Dr Bliss Cavanagh was six when her motor and vocal tics first appeared. By the time she received a diagnosis of Tourette syndrome three years later, she had already learned a lesson familiar to many young people with invisible conditions: staying quiet can feel like the safest option.

"I kept my diagnosis hidden," she tells Women’s Agenda.

"I didn't tell anyone about it. The negative representations in the media were something that really affected me growing up. I never saw any positive representations of people who were like me.”

As Cavanagh explains, Tourette syndrome is widely misunderstood. One in 100 children have Tourette syndrome but only 10% go on to develop the extreme tics often portrayed in the media. 

As a young person, Cavanagh says she carried a deep fear of stigma through high school and university. But what steadied her most was creating art. 

“I've always been an artist,” Cavanagh says.

“I always loved throwing myself into creative things where I was by myself, working with my hands. The sort of activities that were very immersive. It was definitely when I felt the most relaxed and focused.”

Art was both sanctuary and a coping strategy for Cavanagh. What she didn’t realise then was that the coping strategies she was building through art would one day evolve into a business helping others find calm too.

Cavanagh is now the founder of Creative Sensory Spaces, a company that designs and installs evidence-based sensory rooms across venues such as hospitals, schools, workplaces and stadiums.

These immersive environments use light, sound, scent and touch to help people regulate stress, reset their nervous system and improve wellbeing. 

An art project that turned into a bold business idea

Cavanagh first discovered sensory rooms while studying fine arts. She spent her honours year creating her own multi-sensory art installation with the goal to help alleviate her own tics and symptoms. 

“I came across these therapeutic sensory spaces that were used only in clinical populations. They weren't accessible anywhere. They definitely weren't inclusive,” she explains. 

“So I spent a whole year creating this sensory-based body of work and installed it in a gallery. That moment when I finally got to sit in that space, I'd never felt so relaxed, so calm and so tic-free before. A complete shift happened for me internally.”

Cavanagh says the space helped her feel empowered to take back some control in her life.  

“I felt this real sense of empowerment and a real sense of purpose and control back over my life – that I actually had the power to change my experience of life just through the environment, through modulating sensory input, through creating a different experience,” she says.

While it was transformational on a personal level, Cavanagh says the positive response from the broader public was what surprised her the most. 

“People started to share stories of mental health with me,” she said. “They said they'd never felt so happy and calm at the same time. They said they'd never seen their kids sit so still yet be so engaged.”

“I felt this real sense of empowerment and a real sense of purpose and control back over my life – that I actually had the power to change my experience of life just through the environment, through modulating sensory input, through creating a different experience."
– Dr Bliss Cavanagh, Founder, Creative Sensory Spaces

Cavanagh went on to undertake a PhD in Health Science looking to prove the benefits of sensory spaces for the general population and explore how these spaces can be better designed to reduce stress, anxiety and improve mental health. 

“It was really drawn from this realisation that I’d been creating these spaces my whole life,” she says.

“[From] my childhood obsession with mood lamps, scented candles and playing music – creating these experiences that I found therapeutic and then discovering the science behind it.”

From early days in a garage to a fully-fledged national business

Cavanagh’s first commission was a pop-up sensory space at an accessibility expo. Then came an opportunity through Renew Newcastle, which offered creatives access to empty shopfronts for a small fee. For $20 a week, Cavanagh secured a space and began turning her idea into a growing business, becoming the founder of Creative Sensory Spaces.

Fourteen years later, the business is based in Sydney, operating from a large warehouse where products are designed and manufactured in-house. The team creates and installs purpose-built sensory regulation rooms for hospitals, schools, stadiums and major public venues.

“We believe that every space should be purpose-designed with the outcome as the goal,” Cavanagh says. 

“Equally important is ensuring that every space provides that wow-factor experience that transports visitors into another world.”

Cavanagh’s business philosophy is focused around innovation, creativity and integrity. All three are key to ensuring she can deliver real impact for people who utilise her sensory rooms, she says.

‘There’s been a huge shift in society towards wellbeing and inclusion’

When Cavanagh first started her business over a decade ago, she says barely anyone knew what a sensory room was. What’s been incredible is how the public understanding of sensory spaces has grown in recent years.

“Many of the early years were centred around education and pushing forward how these spaces could benefit so many people, and how this is a truly universal approach to improve inclusion in an easy and accessible way.”

“Many of the early years were centred around education and pushing forward how these spaces could benefit so many people, and how this is a truly universal approach to improve inclusion in an easy and accessible way.”
– Dr Bliss Cavanagh, Founder, Creative Sensory Spaces

The shift in the past three to five years has come from large organisations who have reached out to Cavanagh after realising the importance of building inclusive spaces for their customers.

“Large-scale organisations are getting on board and recognise that they've got an important responsibility to better support their people, and any people that are engaging with them,” she says.

“It's just so important to see that change, and they're definitely making it happen.”

This article was written in partnership with and originally published by Women's Agenda.