February 27, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode of the Animals and Aquatics podcast, host Gina delves into the occupation-based phase of occupational therapy (OT) practice in niche areas like animal-assisted and aquatic interventions. With a focus on practical insights and expert advice, Gina discusses the three key priorities during this phase: testing systems, establishing work-life boundaries, and creating a career pathway.
Listeners will gain valuable insights on how to navigate the unique challenges of niche OT practice, including avoiding common mistakes such as trying to do all the things, recreating past systems, and starting too big or too long. Gina shares personal anecdotes and professional tips to help OT practitioners maximize client experience, achieve work-life balance, and build a successful career pathway in their chosen niche.
Tune in to this episode for actionable strategies and inspiration to elevate your occupational therapy practice in niche areas like animal-assisted therapy, nature-based therapy, and hippotherapy. Whether you're a seasoned OT or just starting out, this podcast provides invaluable guidance for success in niche practice areas. Don't miss out on this empowering discussion!
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(00:01):
Hi, this is Gina and welcome toanimals and aquatics.
Our goal through the animals andaquatics podcast is to provide
practical insights andresources.
For incorporating animalassisted and aquatic
interventions into occupationaltherapy practice.
In this last episode in thegetting started series, we are
focused on occupation-basedphase.
(00:24):
Like it sounds it's the phase.
When you start to implement whatyou've worked on in the
preparatory and purposefulphases.
In this episode, I want to coverthe three mistakes be made in
this phase that slowed ourgrowth and made us struggle
more.
So let's get moving.
(00:53):
Welcome today we're going todiscuss the what of the
occupation-based phase whengetting started in a unique
practice area.
Now you could probably applythis to any nontraditional area
of practice, but we'respecifically talking about areas
of practice, like incorporatingnature and natural elements,
like say animals.
Oh, or aquatics.
(01:14):
If you haven't listened to thelast two episodes regarding the
preparatory phase and thepurposeful phase, take a short
break and go listen.
I'll, wait.
Great now that we're all on thesame page.
The occupation based phase.
Is where you start with yourfirst client.
This is the exciting moment oftruth.
(01:36):
This will be your firstrun-through with a client or a
few clients to make sure thatyou have the 360 degree client
experience.
That's so important.
Now I really go into detailabout this, my programs, but you
want to make sure that you areproviding a complete experience
from the first contact todischarge and beyond.
So when someone calls or reachesout and finds out about you and
(02:00):
the specialty area of practiceat your end, you want to make
sure that right from that verymoment.
All the way through dischargeand even beyond discharge.
That you're providing a completeand comprehensive occupational
therapy experience.
That's really one of the thingsthat makes working in a unique
practice area.
Very.
Different and supportive for alot of our clients than a
(02:23):
traditional occupational therapyclinic based experience.
We're really concerned with thewhole experience that they are
going to have with us.
Again, from the moment that theyreach out all the way through
discharge and even beyond.
So in our focus of theoccupation-based phase, there
(02:44):
are really three priorities thatI want to focus on today.
One is testing systems.
The other is work-lifepriorities.
And then creating a careerpathway.
So let's talk about eachpriority so far.
Testing systems.
So this means testing everythingfrom your marketing to your
(03:04):
clinical applications.
Now if you'll think back to ourprevious two phases in the
preparatory and the purposefulphase.
You were doing your marketresearch, you were putting
together.
Marketing information you werereaching out to see if there was
a need in your community.
But really in theoccupation-based fees, short
(03:25):
testing.
All of that research, all of thethings that you've put together.
And you're testing to see if itresonates with people.
You're testing to see if theemails are gonna go out.
Like you scheduled them.
If people are going to react toyour messaging in the way that
you thought that they were.
Oftentimes what's really clearto us as occupational therapy
(03:47):
providers.
Is often not as clear tofamilies that we would like to
serve or clients that we wouldlike to work with.
I'm continually surprised whenI've gone over something a few
times and I think it's reallyclear.
And then I send it out and I getfeedback or people asking
questions that to me seemed veryobvious, but obviously to them,
(04:09):
I had missed explaining it at acertain level.
So when we're testing systems,we're really thinking about.
Everything from our intakepaperwork.
Is there too much friction inour intake paperwork.
If you're noticing that a lot ofpeople are starting your intake
paperwork, but they're notfinishing it, or they're not
going through your schedulingsystem.
