Textiles Made to Defy the Ordinary.
Our mobile Behavioral, Sensory & Environmental (BSE) Wellness & Design Studio develops adaptive tools, tactile learning experiences,
and eco-art retreats respectfully informed by early place-based handweaving traditions, relational knowledge, and ecological relationships across the
Eastern Woodlands and Wabanaki homelands. Our work is also informed by broader Northeastern American ethnography, and relational practices,
spanning the Atlantic-and-Mid-Atlantic Coastal and surrounding regions.
Accessible BSE Wellness
Sensory Integration Using Tactile Somatics,
Hands-on Textile Education, and Elements of Nature.
At Boho & Knots Macramé (BKM), we believe that holistic wellness approaches should include opportunities for adaptive engagement through relational
materials, cultural tools, and accessible information.
Especially for individuals whose lived experiences, sensory needs, or ways of engaging with the world may not always be fully recognized or accommodated
by conventional services and products due to structural limitations.
BKM was created by Sha’-nay Paris to help bridge this gap.
Our mobile Toronto-based design and textile studio offers accessible, sensory-friendly, interdisciplinary experiences that support BSE Wellness goals through creative practice, material exploration, and environmental awareness.
By integrating evidence-informed behavioral, sensory, and environmental wellness principles with culturally responsive knowledge, we explore how the combination
of hands-on interaction with organic tactile fibers, intentional tension-and-release movements, and repetitive pattern creation — within eco-conscious spaces —
can support sensory awareness, emotional regulation, embodied connection,
and renewed engagement with self, community, and environment.
We work with individuals, families, and organizations to co-develop
strength-based approaches that encourage meaningful wellness outcomes.
Explore more about our BSE Wellness Framework below to discover how our
non-clinical approach transforms raw textiles into functional, accessible,
and adaptive tools that support emotional resilience,
sensory engagement, and integrative experiences.
Explore how our work reflects the way an
eco-conscious lifestyles optimizes
BSE Wellness outcomes.
Handweaving, Macrame, and Knotting Techniques
Behavioral Wellness & Somatic Processing
The Mind-Body-Space Response
Our approach to behavioral wellness focuses on identifying patterns of stress, anxiety,
and nervous system dysregulation.
Through tactile textile eco-arts,
texture-arts, and neuro-arts
hands-on experiential learning,
we introduce somatic tools
that positively redirect behavior
wellness habits and cycles.
We see behaviors as information
about one's sensory and accessibility
needs and capacity.
By engaging the hands in rhythmic,
mindful, knotting, individuals learn
to interrupt chronic stress loops
so they can ground themselves
using an accessible self-regulating
exercise, so they can:
1. Build emotional
resilience
2. Enhance problem
solving capacity
3. Navigate challenges
with clarity
4. Remember their
strengths
5. Re-engage their
spatial awareness
6. Maintain
self-agency
STEM-Adjacent Experiential Learning Labs
Sensory Wellness -
Neuro-Ergonomic Input
Neuro Cognitive
Tactile Anchoring
Sensory wellness addresses how our bodies interpret and process tactile information
from the world around us.
This includes all stimuli that touches receptor points across all sensory systems as they are inter-connected and influence
how each functions.
Utilizing our signature neuro-tactile frameworks, that tie in relational material culture, we design specialized and adaptive sensory processing fiber-art tools that serve as physical anchors for grounding, engagement, and integration.
These sensory adaptive tools provide
deep-pressure touch and variable organic textures, helping individuals:
1. Carefully navigate
sensory overload
2. Manage neuro-divergent
processing
3. Self-sooth overwhelming
experiences
4. Practice more
mindfulness
5. Improve boundary setting
and maintenance
6. Build textile material
culture knowledge
Land-Based Eco-Art
and Nature Retreats
Environmental Wellness - The Nature Connection
Elements of Nature and Local Ecology Integration
Environmental wellness explores the deep relationship between behavioral health in relation to external and internal eco-systems.
Our mobile Toronto design and workshop studio utilizes land-based and nature-focused education that include outdoor engagement and incorporating raw materials. We prioritize grounding our practices with nature,
organics, and neutral stimulation.
We also prioritize using under-processed
and low saturation-coloured fibers to reduce exposure to stimuli from synthetic dyes and related chemical or artificial stimulants that can cause sensory dysregulation.
By intentionally weaving in elements of nature into our streams of our land-based
and curated indoor offerings, we foster:
1. Environmental internal
& external harmony
2. Promote sustainable
living practices
3. Encourage more
outdoor engagement
4. Include nature as an
active collaborator
5. Reduce structural and
accessibility barriers
6. Provide more culturally
responsive options
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How people think, behave
(react or respond), and relate to people, places, and things based on their access to choices, their capacity, and available supports or tools.
How the
central and
peripheral
nervous
systems (CNS & PNS) responds
to external and internal sensory experiences and stimuli.
How
physical environments (including the body). and what is in it, can support, enhance, or dis-able access and abilities for needed for BSE
Wellness.
Our work supports the process for resetting and rewiring stress response patterns that can lead to injury,
cycles of burn out, and isolation.
We use accessible, adaptive, and
sustainable tools and methods based
in eco-conscious, hands-on, eco-art as
well as nature engagement.
Through somatic action, guided tactile tension release,
and organic textile education, we help you expands your understanding of the mind-body and space connection.
Our methods provide options and solutions that help address service gaps and optimize BSE Wellness outcomes across systems, situations, and spaces.
Rooted in an arts, education with the University of Ottawa,
Carleton University, George Brown University, and training background in behavioral health and relational disciplines, our non-clinical practice bridges the gap between science, tactile art, and neuro-ergonomics.
Our work is also informed by certified coaching training related
to wholistic wellness for Indigenous women-centered
integrative programming.
We translate proven relational principles into hands-on, accessible, sensorywellness tools that solve wellness challenges across systems.
Our methods have been used in rehabilitation settings, institutions,community health units and networks, as well as integrativefamily, social, and cultural services across Ontario.
BSE Wellness is also integrating with international textile guilds,societies, and maker spaces as well as innovation hubs.
As we continue to expand our capacity, including through our art-basedresearch initiative and Hands Before Looms educational series, we continue to buildour collaborative circle and network
across locally, domestically, and internationally.
To book a discovery call to inquire more about our offerings,
email us by clicking the button below.
Disclaimer
Boho & Knots Macrame is a wholistic wellness, textile, and art and education initiative.
Our integrated behavioral health practice is
non-clinical. We do not provide clinical psychiatric
or behavioral treatment services, assessments,
or medical diagnosis. We also do not provide formal behavioral therapy.
At times, we collaborate with relational licensed clinicians and specialists who do offer such services, evaluations, and specific therapies.
Our work is informed by evidenced-based behavioral health, neuroscience, and
North American traditions and knowledge rooted in Eastern Woodlands teachings and systems.
At BKM, our specialized services are anchored
in signature frameworks, methodologies,
and research initiatives is designed for somatic grounding, sensory regulation and integration, and adaptive BSE Wellness interventions.
Our practice is based on the combination of relational university, college, and trainings as well over 25 years of behavioral health, counselling, program development, and advisory work experience across Ontario and relational systems.