Occupational Therapy Archives - Page 2 of 5

Sid Hamid

May 22, 2020

Change in our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world has never been so intense and real until now, bringing it with disruption to every single norm in our lives. Rather than being unconsciously carried down the meandering river of this change, I am learning to accompany these natural movements and participate in them more consciously by continually answering these two fundamental questions: “Who am I truly?” “What do I really want?” Using Professor Dr Franz Ruppert’s Identity-Oriented Psychotrauma Theory and…

Stay in, save lives, save the NHS: the impact on occupational lives

April 10, 2020

jen

Coaching and wellbeing

Important words with many facets to them. Many of you are essential workers still working with clients/patients or managing services, but others will be in isolation, as are millions of others over the UK and further afield. Virtually all aspects of our occupational lives are affected by having to isolate, stay at home, practice social distancing, work from home or indeed the loss of jobs. Building self-awareness about our social and occupational needs right now is crucial – we all…

What is it about goals…..?

November 7, 2019

jen

Business Development for OTs

As a fairly driven person and having been trained to always look at SMART goals as an OT and later learning of the centrality of goals to coaching, I’ve now come to later life with an increasing realisation that this is only half of the story. This realisation has been more like a creeping awareness that however much I set myself goals and make plans, I seem to rarely achieve them, instead succeeding in other unintentional ways. (I do appreciate…

Post Traumatic Growth

June 30, 2019

jen

Coaching and wellbeing, Support for OTs

Post Traumatic Growth Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) is the positive change that can happen in the wake of a traumatic event – the positive psychological change that comes as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. This idea fits well with the work that many OTs are involved in – doesn’t it. We work with people who have their occupational lives challenged by many situations disability, injury, disease as well as isolation, marginalisation and displacement (and we…

There’s more to coaching than solving, sorting and making plans

March 31, 2019

jen

Coaching and OT

I know that many of you, if not most of you, are working as OTs in fairly understandable ways and the “barriers” to occupation you deal with maybe 1) physical or environmental, solved or improved with equipment, physical rehabilitation or care support 2) psychological/ cognitive/ sensory, which can be improved with a range of brilliant occupation focused interventions. However, something which increasingly perplexes me on a personal and professional level are those “barriers” which seem somewhat intangible and lack a…

Polly Brennan – Occupational Therapist and Coach

August 14, 2018

jen

Find an OT Coach or Mentor

My name is Polly Brennan from Adventurous Coaching. I believe that life is just too short to put off experiencing health, happiness and fulfilment in the workplace. To what extent are you achieving this at the moment? 23 years of experience as an occupational therapist in mental health services has prepared me well for mental health and wellbeing coaching. With a niche in vocational recovery, I have always had a passion for enabling people to build their resilience in order…

Time to change our professions narrative – lets have a new story

June 12, 2018

Jen Gash

Business Development for OTs

One of my jobs as a coach is to help people spot their long standing, personal narratives and work to change the often unhelpful stories we tell about ourselves and hopefully create new ones. However, on this occasion, I am talking about the narrative our beloved profession of occupational therapy. From the first day I stepped into OT colleges in the mid 1990’s, I heard it. I’ve heard it for the last 25 years and I heard it when working…

OTs Doing it Differently: Dr Lynne Goodacre, Letting go of being in the room

January 18, 2018

jen

OT Stories, OTs Doing it Differently

The inspiration for this post came from a comment Jen made in her last ezine when writing about her drives with her daughter: She faces forward and we don’t need to make eye contact. This is really helpful in terms of freeing up our brains to do their own sorting and regulating and so helpful in coaching, which is why I enjoy telephone coaching so much. This comment really resonated with me in terms of my coaching journey and my…

OTs Doing it Differently: Julia PFLAUM, Occupational Therapy and ADHD

January 18, 2018

jen

OT Stories, OTs Doing it Differently

I work in a clinic for adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is a fascinating area to work in. I started in a new Occupational Therapy role in the clinic at the beginning of the year as it expands to offer more psychosocial interventions. Adult ADHD has been established as a diagnosis only relatively recently and many of our referrals are from people who have contacted their GP after having a child diagnosed or learning about ADHD in…