(04:30):
This is a really important timeto get all those pieces working
and.
Often things don't work right.
From the start.
So we really need to test it, goback, refine it.
See if there's ways that we canmake it easier or more
intuitive.
Add more supports along the way.
So that way.
(04:50):
People can get through thatintake process.
Now, maybe in the evaluationphase.
You have selected someoccupational therapy
evaluations.
But then you find they don'twork great for your setting and
doing that occupational therapyevaluation.
Isn't working out the way thatyou thought it would, or you're
not getting the information thatyou really need for your
(05:12):
setting.
And that's super important.
No matter what setting in we'rein, whether that's nature-based
being at the stables, being atthe pool or any other unique
setting.
There's information that we needthat may be specific to our
setting.
That's really important.
If somebody is incontinent, weneed to know that if we're going
to be an aquatic setting, ifsomebody has spinal mobility
(05:35):
issues, we need to know thatbefore we're going to
incorporate equine movement intotheir plan of care.
If somebody has alife-threatening allergy to bee
stings, we want to know thatbefore we're out in the nature
based setting.
So in this occupation-basedphase, we are finding out if.
The evaluation process that wehave set up is going to get us
(05:56):
all the information we need fromthe families occupational
concerns.
And getting that informationfrom families.
Sometimes it's a little bit morechallenging than one would
expect.
Some families are really excitedto tell us about all of their
child's strengths, which arereally important with a
strengths-based approach.
But we also want to pinpoint theareas that we're going to work
(06:19):
on.
So making sure that we've chosenevaluations that are going to
highlight the areas that we'regoing to focus on.
Making sure that we have thedata that we need to write goals
at the end of our evaluation.
We get to work through thosesystems.
And then we have like billingour billing systems.
(06:39):
Our first.
Several iterations of clients.
We weren't using an EMRfinancially, it didn't make
sense to have an EMR for only afew clients.
But the billing systems werevery clunky.
And quite time consuming to gothrough invoices, create super
bills.
Actually bill for services.
(07:00):
Collect payment.
And.
As those systems improved ourtime management improved our
ability to collect on thoseinvoices improved.
That workflow process is, islike a thousand times better.
Now.
And so in this getting startedoccupation-based phase, right.
(07:21):
You're going to be goingthrough.
All of your systems, you'regoing to find out what works
really well.
What's not working so well.
What are the things that youthought would work really well?
And what areas do you reallyneed to tweak?
Now, this can also apply to yourclinical applications.
You may have an idea that youwant to run hour long sessions.
(07:43):
And.
You may start your hour longsessions and find out that your
clients are fatiguing tooquickly.
And an hour is really just toomuch time for whatever setting
that you're in.
So it testing systems, we canreally find out.
How we'll make changes as we goforward.
In our unique practice area,what do we need to change in the
(08:07):
technology side of things?
What do we need to change intouchpoints that we're having
with our clients and families?
What do we need to change in ourclinical applications with our
hands-on work that we're doing?
Maybe where do we need to changesome of our training and support
to our teams?
And I do have a previous podcastepisode on the hippotherapy,
(08:30):
team.
But whether you're at the pooland you have a pool deck hand.
That's going to help you withthings, whether you have a horse
leader.
At incorporating hippotherapy,whether you have someone in a
farm-based setting who ishandling your therapy, goats for
you.
Right.
You have certain team proceduresthat you're going to need to do
(08:52):
training on.
And so maybe as you start totest out these systems, you
realize that your interns don'tunderstand the whole process or
volunteers aren't showing up atthe proper time, or you haven't
communicated to youradministration.
Exactly what you need as far assupport.
So in your testing systemsphase, You get to go through
(09:13):
each of these, like a check boxand say it's working, it needs
refinement or scrap it and startover.
The second priority.
That I think is really importantis work-life and I hate the term
work-life balance.
So in this phase, I really liketo say it's important to set
work-life boundaries.
(09:33):
Desire, your poor priorities arein your career and home life
right now.
As you're getting started inthis occupation-based phase.
So when you really startstepping in and seeing your
first client or first couple ofclients, this is when it's
important to start puttingboundaries in.
To decide how you want tohandle.
(09:54):
Client text messaging or clientinquiries or rescheduling.
And you can think about whatroles are really most important
to you.
