Liz's Story
CEO, Sensory Product Design
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Marquis Who's Who in America 2024 Inductee
Marquis Who's Who in Top Executives 2024 Inductee
Marquis Who's Who in Professional Women 2024 Inductee
⭐️ 2005 – International Red Dot Design Award – Prince O3 Silver & O3 Red Tennis Racquet
⭐️ 2005 – Popular Science “Best of What’s New” Award – Prince O3 Blue Tennis Racquet
⭐️ 2006 – Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) Bronze by the IDSA – Prince O3 Hybrid Hornet Tennis Racquet
⭐️ 2006 – Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design GOOD DESIGN Award – Prince O3 Hybrid Hornet Tennis Racquet
⭐️ 2006 – Tennis Magazine’s Editor’s Choice for 2006 – Prince O3 Hybrid Hornet Tennis Racquet
Liz's Personal Journey with Sensory Processing Disorder and Finding Solutions
Discovering and hiding "learning differences" actually highlighted skillsets that served me quite well
Throughout different stages of my life, I realized that no one else could truly understand or improve these situations. In fact, they were often met with the opposite effect.
But amidst these struggles, I discovered incredible gifts. During my school years, I had concealed my dyslexia, but a remarkable professor who shared his own dyslexia on the first day of class made me feel understood. I recognized myself in his story, and from that moment, I embraced my own uniqueness. I taught myself to read, starting from the beginning and ending at the end, inadvertently developing a form of speed reading. To avoid detection, I honed various skills.
It was then that I began to see my condition as a blessing rather than a curse.
SPD and other health issues... what came first?
Another challenge I faced throughout my adult life was chronic headaches. Desperate for relief, I pursued countless doctors, therapies, and practitioners, yet progress remained elusive. Although more difficult to navigate, this struggle granted me an intimate understanding of my own body.
Fast forward a few more decades, and I finally received an SPD diagnosis. While I had been unaware of the condition's existence, I had experienced firsthand how different sensory stimuli could aggravate my headaches. Sensory triggers became tangible problems I could solve. However, I was disheartened by the scarcity of resources available for adults. While I wholeheartedly support the abundance of resources for children, I wished I had access to such knowledge during my own childhood. This realization compelled me to establish Sensory Product Design—to assist individuals like myself and to foster education, enabling others to exhibit greater understanding and grace. My vision extends beyond supporting people with sensory challenges; my goal is to cultivate a society where all individuals, irrespective of their differences, offer each other and themselves more compassion and acceptance.
Learning More About SPD
Today, my goal of creating a product that people with SPD may benefit from has been realized. The feedback from those who have had the opportunity to bring my Cozy💤 products into their lives has made me realize that I truly have created something meaningful and beneficial that can help others. I hope that after reading this you will take the time to learn more about SPD.
I know I’m not alone. We all face challenges in life. I have to say, my desire to help myself and others turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced.
if you are an adult just realizing that this might be you, please don't be discouraged by the lack of information available. At first I was. This is the other part of my vision, to truly shine a light on SPD so that for people like me that struggled their whole lives have resources here and get support in just how to help you live in your super sensitive body, but also find ways to communicate with loved ones so that they exhibit more patience and understanding. This book was my first very helpful resource specifically for adults.Today, my goal of creating a product that people with SPD may benefit from has been realized. The feedback from those who have had the opportunity to bring my Cozy💤 products into their lives has made me realize that I truly have created something meaningful and beneficial that can help others. I hope that after reading this you will take the time to learn more about SPD.
I know I’m not alone. We all face challenges in life. I have to say, my desire to help myself and others turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced.
if you are an adult just realizing that this might be you, please don't be discouraged by the lack of information available. At first I was. This is the other part of my vision, to truly shine a light on SPD so that for people like me that struggled their whole lives have resources here and get support in just how to help you live in your super sensitive body, but also find ways to communicate with loved ones so that they exhibit more patience and understanding. This book was my first very helpful resource specifically for adults.
My Life with SPD
Though I have struggled with SPD my whole life, I wasn’t diagnose with SPD until my early fifties. My background studying Industrial Design, combined with being the daughter of a successful inventor, has made me a natural problem solver. Before I even knew about SPD, I could feel how hyper-sensitive my senses were, I just thought that I was “flawed” in many ways. Certainly the feedback I received, with people saying ‘what’s your problem? Just get over it’ made me feel more so this way. When this diagnosis came, everything finally started to make sense. I knew that intense light, or toxic smells or certain sounds and many levels of touch caused the pain I experienced every day so much worse. I was made to feel so wrong when I couldn't handle certain things — I thought I should just get over it. With my diagnosis, I could finally own what my body was experiencing and as a lifelong inventor/industrial designer, I set out to “solve the problems”!
