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About the Provider
Name: Kelli Grant
Disciplines/credentials: Sociology, Coach
Modalities: Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), individual somatic exercises, bilateral exercises, and the PIC Coaching Model
Client Background
Name: Theo (pseudonym)
Gender and Age: Boy, 11 years old
Program Delivered: Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
- SSP Core: Hours 1-5
- SSP Connect: Hours 1-5
- SSP Balance: Hours 1-5
Theo, with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), presented in March 2025 in acute crisis following significant developmental regression. He exhibited daily physical aggression toward family members and practitioners. During the initial session, severe physical resistance necessitated safe restraint until exhaustion gave way to autonomic regulation. Psychiatric hospitalization was being actively considered as an immediate next step by his medical team and family.
Theo’s verbal communication was a significant challenge. He was largely nonspeaking, and despite typical hearing acuity, his auditory processing was significantly impaired. A repetitive verbal ritual disrupted all family activities. Sensory hypersensitivities to both visual and auditory input were acute; once Theo reached his overload threshold, he became disconnected and struggled to return to a regulated state.
Sleep disruption affected the entire household, characterized by marked difficulty falling and staying asleep, alongside gastrointestinal irregularities. Theo was unable to participate in public outings or community life. Safety concerns required that his younger sister be removed from the home during sessions, leaving the sibling relationship functionally broken. His parents were exhausted, at a crisis level of stress, and had exhausted available options after multiple providers failed to achieve progress.
Theo lived in a large, open-plan home with his parents and sister. While quiet spaces were available, he did not proactively seek them out. Prior to the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), Theo had no experience with listening therapies, and his primary musical exposure was limited to Christian pop music in the family vehicle.
The family sought intervention to resolve the nervous system dysregulation driving behavioral, communicative, and relational breakdown in Theo’s life. Primary clinical goals included preventing psychiatric hospitalization, reducing physical aggression to allow his sister to safely remain in the home during sessions, stabilizing his autonomic baseline, expanding his window of tolerance, and integrating the SSP. Caregiver goals focused on reducing “checked out” states, increasing active participation, and having Theo initiate invitations for others to join his activities.
Implementation of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) was delivered across 50 sessions totaling 20 hours and 49 minutes of listening time between July 2025 and January 2026. The SSP was sequenced through all three phases: 16 SSP Connect sessions, 10 SSP Core sessions, and 24 SSP Balance sessions, with a second round of Balance underway as services concluded.
Pacing was titrated slowly through SSP Connect to accommodate Theo’s nervous system and establish felt safety. Upon transitioning to SSP Core, Theo demonstrated heightened engagement and enthusiasm. SSP Balance became the longest phase, supporting deeper autonomic regulation and integration. Over time, the listening sessions transformed into an activity Theo actively anticipated.
SSP delivery was embedded within an intensive, in-home intervention framework that integrated extensive caregiver psychoeducation, co-regulation and supporting somatic modalities six days per week.
- Psychoeducation: Provider Kelli Grant provided education on Polyvagal Theory, the window of tolerance, autistic burnout and nervous system state shifts. Caregivers were taught to reframe “checked out” behaviors as autonomic overload requiring reduced stimulation, and physical aggression as a regulatory communication. A formal 21-night sleep pattern analysis was conducted to optimize his sleep environment and routines.
- Co-Regulation & Somatic Support: Grounded, attuned co-regulation served as a primary clinical tool. Somatic techniques, including trunk tapping and deep touch compression, were utilized during dysregulated states. Daily bilateral movement exercises were integrated to support motor planning and muscle tone, alongside riding a tricycle, rollerblading, swimming, and bedtime sauna routines.
- Behavioral & Systemic Frameworks: Kelli’s proprietary PIC Method (Protection, Intervention, Connection) served as the primary clinical framework, utilizing escalating intervention strategies, ritual interruption, first/then structures, and 1-3 word sentence modeling. Environmental modifications were implemented home-wide, and the entire family participated in SSP listening to foster a shared co-regulatory environment.
Response
Theo demonstrated substantial clinical progress across all target domains over nine months of intervention.
- Nervous System Regulation: Physical aggression decreased by an estimated 97%, moving from a daily occurrence to aggression occurring on fewer than five days in a full quarter. Using the Unyte State Check, a self-reported tool to track a client’s autonomic state following listening sessions, data captured across 14 checks from October 2025 to January 2026 showed zero defensive states, with 50% Open and Engaged, 35.7% Playful, and 14.3% Peaceful.
- Communication & Language: Theo transitioned from largely nonspeaking to verbalizing multiple intelligible words, including learning to state his name (“I am Theo”). He developed the capacity to pick up on conversational cues without explicit prompting, maintain attention during shared book reading, link texts to television programming, and eliminate his repetitive verbal ritual.
- Physical & Motor Development: Theo achieved independent proficiency in rollerblading and riding a tricycle, and in swimming, mostly independently. Improved core strength and postural control corrected a chronic downward head posture. At school, he completed a 24-piece puzzle unassisted.
- Social Engagement & Sibling Dynamics: Theo began participating in school recess independently and completed two public family outings without dysregulation, actively taking photographs and demonstrating social humor. His sister was able to remain safely at home, fully restoring positive sibling interactions.
- Sleep & Functioning: Nighttime awakenings significantly decreased following environmental adjustments and the establishment of a sauna-based bedtime routine. His parents reported that Christmas 2025 was marked by connection and ease.
Caregiver-reported intake goals were met and exceeded. Externally, Theo’s medical team canceled plans for psychiatric hospitalization, describing his trajectory as extraordinary. His educational team confirmed that his overall functioning surpassed pre-regression levels.
Discussion
This case illustrates the clinical utility of establishing foundational autonomic safety prior to introducing auditory modalities in complex presentations. Conducting four months of polyvagal-informed in-home stabilization prior to initiating SSP ensured Theo’s nervous system possessed sufficient resilience and co-regulatory trust to process the acoustic intervention effectively.
High frequency and consistency — up to six days per week in Theo’s environment — provided the predictability required for an autistic nervous system experiencing acute trauma and regression. Furthermore, involving the entire family system in SSP delivery altered the home’s collective autonomic tone, directly reinforcing Theo’s access to ventral vagal states through caregiver co-regulation.
Caregiver psychoeducation was pivotal in shifting responses to state-dependent behaviors, particularly replacing stimulation with down-regulation during periods of shutdown. For future iterations, Kelli notes the importance of embedding completion of continuous, real-time assessments directly into delivery structures to ensure consistent pre- and post-intervention data collection. Ultimately, this case highlights that developmental regression as a symptom of neurodivergence and acute autonomic crisis can be mitigated when titrated, polyvagal-informed modalities are systematically applied within the client’s ecosystem.
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