So if you're a new grad withoutany other family
responsibilities, you might wantto go all in with your new work
roles.
But if you're a new mom, who'screating this OT career around
your desire to be home with yourkids, then you may need to
(10:16):
prioritize that function first.
And now is the time to do it.
Not later when your nichepractice has grown.
So when you're thinking about.
This priority.
You're really setting up someguard rails.
Around your time.
(10:36):
Around the way that you want tointeract with clients and
families, how this new nichearea of practice or this program
within your current job is goingto function within your other
roles and responsibilities thatyou have.
So you want to think about thisas your business is not a baby.
(10:59):
Okay.
It's not your baby.
You may have grown it andcuddled it and brought it to
life in this occupation-basedphase, but it's not a baby.
It really should be a systemthat can be self-sustaining at
some point in the near future.
Okay.
So that's an important mindsetshift to have here when we're
(11:21):
talking about work lifepriorities.
Now the last priority in theoccupation-based phase is
creating a career pathway.
And in this phase, you're goingto decide how far down this path
do you want to go?
And then what stepping stoneswill you need to get there?
(11:42):
Some journeys are only going toneed a few stones and those can
be found for free and podcastslike this one or published
research.
Other journeys like mine with agoal to teach hippotherapy,
around the world.
Took many, many stepping stonesand many people holding my hands
along the way.
Thanks, Bonnie Laurie andClaudia.
(12:04):
So, who are you going to chooseto hold your hand along the way?
In this phase, it's important tostart to look around and see
what direction you want to goin.
Are you going all in for thehighest level of certification
in your particular niche area?
Are you going to get.
All of the training that isoffered in nature-based therapy
(12:27):
or in aquatics.
Are you just going to keep thisto one night a week where you're
going to do some continuingeducation.
You're going to keep up withsome podcast and this area is
going to support your community.
And it's going to give you abreath of fresh air in your
occupational therapy journey.
(12:47):
And that's really enough andthat's okay too.
Right.
Different people's journeys aregoing to take them in different
directions.
And it's awesome to be able tosay.
This is really what I want.
And this is what I've planned.
This is the pathway that I'veplanned.
And I love doing it one night aweek and that's fantastic.
It brings me so much joy and Ilove seeing the benefits that my
(13:11):
clients get.
In other cases, you may have amuch bigger vision in that you
want to do this full time.
You want to become recognized asan expert or a leader in your
area, and that's going to takeyou down a very different
pathway.
When you start to see whatdirection that you want to go
in.
Then you can look at whatresources you're going to need.
(13:34):
Okay.
So these details then get addedto your business budget.
If it's your own business or aspecialty area of practice in
someone else's business.
Then they need to know thebudget for continuing education.
So a see at conference thisyear, And they'll need to know
what support you're going toneed along the way.
So for this phase, you're reallygoing to take stock of these
(13:57):
three priority areas.
You might want to know also whatmistakes that I made so you can
avoid them.
So I would say the three biggestmistakes to avoid are trying to
do all the things.
Recreating the systems of yourlast job.
And starting to big or long.
So let me dive into each ofthose separately.
(14:19):
So the first one is trying to doall the things and.
It's so exciting to be able tohave an idea and come and bring
it to life.
It really is.
And.
When you suddenly have thatfreedom to.
Start creating a program orincorporating a new treatment
(14:44):
tool like hippotherapy, intoyour practice.
Often you may want to do all thethings or try all the things.
So you might want to be working.
With children with autism at thestable, and you might want to be
doing a social skills group.
And if you're trying to do allthe things at once.
You're not really putting anyoh, or all of your attention.
(15:07):
In any one area.
And when you're starting in aniche practice area.
You need to have a certain levelof discipline and focus.
To master those systemspriorities, right.
That I was talking about in thatarea.
And so when you're trying to doall the things, and so maybe
that's running some nature basedgroups and starting up.
(15:28):
Some therapy one-on-onesessions, incorporating farm
animals and doing some craftinggroups.
You're trying to do all thethings and.
There's a saying, right?
If you're trying to catch tworabbits, right?
You end up catching none.
If we can just focus on catchingone rabbit at a time.
(15:50):
Then you can build.
What your offerings are in youroccupational therapy practice.
So.
Slow down.
Find the one thing.
Through your preparatory andpurposeful phase that has the
biggest chance of succeeding andbeing successful, the area that
you're most passionate in, orhave the best skill set for.