Untangling the Mess
Rather than being stuck and unable to move because I was “hit” with so many things, I chose to look at it as "untangling the mess”. When I took the overwhelm and tried to replaced it with compassion, as I would automatically do with anyone I love. This compassion combined with "solving one problem at a time” allowed me to manage the overwhelm, which in the past, would send my body into fight or flight, or even a deeper level of trauma, “freeze”. With self-acceptance and innate problem-solving skill set, I started tackling my own SPD to devise ways to be able to live in this super sensitive body. It’s not fun or easy, but it is the only body I have, so what choice did I have? My diagnosis came during a very dark period where I had been knocked down and kicked so many times that I thought “why get up?”, the ground is closer if I just stay down. I quickly realized that was not going to help so I set off to get better, one way or another.
If I don’t experience that trigger, then there’s nothing to recover from
When I put my problem-solving hat on, I quickly discovered that I had always been making various prototypes to alleviate my pain. I have had headaches everyday of my life since I was a teen. While the SPD doesn't seem to be the full cause of the headaches, they certainly go from bad to worse when one or more of my senses are assaulted. Assaulted might seem like a strong word, but it is completely accurate. I quickly realized that if I don’t experience that trigger, then there’s nothing to recover from. That is the absolute best scenario, though life doesn't always happen that way. So we need to have a series of tools that ideally stop the trigger from happening, and also tools that help recover from the assault. This is the next best scenario - and of course, the sooner the better!
Each person experiences SPD differently
One of the most challenging aspects of SPD is that each person experiences it differently. Even if two people have the same “senses” that are activated, exactly how they are activated combined with what happens when they are triggered is complex and nuanced. It’s no wonder the medical community has trouble diagnosing and more so treating SPD. Honestly, I believe the only way to make progress lies in our own hands. Definitely in conjunction with therapists and occupational therapist, but we are the only ones who truly know what happens when we are the only ones that can fully identify both what knocks us down and what gets us back up. Though it can be a daunting process, it is a very worthwhile endeavor! My belief is the more we can “shine a light” on SPD so that “the world” is less judgmental and intolerant the better off we all will be. This has been my mission in starting Sensory Product Design — to shine that light, and help those like me who felt like their bodies are not able to live as easily as most. Beyond that, everyone gets effected by things. If it’s not SPD, we all know the times where we experience an emotional response to something that triggers something deep down. I think most people can relate to many things that effect us deeply. What do we do in these moments when our nervous system gets HIT? This is what I hope to have ALL people start to understand.
Understanding Our Nervous System & Learning to Develop the Tools to Center Ourselves
Most people don't even think about their nervous system. For those that do notice it, most don't feel like they have a choice about how it’s reacting — it’s just reacting! What if we were able to first notice, and second develop tools that bring us back to center? Would that be a good skill to have? This is why the Cozy💤 line is the first of my product lines. While it can truly be a game changer for those of us with SPD (if this is where our triggers exist), They truly are for anyone! I like to think of it as a mini meditation that you can literally do in your sleep! There is incredible sense of security and well-being when you're all wrapped up. So imagine coming home from a rough day at work or experiencing road rage on your way home. I invite people to notice their nervous system before and then again after you’ve wrapped yourself up. When your CozyThrow💤 becomes a tool for settling your amped nervous system, you begin to use it in this way, not just to get warm. This is where the pockets and the multitude of ways to use it come into play. Since you can adjust you warmth level by using the pockets or not, you can use it even when you're not cold. Using the CozyThrow💤 & CozyCo💤 in this way, it shouldn't be hard to imagine that would be a great tool for you? Wouldn't that sense of centering also be helpful to your family? And wouldn't it be good for society as a whole? I truly believe so. And this is why I'm introducing these products first.
Accomplishing Centering in Ourselves - That’s the Place to Turn Things Around
I think whatever age group you're in there is a lot of stress in this world. Coming through Covid, all the political unrest worldwide, global warming and MORE, we all need ways to find our center! This is my mission when I started Sensory Product Design. I believe we can't start to turn around some of these overwhelming societal things until we start with our own minds/bodies/emotions. When we find center, that’s when we can bring our unique gifts out!
