Podcast Interview About Occupational Therapy as a Career #career #solutions #balance #holistic

Click Here  for 092 Recording of Cathi Discussing the Work Of an Occupational Therapist and Environments.

People for most of their lives are living out of environments with no idea at all of how they impact

their wellbeing.  Whether it is environments at home, work or in specific places such as doctors

surgeries, hospitals all the time messages are fed back to us about the dynamics between ourselves

and what lies around us.

In my latest interview on the Role of Occupational Therapy I stress the importance of not ignoring

people's holistic needs by focusing on just the apparent area of damage.  We are a society consumed

with putting a plaster over the area of hurt and walking away.  No attempt to say where is this coming

from; is it an environmental cause such as water supply, geopathic, is it self esteem, self sabotage and
doing something specific that addresses the cause rather than the outcome.

Our worlds have slowed down to the point that we see from one screen the world but meanwhile the

world around us is being ignored and that includes relating to each other.  One of the sources of poor

mental health that I have come across has been the social isolation, the alienation of people from one

another and a lack of social cohesion where people feel alien in an alien world.

The Health Chiefs dont want to address such issues as everything now has a solution with a tablet;

yes pharmaceuticals have taken over our life; a pill to be happy, a pill to forget, a pill to comatose and

a pill to change perception.

A Pill to take us away from being human; with feelings, responsibilities, responses and awareness.

Occupational Therapy is one of the few approaches maybe the only one that uses its own resources to
problem solve in a way that is not harmful to the client but has endless creative possibilities to

address every individual situation they meet.

If you want to find out more feel at liberty to contact me for further information-provided in the interview above.

THE GEOMETERY WITHIN & WITHOUT

You may ask what has this Table of beautiful flowers got to do with Occupational Therapy?

Well having worked in a psychiatric unit in Tamil Nadu South India I observed all manner of

improvised techniques to create therapeutic tools especially using Nature and the Environment.

This work was undertaken by a group of patients who used the flower and fauna in the vicinity they

lived to create a geometrical shape; so what? you may say.

But think about it; when the mind is torn apart and in conflict or self sabotage something is out of

a state of natural pattern or rhymmn.  Everything in nature has a pattern whether it be sound, visual;

shells, structure of flowers, trees and when everything is working from its own order it's in harmony

with itself and the greater connection to everything else in the universe.

When patients put this design together on the table psychologically its restoring some kind of pattern,

a shape or a rhhymn within themselves.

When the pattern and synchronisation happens within then its expressed on the outside.  so this

therapeutic work has allowed people to connect internally where patterns may have become adhoc.



Often when people feel out of synch with the world there is a misalignment with how they feel inside

and what shows up on the outside.  This therapeutic work allowed the patients to create a geometry of

a kind that allowed them to feel complete, a part of something bigger.

Dr Emoto's Geometrical Snowflakes - patterns are everywhere in Nature and in the Human Form and 

in the Mind; so, when they are fragemented and dispersed there is a non connection within.

That is why all therapies when they incorporate returning to patterns that flow, create, and support 

people express a congruence with the creativity and a healing.

Look around you and see where the patterns are and then look within and look at your own; all beautiful, colourful and vibrant!

Compassion is an Active Word

This is one of the most important ingredients as we weave ourselves in and out of peoples lives each day. Whether working in the community or working in the hospital or in the clinic and that is compassion. Quite frankly I dont see too much of it going on within the caring professions although the occupational therapists seem to activate the principle the most by making it active. Throughout the various environments I have worked whether psychotherapy, community mental health, social services or hospital I have heard other professionals speak about their clients as if they were wooden dolls being acted upon; the lack of respect, dignity has not always been forthcoming and alas it is a shameful thing to hear and view when other people, especially those who are there to care for others lack the one quality you would expect the most and that is; compassion.

Reminiscience Therapy

A unique experience in a vintage tearoom in west yorkshire transported me back to an age of what it must have been like in england during the 1920-1950's. I witnessed how the customers felt at ease when they walked in almost as though it was a meeting place of those who appreciated the vintage time capsule that this space offered. We started talking about the idea of for the vintage cafe but also went on to talk about the importance of people of older generations being able to return to familiarity; a time of great class, elegance which is often a therapeutic tool we use in occupational therapy for people who memory is impaired and struggle with orientating themselves in a world they find doesnt synchronise with their perception. Its a great place to come to absorb the energetic patterns of that period of time and to enjoy the music, food, vintage items and a period of history that sometimes seems long lost out of the popular imagination. This is also a shared experience for those in a group but its a venue for poetry readings and creative outlets for those who feel comfortable with the surroundings. Its exactly the context in which we often work with people of that era and to be able to experience it without going to having to set it up clinically is a great bonus.

What is Occupational Therapy?

What is Occupational Therapy? Is this a question we always get asked throughout our career? We all have different ways of expressing what we do but one holding principle out of all the descriptions is that we come from an holistic approach. This is a rarety within the medical model approach and increasingly more and more peiple are realising that you cannot isolate just one aspect of a persons life and treat that. You have to look at the whole situation in its entirety - not that we can solve eveything but we know environments impacts upon the social, health and aspirational. We have the ability as practitioners to improvise and think outside the box. We cannot always depend upon technology and in many cases WE the therapist are often the therapeutic tool in which we use to problem solve. Would be interesting to hear how other people have worked by improvising, thinking outside the box because they were forced to i.e. could not afford equipment, environment did not facilitate the expected treatment so you had to think of something more inventive?

Occupational Therapy & Environment Matters.

Occupational Therapist in the Community My experiences of walking in behind over 1000 doors

 informs me of one main message; Environment Matters on all levels. This is what the Occupational

Therapist will realise when sooner or later the penny drops that often peoples' issues are inextricably

linked to the context in which they live. This is often viewed as on many different levels and will

affect people on the physical i.e. tripping over carpets or no access to the outside world;

psycholgoically alienated from a fast moving world where more and more people are eking out their

lives in isolation having th eonly companion the TV to keep them company. A Tv that hypnotises

peoples minds to afford them very little personal power and instead serves to diminish peoples inner

power and personal responsibility to themselves. In my new book:

I will be looking at how environments matter to people if they

are young and disabled; when they are old and disabled and for

everyone else when you are growing up; when you have been

ill and how our environments align with what lies within us.