(16:12):
The area that maybe you alreadyhave resources available to you.
And focus on that first.
Make that successful first, makesure all the systems run, all
the emails are scheduled.
The billing works.
Everything right.
The marketing, the messaging.
You want to know that that allis going to work, then you can
(16:35):
expand as time goes on.
You're not putting yourself intoa box by mastering one area
first.
And that applies to both likeyour support.
So your continuing education orcertifications.
As well as the business oradministrative side of things.
So.
(16:56):
That's the biggest, like one ofthe biggest mistakes that lots
of people make right.
Is trying to do all the things.
The next biggest mistake isrecreating the systems of your
last job.
So often we stick with thingsthat are familiar and it's much
easier to go with somethingthat's familiar to you.
So if you've worked in earlyintervention, maybe you're
(17:18):
thinking about one hour sessionsthat are partially home-based
and partially at one of your,like at your unique setting.
So maybe you're seeing them atthe pool, but you're also going
to see them at home once a week.
And you're doing parentcommunication notes at the end,
and you're giving those to theparent.
And so you're really recreatingsome of that EI model.
(17:39):
In this unique practice areayou're trying to incorporate.
Whatever systems that you had atyour last job.
And often.
It doesn't work.
Okay.
So the systems that were createdfor early intervention work
really well for earlyintervention, the coaching model
home-based right.
That works really well for inearly intervention is really
(17:59):
important.
School-based systems work reallywell for school-based so doing
and end of the year summary, andcompleting documentation.
Based on, groups or push in thatyou're having.
That works really well in aschool-based setting.
But when we're working in aunique practice area, We really
need to think about.
(18:20):
How do we retain our clinicalintegrity?
While being true to the settingthat we're in.
So that may mean changing thesession length of times
frequency or duration.
It may mean getting really clearon writing soap notes so that
we're writing them in a clinicalformat and we're not writing
(18:41):
them for the stable or we're notwriting session summary that's
based on the pool, we're writingan occupational therapy soap
note.
That is based on our OT goals.
So we want to think about.
What systems are we mostcomfortable and most familiar
with and making sure that we'renot just falling into those same
patterns.
(19:03):
As we begin working in a uniquepractice area.
And I see this challenge a lotwith people who are adding a
specialty area to their existingjob.
So maybe they're going to berunning a nature-based group one
afternoon a week within theirclinical job that they're
already doing.
So they're going to take.
(19:23):
A lot of those same frameworks.
And try to move it into thatnature-based setting.
And a lot of times those systemsare in the clinical model for a
reason.
And as we move out into anature-based practice, we really
need to incorporate new systems,new frames of reference.
And new ways of.
(19:46):
Communicating with familiesincorporating the information
that they're going to need toknow.
When they're meeting with us foroccupational therapy in a new
setting.
And the last biggest mistakethat I want to share today with
you is starting too big.
Or long.
And for me, it was the issue ofstarting too long.
(20:10):
So making a commitment to dosomething that was too long.
And I didn't have theopportunity to then go ahead and
make changes when things weren'tworking well for me so the first
commitment that I made was 12weeks long and it was a nature
based program.
And.
(20:31):
It was a really long 12 weeks.
And so now I have cut that inhalf when I'm trying a new
program.
A new experience, six weeks, sixweeks.
I can pretty much do anythingfor six weeks.
12 weeks was a really long time.
And so thinking about for yourfirst iteration.
(20:54):
Keeping it short.
And so.
Summer.
Very naturally lends itself to ashort duration.
And for those of you who arehoping to try Integrating a new
niche into your occupationaltherapy practice this summer, I
would love to touch base withyou because summer is like the
(21:14):
perfect amount of time to.
Try a new treatment tool andit's sort of book-ended right.
It's bookended by the schoolyear it's bookended by spring
and fall.
It's bookended by the change ofthe seasons.
But it doesn't allow it to betoo long.
Because you're going to need totweak those systems.
Right.
And so.
(21:36):
Starting too long.
Definitely a challenge.
Don't do it.
Just please.
Don't do it.
Starting too big also would goalong that route.
So if you're a aquaticoccupational therapy books up
and you have 10 clients in a rowand you haven't ever done it.
You're going to regret it.
Like, don't do it.
