach. 

Dr. Roley has extensive experience teaching, collaborating, and consulting with families and educational and multidisciplinary teams. She is an instructor for the non-profit organization, Collaboration for Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration (CLASI), teaching certification courses both domestically and internationally. She is the elected vice president of the International Council for Education in Ayres Sensory Integration (ICEASI), focusing her efforts on the promotion of evidence based ASI education standards and the expansion of a supportive membership network of ASI educators and organizations. She volunteers her time as a site coordinator for normative data collection for the Evaluation of Ayres Sensory Integration (EASI). Dr. Roley is passionate, playful, and thoughtful in her work and strives to improve the quality of life for families and infuse health promoting fun into daily routines. 

Director of Administration (Company Secretary)

Katya Eijsink Klein Gunnewiek, Brazil

Katya Eijsink Klein Gunnewiek is an occupational therapist graduated by the University of São Carlos, in Brazil. She did her master's in Clinical Rehabilitation in neurology at the University of Adelaide in Australia. When she got back to her home country, she took a postgraduate course in Occupational Therapy, a Dynamic View in Neurology where she was introduced to Sensory Integration. 

She obtained her postgraduate certificate in Sensory Integration by USC / WPS and later by CLASI. Since the first certification, she has been translating the international certifications of Sensory Integration by CLASI in Brazil. 

She currently owns a private clinic and a Horse Riding Therapy Center.  Her main clients are babies, children and teenagers with developmental delay, autism, learning difficulties and sensory integration deficits and praxis.

She is currently the leader for the normative data collection for the Evaluation in Sensory Integration (EASI) in Brazil. 

Director of Membership & Communication

Kathryn Smith, United Kingdom

Kath’s postgraduate education in Ayres’ Sensory Integration started in the early 1990’s while she was working in a CAMHS setting in South Africa, including with young people with trauma and in secure accommodation. On moving to the UK, Kath’s passion about ASI informed the innovation of services and products to support clients across the lifespan with sensory integration challenges; including assessment tools, parenting skills card, care pathways and intervention resources.  

Building on her experience using SI within learning disability services, Kath combined DBT and Sensory Integration creating practical solutions for use in acute mental health. In 2002, her development and application of Sensory Ladders to support clients with trauma was visionary. As a 2005 Medical Futures Award finalist, Kath established The Sensory Project to promote ASI across the lifespan; with creation of the Parenting Through the Senses programme. Her All About Me sensory formulations to promote self regulation in mental health; with reduced inpatient admissions, use of restraint alongside improved participation in everyday life. With her growing expertise and innovative practice of ASI across the lifespan, Kath was invited to collaborate with Ros Urwin to develop and lecture the application of SI beyond Childhood, an area as yet unchartered by SI Network. Kath is published in peer reviewed journals about the application of Ayres SI across the lifespan. 

‘In recognition of her clinical ability, innovative spirit and passion to develop Sensory Integration approaches for mental health settings’, in 2007 she was awarded ‘Occupational Therapist of the Year’ by the British Association of Occupational Therapy/College of Occupational Therapists. As accredited university lecturer and researcher, since 2005, Kath has explored and developed innovative teaching and learning methods, combining face to face and online technology to create early blended learning solutions; including telehealth. A member of the ICEASI Committee, representing therapists from the UK and Ireland, Kath is EASI Regional Lead for UK and Ireland Research Project. 

Established in 2017 to safeguard occupational therapist led Ayres’ Sensory Integration across the UK and Ireland, ASI Wise delivers the ICEASI accredited CLASI Certification in Ayres Sensory Integration (CASI). Kath’s passion supporting others to learn about Ayres’ Sensory Integration is evident in her enthusiasm promoting and sharing ways of working alongside those with sensory integration and processing challenges.

Director of Program Accreditation

Elisabeth Soechting, Austria

Elisabeth Soechting has been involved in Sensory Integration for more than 25 years. She is the co-founder and current president of the Austrian SI organization GSIÖ. 
 

Elisabeth received her diploma in occupational therapy (OT) in 1986 and her master’s degree in psychology 1991 from the University of Vienna. She was trained in Sensory Integration by many of Dr. Ayres’s successors, with Dr. Erna Blanche, Dr. Zoe Mailloux, and Dr. Susanne Smith Roley being her most influential mentors. In 2012 she completed an Advanced Practice Certificate in Autism Intervention and Research from Thomas Jefferson University/Philadelphia with Dr. Roseann Schaaf.  

Elisabeth has been practicing pediatric OT with specialization in Sensory Integration for over 25 years and is currently running her practice SpielStudio with 3 locations around Vienna. From 2010 till 2012 she lived in Los Angeles and worked at the former Ayres’ Clinic in Torrance. 

Elisabeth is co-founder and president of the Austrian Society of Sensory Integration (GSIOe) who organized the 5th European SI Congress (ESIC) in Vienna in 2017, and helped develop the Austrian curriculum for SI training, ASI®Therapy ORIGINAL that was among the first programs worldwide accredited by ICEASI (2018).  For over 10 years (2004-15) she served as an international SI instructor for the University of Southern California (USC), and since 2016 she has been teaching as an international instructor for “The Collaborative For Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration",  CLASI. Participation in conferences and teaching SI courses have brought her to many parts of the world including several European countries, the US, India, Hong Kong, South Africa, Russia, and China.

Elisabeth published numerous articles, two books („Sensory Integration Original – Today“ and „Some are different...“, a picture book on SI dysfunction with parent pages), and was instrumental in the translation of core SI literature into German, including Bundy, Lane & Murray “Sensory Integration. Theory and Practice” and Smith Roley, Blanche, and Schaaf “Understanding SI With Diverse Populations”, currently working on Mailloux & Schaaf “Clinician's Guide for Implementing Ayres Sensory Integration: Promoting Participation for Children With Autism”. 

Elisabeth was the first recipient of the Sonia Martins Lopes International Award by Pediatric Therapy Network that she received at the SI research conference R2K in 2009.