Building confident, courageous, healthy, creative & ultimately, happy OTs 

We truly believe that OT is a great profession. Occupational Therapists are amazing people who believe passionately about helping others achieve meaningful occupation, participation and engagement. OTs are the go to people, they always have a solution to a problem or know how to find one, they are always creative, fun and resourceful – that’s why we love them so much! We also have an exciting vision for a much bigger role for OT in society, in the future.

However, some OTs are struggling with lack of confidence, burnout & frustrations with their role and the system. Many are facing a turning point in their careers for a variety of reasons. Many are unhappy 🙁  The promise of a safe and secure job is no longer available in traditional services. This coupled with the increasing devaluation of your skills, which, many of you describe, means that the job you trained to do, has almost vanished. Many newly qualified OTs are finding that “OT jobs” just do not exist. As a helping profession, OTs often find it hard to ask for help. We are not alone – many helping professions try and solve things alone and feel they should be able to “sort themselves out” without support… I always ask the OTs I work with, what advice they would give to a client, if they were in a similar situation to themselves – that reveals all sorts of helpful insights which we need to apply to ourselves. People often get “stuck” when they start thinking about change. Worries about pensions and security come to the surface. Confidence issues nag at us telling us we can’t do anything else.  Time constraints reinforce the difficulty we perceive in moving forward. At OTCoach we try and help in a number of ways:
  • Coaching to create happier OTs – that means coaching for you, your soul, your personal needs
  • Helping you find an OT who coaches, to support you through both challenging and exciting times
  • Support OTs to “Recraft” their work: analysing strengths, developing a vision and crafting a work life for greater fulfilment and balance.
  • Providing you with supportive and inspirational blogs and other resources
  • Giving you permission to self-care…without our own wellbeing, we are not able to help others…
 “The coaching has given me confidence.  My uncertainty about the future has gone and I have clarity of vision.  I’m now happy to make plans and having goals and working between sessions helped.  It’s an ongoing process and I’m willing to take more risks” “In retrospect I now think I’ve changed the way I deal with things.  I feel I’ve got more time.  I don’t rush at things. I’ve got more control – not panicking any more, not stressing and being more objective.  I can stand back and see the wider picture.  I am standing in my own power” “It was a great experience… and I would love to do coaching in OT. We can’t facilitate others to be unless we are that ourselves” “It really gave me a confidence boost.  Being listened to in this way felt special and it really helped me to clarify where I’m going”

Does your whole OT service or department need support?

 
Is your service in the throws of change which staff are finding difficult to handle?
Is moral low and stress high? Do you need to help your staff find their mojo again A coaching culture at work can improve motivation, reduce burnout & stress & improve engagement as well as
  • Enhancing performance
  • Supporting a specific individual or team project
  • Integrating learning from courses into the workplace
  • Improving staff retention
  • Career planning/personal development
  • “growing” future senior staff
  • Fostering a culture of learning and development
  • Accelerating change in organisation
  • Enhancing creativity and innovation

(adapted from Foster-Turner 2006)

At OTCoach we offer bespoke training and development days, tailored to your individual needs.

Feedback from Hertfordshire County Council following a recent individual training day “Coaching as a tool to enable service users”

“really insightful into the therapeutic use of self and our own values and beliefs”

“would consider further learning”

“we need more courses like this that are OT specific and challenge our thinking”.

Jen’s remit was to provide an introduction to coaching and its potential use as a tool to enable clients. It could easily have been a two day course but still provided participants with ideas and practical tools. Thank you.’

To discuss an idea for training or development activity for your team, please contact us.

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