Same if you are incorporatinghippotherapy, into your
(21:57):
occupational therapy sessions,don't book 10 back to back
client don't book 10 clients ina day, even if they're all
spread out.
It's, it's a good way to ruinyourself.
And so it's a good way to getburnout.
So starting too big, startingtoo long, start small.
1, 2, 3 clients.
Three's a great number.
That way, if somebody is absent,you still have to, three is a
(22:18):
great number and not too long.
Six, six is a good six is goodfor me.
Maybe eight might work for you.
Six is good for me.
So the three biggest mistakestrying to do all the things,
recreating the systems of yourlast job.
Starting too big or too long.
Don't do them learn from thestruggle that I had.
You don't have to go throughthat.
So to wrap up today's episode,the occupation based phase.
(22:42):
Is where you start living yourdream, working in a unique
niche.
It might be for a few hours aweek, and that supports your
enthusiasm for OT, or it mightbe part of a larger vision to
transition to a full-timepractice in a unique area of
practice.
Either way you want to masterthe three key priorities and
avoid the top three mistakes tosee success without the
(23:02):
struggle.
Until next time on animals andaquatics, keep it warm and
snugly.
Hi, this is Gina and welcome toanimals and aquatics.
Our goal through the animals andaquatics podcast is to provide
practical insights andresources.
For incorporating animalassisted and aquatic
interventions into occupationaltherapy practice.
In this last episode in thegetting started series, we are
focused on occupation-basedphase.
(00:24):
Like it sounds it's the phase.
When you start to implement whatyou've worked on in the
preparatory and purposefulphases.
In this episode, I want to coverthe three mistakes be made in
this phase that slowed ourgrowth and made us struggle
more.
So let's get moving.
(00:53):
Welcome today we're going todiscuss the what of the
occupation-based phase whengetting started in a unique
practice area.
Now you could probably applythis to any nontraditional area
of practice, but we'respecifically talking about areas
of practice, like incorporatingnature and natural elements,
like say animals.
Oh, or aquatics.
(01:14):
If you haven't listened to thelast two episodes regarding the
preparatory phase and thepurposeful phase, take a short
break and go listen.
I'll, wait.
Great now that we're all on thesame page.
The occupation based phase.
Is where you start with yourfirst client.
This is the exciting moment oftruth.
(01:36):
This will be your firstrun-through with a client or a
few clients to make sure thatyou have the 360 degree client
experience.
That's so important.
Now I really go into detailabout this, my programs, but you
want to make sure that you areproviding a complete experience
from the first contact todischarge and beyond.
So when someone calls or reachesout and finds out about you and
(02:00):
the specialty area of practiceat your end, you want to make
sure that right from that verymoment.
All the way through dischargeand even beyond discharge.
That you're providing a completeand comprehensive occupational
therapy experience.
That's really one of the thingsthat makes working in a unique
practice area.
Very.
Different and supportive for alot of our clients than a
(02:23):
traditional occupational therapyclinic based experience.
We're really concerned with thewhole experience that they are
going to have with us.
Again, from the moment that theyreach out all the way through
discharge and even beyond.
So in our focus of theoccupation-based phase, there
(02:44):
are really three priorities thatI want to focus on today.
One is testing systems.
The other is work-lifepriorities.
And then creating a careerpathway.
So let's talk about eachpriority so far.
Testing systems.
So this means testing everythingfrom your marketing to your
(03:04):
clinical applications.
Now if you'll think back to ourprevious two phases in the
preparatory and the purposefulphase.
You were doing your marketresearch, you were putting
together.
Marketing information you werereaching out to see if there was
a need in your community.
But really in theoccupation-based fees, short
(03:25):
testing.
All of that research, all of thethings that you've put together.
And you're testing to see if itresonates with people.
You're testing to see if theemails are gonna go out.
Like you scheduled them.
If people are going to react toyour messaging in the way that
you thought that they were.
Oftentimes what's really clearto us as occupational therapy
(03:47):
providers.
Is often not as clear tofamilies that we would like to
serve or clients that we wouldlike to work with.
I'm continually surprised whenI've gone over something a few
times and I think it's reallyclear.
And then I send it out and I getfeedback or people asking
questions that to me seemed veryobvious, but obviously to them,
(04:09):
I had missed explaining it at acertain level.
So when we're testing systems,we're really thinking about.
