On-Demand: Toileting 2.0: A Neuro-Affirming, Interoception-Informed Approach to Building Readiness from the Inside Out

Description

This course includes:

Course Description:

Toileting 2.0 reflects an evolution in how we understand toileting readiness and success. Rather than focusing on external compliance or age-based expectations, this course centers the body’s internal experience or how signals are noticed, interpreted, predicted, and acted upon.

Participants will explore how interoception, physiology, pelvic health, trauma history, and environmental factors intersect in toileting. Through practical examples, interactive reflection, and case-based discussion, this course will support participants in identifying why toileting may feel hard and how to respond in ways that build safety, trust, and readiness over time. Get ready to make potty readiness fun! Leave with potty-specific interoception experiments + hands-on “pee and poop science” that empowers kids through body knowledge.

Strategies shared in this course are applicable across ages, communication styles, diagnoses, and learning profiles, and are designed to complement, not replace, medical approaches and individualized support.

What You’ll Learn:

• How neuro-affirming toileting support differs from traditional, behavior-based approaches—and the irony that strategies focused on “getting compliance” can interfere with the internal awareness, nervous system function, and body trust that true toileting readiness depends on.
• Why readiness cannot be determined by age and what underlying factors actually contribute to readiness
• Common toileting concerns children/parents report and what may be happening underneath (interoception & sensory differences, GI issues, motor coordination, pain and/or trauma history)
• How even a single painful or distressing toileting experience can shape interoception predictions (the body’s expectations about what toileting will feel like), why these predictions often persist, and how to support a shift from “toileting feels painful or scary” to “toileting feels safe, comfortable, and possible (both physically and emotionally).”
• The role of interoception in noticing and understanding a variety of toileting-related body signals, including signals related to pee, poop, wetness, pain, muscle contraction and relaxation, a sense of being fully clean after wiping, and feelings of sensory safety or sensory fear
• Practical, playful strategies to help children build toileting readiness from the inside out including:
  • The Power of Adult Modeling
  • Unique Interoception Games and Experiments
  • Super Clever Hands-on Activities for Learning How the Body Works (specifically how pee and poop work!)
  • Environmental and seating adaptations
  • Anxiety/fear reducers
  • Pelvic floor supports
• How to create collaborative toileting plans with children rather than doing things to them
• Clinical reasoning through real-world case examples, including non-speaking clients and complex presentations

Who This Course Is For:

This course is for you if:

• You support children or clients with ongoing toileting challenges
• You are a caregiver, Occupational Therapy Practitioner, pelvic floor therapist, SLP, educator, psychologist, or related provider
• You’ve tried traditional toileting approaches and they haven’t worked
• You want a deeper, body-based understanding of readiness and resistance
• You are seeking neuroaffirming alternatives to behavior-driven toileting support
• You want language and strategies that honor autonomy, safety, and body trust
• This course is especially relevant for those supporting bowel and bladder differences where pelvic floor coordination, pain history, or interoceptive awareness may be contributing factors

You do not need to have taken our original 2021 toileting course to attend.

A Note for Those Who Took the Original Toileting Course

If you participated in the 2021 Toileting, Interoception & Nutrition, this course is designed as an evolution, not a repeat. Toileting 2.0 continues to ground participants in foundational interoception, while deeply expanding into nervous system function, trauma-informed reasoning, collaborative planning, and pelvic health, with added perspective from Sahana, a sensory-trained pelvic floor occupational therapist who specializes in pediatric bowel and bladder health.

Together, we bring complementary lenses to toileting, connecting interoceptive awareness with the physiology, coordination, and lived body experiences that shape readiness over time.

So, who are we?

We may not have a long history together (yet), but from our very first collaboration it was clear we shared a rare curiosity: thinking deeply about the inner experiences of pee and poop. Our conversations clicked immediately; thoughtful, body-focused, and grounded in interoception, body trust, and lived experience rather than surface-level outcomes. This course grew out of that shared curiosity, blending our perspectives into an affirming approach to toileting that centers felt safety and the body’s signals first.

More about Sahana Baker-Malone, MA, OTR/L, PRPC Sahana majored in Psychology at Scripps College in Claremont, California before receiving an MA in Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California. Sahana has been practicing occupational therapy since 2003 and has been at Development Is CHILD’S PLAY! since 2004. Sahana previously worked in the only hospital on Maui, helping patients in acute and rehabilitation care, hand splinting, and performing modified barium swallow studies. Sahana has advanced certifications in the SIPT, swallowing and feeding, Therapeutic Listening, the Masgutova Method. She also has advanced training and expertise in pediatric bowel and bladder dysfunction.

More about Kelly Mahler: I am a fiery and passionate person that loves to crunch pinecones, cuddle with my 2 Corgi puppies and cook (sometimes poorly) with my family. I earned a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA and have been an occupational therapist for 19 years, serving school-aged children and adults. I’m winner of multiple awards including the 2020 American Occupational Therapy Association Emerging and Innovative Practice Award & a Mom’s Choice Gold Medal. I am an international speaker and enjoy presenting on topics related to the twelve resources I’ve authored including The Interoception Curriculum.

The Official Stuff:

• Course Level: Intermediate
• AOTA Areas: Foundational Knowledge, OT Service Delivery, Professional Issues
• CE Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
  1. Explain how interoception, nervous system function, pelvic health, trauma history, and environmental factors intersect to influence toileting readiness and participation.
  2. Analyze common toileting challenges through a neuro-affirming, body-based lens to identify underlying factors that may interfere with felt safety, body trust, and readiness.
  3. Apply neuro-affirming, interoception-informed strategies to support toileting readiness, comfort, and collaboration across ages, communication styles, and clinical presentations.
• Contact Hours: This course is worth 3.25 contact hours or 0.325 AOTA CEUs.
• Completion Requirements: To receive credit and certificate for this course you must listen to the course in its entirety, pass the accompanying assessment with an 80% or higher and complete a course evaluation. With the exception of AOTA-approved CEUs, this course is not approved or affiliated with any governing bodies that award continuing education credits, so continuing education credits are not guaranteed.
• ADA/Section 504: If you require special accommodations, please contact us at [email protected]
• Kelly Mahler is an Approved Provider of Continuing Education for occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants by the American Occupational Therapy Association. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.
• Speaker Disclosures:
  • Financial: Kelly Mahler and Sahana Baker-Malone have received royalty payments from Mahler OT related to this course.
  • Non-Financial: Kelly Mahler and Sahana Baker-Malone have no relevant non-financial relationships to disclose.

Questions:

Contact us at [email protected].

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Kelly Mahler is an AOTA Provider of professional development. Course Approval ID #15175. This Distance Learning-Independent is offered at .325 CEUS, introductory, OT Service Delivery and Foundational Knowledge. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.

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