“I qualified in Glasgow and in 2004 thought I had done my dash with OT, after nearly 10 years. I was and am still in New Zealand. I loved OT and it meant so much, so before giving away my Profession I felt I needed to be sure it was OT that was not working for me. I saw an ad in the local paper about adult education classes and attended night school for 4 weeks. The class was called…
My name is Awele Odeh and I’m based in East London/ Essex border. I’ve worked as an OT for 11 yrs. In 2007 I decided that I needed to rejeuvenate my passion for OT (we’ve all felt this way, I know), so I invested in a new set of skills and I studied to become an NLP Master Practitioner. This then developed into further study and I completed my diploma in Psychotherapy in April 2010.(I really enjoyed learning- and learning…
“I did it!” These words came spontaneously out of my mouth on Christmas Eve 2014 when I left the office of the mental health team for the last time. My career with the NHS began in 2003 when I started an Occupational Therapy (OT) degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Prior to that I had been a support worker for a private Brain Injury Rehab company and I always liked the idea of health care outside the NHS. I also had…
I have long been interested in how moving our bodies physically and a change in physical environment, can really create a much needed shift and evoke different insights during coaching. (There are examples of this in my Coaching Creativity book and elsewhere). Whilst coaching professes to shift outside of the medicalisation of other “helping” therapies, its practice often mirrors the medical model: Pre-planned 1 hour sit down sessions, “see” your coach, leave, come back at regular intervals. Nothing wrong with that, but coaching occurs in between sessions…
This short musing was inspired by Bob Garvey who wrote a paper on the “Cowboys of Coaching” a few years back and it prompted me to consider what might mean in relation to OT. Having spent the last 10 years working, not only independently, but also in a “new” area of practice and one that is not regulated (coaching), I often wonder if I might be considered a bit of a Cowboy…. Whilst I maintain my HCPC registration (worked hard…
I treated myself to a new book before Christmas, which will come as no surprise to most of you. Unusually for me, as I prefer paper pages, it is an ebook called “The Art of Taking Action: Lessons from Japanese Psychology” by Gregg Krech. I am very interested in Japanese psychology and philosophy be it our own “Kawa Model” through to “Kaizen” as embraced in my creativity coaching. As Occupational Therapists we are pretty good at identifying actions with…
Why becoming your own OT could be the best thing you ever do for yourself (and if you can’t do this alone, perhaps work with an OT who can help you – yes I do mean hire an OT for yourself – you don’t need to have an illness or disability to benefit from the OT approach.) Go on, grab an assessment from work and do it on yourself! It might be MOHO or perhaps PEO or COPM…or draw…
Book Review: “The UnSelfish Spirit:Human Evolution at a time of global crisis” by Mick Collins, reviewed by Maggie Jeffery I’ve been a closet OT all my life but way back in the 60’s inadvertently trained as a nurse instead. Since then the challenges that life produces have drawn me time and again to awareness of the vital importance of balancing ‘Doing’ as well as ‘Being’. Psychosynthesis training in fact included the old song – ‘Do, Be, Do, Be, Do’. How…
There are times of extraordinary upheaval and stress, catastrophic events, sudden bereavement and other awful, awful stuff- so please don’t mishear what I am about to say. I remember when my kids were very small and it seemed impossible to do anything (watch this if you are in any doubt!) and my lovely mum, who is also my best friend, would say things like “in a few years Jen, it will get easier…” Well it didn’t – it just changed.…
I made this video yesterday and immediately doubted whether I should post it or not, but these are issues I feel very strongly about. Whilst we are a profession with our roots in healthcare and the medical model and a profession which values independence and personal choice, we and our clients operate in a much wider world. This world is interconnected, global, interdependent and our occupational choices impact way beyond our immediate world. Enjoy and if you hate it, feel…