Everything from our intakepaperwork.
Is there too much friction inour intake paperwork.
If you're noticing that a lot ofpeople are starting your intake
paperwork, but they're notfinishing it, or they're not
going through your schedulingsystem.
(04:30):
This is a really important timeto get all those pieces working
and.
Often things don't work right.
From the start.
So we really need to test it, goback, refine it.
See if there's ways that we canmake it easier or more
intuitive.
Add more supports along the way.
So that way.
(04:50):
People can get through thatintake process.
Now, maybe in the evaluationphase.
You have selected someoccupational therapy
evaluations.
But then you find they don'twork great for your setting and
doing that occupational therapyevaluation.
Isn't working out the way thatyou thought it would, or you're
not getting the information thatyou really need for your
(05:12):
setting.
And that's super important.
No matter what setting in we'rein, whether that's nature-based
being at the stables, being atthe pool or any other unique
setting.
There's information that we needthat may be specific to our
setting.
That's really important.
If somebody is incontinent, weneed to know that if we're going
to be an aquatic setting, ifsomebody has spinal mobility
(05:35):
issues, we need to know thatbefore we're going to
incorporate equine movement intotheir plan of care.
If somebody has alife-threatening allergy to bee
stings, we want to know thatbefore we're out in the nature
based setting.
So in this occupation-basedphase, we are finding out if.
The evaluation process that wehave set up is going to get us
(05:56):
all the information we need fromthe families occupational
concerns.
And getting that informationfrom families.
Sometimes it's a little bit morechallenging than one would
expect.
Some families are really excitedto tell us about all of their
child's strengths, which arereally important with a
strengths-based approach.
But we also want to pinpoint theareas that we're going to work
(06:19):
on.
So making sure that we've chosenevaluations that are going to
highlight the areas that we'regoing to focus on.
Making sure that we have thedata that we need to write goals
at the end of our evaluation.
We get to work through thosesystems.
And then we have like billingour billing systems.
(06:39):
Our first.
Several iterations of clients.
We weren't using an EMRfinancially, it didn't make
sense to have an EMR for only afew clients.
But the billing systems werevery clunky.
And quite time consuming to gothrough invoices, create super
bills.
Actually bill for services.
(07:00):
Collect payment.
And.
As those systems improved ourtime management improved our
ability to collect on thoseinvoices improved.
That workflow process is, islike a thousand times better.
Now.
And so in this getting startedoccupation-based phase, right.
(07:21):
You're going to be goingthrough.
All of your systems, you'regoing to find out what works
really well.
What's not working so well.
What are the things that youthought would work really well?
And what areas do you reallyneed to tweak?
Now, this can also apply to yourclinical applications.
You may have an idea that youwant to run hour long sessions.
(07:43):
And.
You may start your hour longsessions and find out that your
clients are fatiguing tooquickly.
And an hour is really just toomuch time for whatever setting
that you're in.
So it testing systems, we canreally find out.
How we'll make changes as we goforward.
In our unique practice area,what do we need to change in the
(08:07):
technology side of things?
What do we need to change intouchpoints that we're having
with our clients and families?
What do we need to change in ourclinical applications with our
hands-on work that we're doing?
Maybe where do we need to changesome of our training and support
to our teams?
And I do have a previous podcastepisode on the hippotherapy,
(08:30):
team.
But whether you're at the pooland you have a pool deck hand.
That's going to help you withthings, whether you have a horse
leader.
At incorporating hippotherapy,whether you have someone in a
farm-based setting who ishandling your therapy, goats for
you.
Right.
You have certain team proceduresthat you're going to need to do
(08:52):
training on.
And so maybe as you start totest out these systems, you
realize that your interns don'tunderstand the whole process or
volunteers aren't showing up atthe proper time, or you haven't
communicated to youradministration.
Exactly what you need as far assupport.
So in your testing systemsphase, You get to go through
(09:13):
each of these, like a check boxand say it's working, it needs
refinement or scrap it and startover.
The second priority.
That I think is really importantis work-life and I hate the term
work-life balance.
So in this phase, I really liketo say it's important to set
work-life boundaries.
(09:33):
Desire, your poor priorities arein your career and home life
right now.
As you're getting started inthis occupation-based phase.
So when you really startstepping in and seeing your
first client or first couple ofclients, this is when it's
important to start puttingboundaries in.
