Occupied

On July 10-12th 2019 I found my way to Sydney for the 28th Occupational Therapy Australia National Conference & Exhibition. This was my 4th Australian National Conference which runs every 2 years. In this episode, I’d love to highlight some of the key moments and amazing inspirations for me from #OTAus2019. Key Conference Stats Delegates...

I first came across Sense Rugby when the below video came across my facebook browsing. Being a strong advocate for occupation-based practice AND an old rugby union tragic, this video appealed to me on multiple levels. The use of Rugby Union as a therapy seemed so simple yea sooooo powerful.  The combination of Occupational Therapist,...

DURING THIS PODCAST TOPICS SUCH AS SUICIDE AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION ARE DISCUSSED. IF THIS IS A TRIGGER OR MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE, LOOK AFTER YOURSELF AND DON’T FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.  DURING THIS PODCAST PERSONAL OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES WITH MENTAL HEALTH AND MEDICATIONS ARE DISCUSSED. THESE ARE OUR PERSONAL OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES ONLY AND...

Laura Park Figueroa, to me, is something special in the profession. To take on the often scary role of an entrepreneur and turn your passion into a private practice takes STONES. This is exactly what Laura has done with her practice, Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy. Loving the great outdoors and having that connection with nature...

A while ago I asked Michelle to come and be a guest on Occupied. As I had expected she agreed but then retorted, “I’m going to interview you”. We both laughed and that was that for a couple months while we tried to nail down an appropriate time. When we did find a time Michelle...

The release of the adaptive XBox controller might have been something you saw cross your news feed a while back. You may even have thought “damn that’s awesome, I wonder how OT’s are going to use this”. What you may not have known is that an OT was heavily involved in its development! Erik Johnson...

Alexis is an OT, an online juggernaut, a clinical mentor and metaphor aficionado. If you’re on Instagram or Facebook then you have more than likely come across some of her posts, stories or live chats. Hard to imagine how she has any balance….

“Coffee, a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of berries from certain Coffea species.”   I can guarantee you that many people reading this did not know that a coffee bean comes out of a cherry! Why? Because, for most of us, it’s not important to our engagement with it. Some of you may not even be aware...

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a clinical modality that I was introduced and exposed to during my clinical career. Unlike many psychotherapies, ACT was always able to be incorporated into an Occupation-Based Practice framework. I came across Lou Sanguine on Facebook through a post about the podcast. She challenged me to make a post...

There’s very little I can say about RachelStarLive that she hasn’t expressed herself in one of her amazing youtube videos. So using her own words, Rachel is a “schizophrenic badass from Youtube and TV stuff.” She’s been on Americas Got Talent & Ninja Warrior. She is a Mental Health advocate. She’s a Schizophrenic (listen to...

Dr Twinley came into my life, as many have, via online connections and shared thoughts on Occupation and Occupational Therapy. When we first connected was just before she publicly released the concept of The Dark Side of Occupation. This concept very easily resonated with me. It integrated into my clinical practice and conceptualization very easily....

It’s OT Month in the states and I’ve seen a TONNE of social media posts promoting the profession and saying how amazing we are and outlining the wide variety of things we can do. What I haven’t seen is a large swell of people promoting the profession outside of the profession. I’m all for giving...

You may remember Simone from episode 2! She is the creator of the Regulation Rocket and an amazing occupation-based pediatric OT. Simone has definitely been one of our most popular guests. She has just got back to Australia after spending a year travelling the world (pretty sure the last episode was recorded from Japan!). Because...

Prior to meeting Jon Jon my measures of success were most definitely material and superficial. Since that time I’ve been a much more introspective OT. I met Jon Jon Rivero in 2014 when he came to Australia to deliver the keynote at the QLD State Conference. I’ve still never been to a more amazing presentation....

THIS EPISODE DISCUSSES TRAUMA & TRAUMATIC INJURY. ALTHOUGH THERE IS IS NOTHING OVERLY GRAPHIC OR NEGATIVE, PLEASE DO EXERCISE COMMON SENSE IF YOU FIND THESE TOPICS DIFFICULT OR TRAUMATIC. Meghan and I connected many years ago on twitter and I’ve followed her career and growth since then. Last year Meghan and a group of others...

SOME CONTENT IN THIS PODCAST MAY BE CONSIDERED EXPLICIT BY SOME PEOPLE. SEX AND INTIMACY TOPICS ARE DISCUSSED AND MAY INCLUDE SOME COLLOQUIAL TERMINOLOGIES. EXERCISE COMMON SENSE IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY THESE OR RELATED TOPICS.   I discovered the OT After Dark podcast only 4hrs after they released their first episode (Sex as an...

You may know Mandy as Seniors Flourish. She’s an OT. Entrepreneur. Business Owner. OG OT Podcaster. Online OT personality. but most of all she was kind enough to come and have a chat with us here at OCCUPIED. Many of you may have come across her work on social media where she produces and curates...

I’d like to reflect on a natural disaster. At the beginning of February 2019 the city where I live was stuck under a monsoonal rain even for over a week. This event dumped over 1.6m (5ft) of water in 7 days. Townsville being a typically dry place was not designed or ready to drain and...

Kitty (@truly_radical_) contacted me over Twitter some time ago and emphatically stated that she wanted to talk with me about research. She told me that herself and fellow OT, Anna (@aurbanowicz) had a huge passion for promoting research to Occupational Therapists. She wondered if I would like to talk about it with them on Occupied…. definitely!...

Leah Forman is a COTA and an OTD student whom I originally discovered from her Instagram. The very first post I saw was a photo of a pelvis and a comment about womens health, mindfulness and OT. This (strangely) caught my eye due to my good friend Melissa LaPointe and her business/interest/passion in the field....