To decide how you want tohandle.
(09:54):
Client text messaging or clientinquiries or rescheduling.
And you can think about whatroles are really most important
to you.
So if you're a new grad withoutany other family
responsibilities, you might wantto go all in with your new work
roles.
But if you're a new mom, who'screating this OT career around
your desire to be home with yourkids, then you may need to
(10:16):
prioritize that function first.
And now is the time to do it.
Not later when your nichepractice has grown.
So when you're thinking about.
This priority.
You're really setting up someguard rails.
Around your time.
(10:36):
Around the way that you want tointeract with clients and
families, how this new nichearea of practice or this program
within your current job is goingto function within your other
roles and responsibilities thatyou have.
So you want to think about thisas your business is not a baby.
(10:59):
Okay.
It's not your baby.
You may have grown it andcuddled it and brought it to
life in this occupation-basedphase, but it's not a baby.
It really should be a systemthat can be self-sustaining at
some point in the near future.
Okay.
So that's an important mindsetshift to have here when we're
(11:21):
talking about work lifepriorities.
Now the last priority in theoccupation-based phase is
creating a career pathway.
And in this phase, you're goingto decide how far down this path
do you want to go?
And then what stepping stoneswill you need to get there?
(11:42):
Some journeys are only going toneed a few stones and those can
be found for free and podcastslike this one or published
research.
Other journeys like mine with agoal to teach hippotherapy,
around the world.
Took many, many stepping stonesand many people holding my hands
along the way.
Thanks, Bonnie Laurie andClaudia.
(12:04):
So, who are you going to chooseto hold your hand along the way?
In this phase, it's important tostart to look around and see
what direction you want to goin.
Are you going all in for thehighest level of certification
in your particular niche area?
Are you going to get.
All of the training that isoffered in nature-based therapy
(12:27):
or in aquatics.
Are you just going to keep thisto one night a week where you're
going to do some continuingeducation.
You're going to keep up withsome podcast and this area is
going to support your community.
And it's going to give you abreath of fresh air in your
occupational therapy journey.
(12:47):
And that's really enough andthat's okay too.
Right.
Different people's journeys aregoing to take them in different
directions.
And it's awesome to be able tosay.
This is really what I want.
And this is what I've planned.
This is the pathway that I'veplanned.
And I love doing it one night aweek and that's fantastic.
It brings me so much joy and Ilove seeing the benefits that my
(13:11):
clients get.
In other cases, you may have amuch bigger vision in that you
want to do this full time.
You want to become recognized asan expert or a leader in your
area, and that's going to takeyou down a very different
pathway.
When you start to see whatdirection that you want to go
in.
Then you can look at whatresources you're going to need.
(13:34):
Okay.
So these details then get addedto your business budget.
If it's your own business or aspecialty area of practice in
someone else's business.
Then they need to know thebudget for continuing education.
So a see at conference thisyear, And they'll need to know
what support you're going toneed along the way.
So for this phase, you're reallygoing to take stock of these
(13:57):
three priority areas.
You might want to know also whatmistakes that I made so you can
avoid them.
So I would say the three biggestmistakes to avoid are trying to
do all the things.
Recreating the systems of yourlast job.
And starting to big or long.
So let me dive into each ofthose separately.
(14:19):
So the first one is trying to doall the things and.
It's so exciting to be able tohave an idea and come and bring
it to life.
It really is.
And.
When you suddenly have thatfreedom to.
Start creating a program orincorporating a new treatment
(14:44):
tool like hippotherapy, intoyour practice.
Often you may want to do all thethings or try all the things.
So you might want to be working.
With children with autism at thestable, and you might want to be
doing a social skills group.
And if you're trying to do allthe things at once.
You're not really putting anyoh, or all of your attention.
(15:07):
In any one area.
And when you're starting in aniche practice area.
You need to have a certain levelof discipline and focus.
To master those systemspriorities, right.
That I was talking about in thatarea.
And so when you're trying to doall the things, and so maybe
that's running some nature basedgroups and starting up.
(15:28):
Some therapy one-on-onesessions, incorporating farm
animals and doing some craftinggroups.
You're trying to do all thethings and.
There's a saying, right?
If you're trying to catch tworabbits, right?
You end up catching none.
If we can just focus on catchingone rabbit at a time.
(15:50):
Then you can build.
What your offerings are in youroccupational therapy practice.
So.
Slow down.
Find the one thing.
Through your preparatory andpurposeful phase that has the
biggest chance of succeeding andbeing successful, the area that
you're most passionate in, orhave the best skill set for.
(16:12):
The area that maybe you alreadyhave resources available to you.
And focus on that first.
Make that successful first, makesure all the systems run, all
the emails are scheduled.
The billing works.
Everything right.
The marketing, the messaging.
You want to know that that allis going to work, then you can
(16:35):
expand as time goes on.
You're not putting yourself intoa box by mastering one area
first.
And that applies to both likeyour support.
So your continuing education orcertifications.
As well as the business oradministrative side of things.
So.
(16:56):
That's the biggest, like one ofthe biggest mistakes that lots
of people make right.
Is trying to do all the things.
The next biggest mistake isrecreating the systems of your
last job.
So often we stick with thingsthat are familiar and it's much
easier to go with somethingthat's familiar to you.
So if you've worked in earlyintervention, maybe you're
(17:18):
thinking about one hour sessionsthat are partially home-based
and partially at one of your,like at your unique setting.
So maybe you're seeing them atthe pool, but you're also going
to see them at home once a week.
And you're doing parentcommunication notes at the end,
and you're giving those to theparent.
And so you're really recreatingsome of that EI model.
(17:39):
In this unique practice areayou're trying to incorporate.
Whatever systems that you had atyour last job.
And often.
It doesn't work.
Okay.
So the systems that were createdfor early intervention work
really well for earlyintervention, the coaching model
home-based right.
That works really well for inearly intervention is really
(17:59):
important.
School-based systems work reallywell for school-based so doing
and end of the year summary, andcompleting documentation.
Based on, groups or push in thatyou're having.
That works really well in aschool-based setting.
But when we're working in aunique practice area, We really
need to think about.
(18:20):
How do we retain our clinicalintegrity?
While being true to the settingthat we're in.
So that may mean changing thesession length of times
frequency or duration.
It may mean getting really clearon writing soap notes so that
we're writing them in a clinicalformat and we're not writing
(18:41):
them for the stable or we're notwriting session summary that's
based on the pool, we're writingan occupational therapy soap
note.
That is based on our OT goals.
So we want to think about.
What systems are we mostcomfortable and most familiar
with and making sure that we'renot just falling into those same
patterns.
(19:03):
As we begin working in a uniquepractice area.
And I see this challenge a lotwith people who are adding a
specialty area to their existingjob.
So maybe they're going to berunning a nature-based group one
afternoon a week within theirclinical job that they're
already doing.
So they're going to take.
(19:23):
A lot of those same frameworks.
And try to move it into thatnature-based setting.
And a lot of times those systemsare in the clinical model for a
reason.
And as we move out into anature-based practice, we really
need to incorporate new systems,new frames of reference.
And new ways of.
(19:46):
Communicating with familiesincorporating the information
that they're going to need toknow.
When they're meeting with us foroccupational therapy in a new
setting.
And the last biggest mistakethat I want to share today with
you is starting too big.
Or long.
And for me, it was the issue ofstarting too long.
(20:10):
So making a commitment to dosomething that was too long.
And I didn't have theopportunity to then go ahead and
make changes when things weren'tworking well for me so the first
commitment that I made was 12weeks long and it was a nature
based program.
And.
(20:31):
It was a really long 12 weeks.
And so now I have cut that inhalf when I'm trying a new
program.
A new experience, six weeks, sixweeks.
I can pretty much do anythingfor six weeks.
12 weeks was a really long time.
And so thinking about for yourfirst iteration.
(20:54):
Keeping it short.
And so.
Summer.
Very naturally lends itself to ashort duration.
And for those of you who arehoping to try Integrating a new
niche into your occupationaltherapy practice this summer, I
would love to touch base withyou because summer is like the
(21:14):
perfect amount of time to.
Try a new treatment tool andit's sort of book-ended right.
It's bookended by the schoolyear it's bookended by spring
and fall.
It's bookended by the change ofthe seasons.
But it doesn't allow it to betoo long.
Because you're going to need totweak those systems.
Right.
And so.
(21:36):
Starting too long.
Definitely a challenge.
Don't do it.
Just please.
Don't do it.
Starting too big also would goalong that route.
So if you're a aquaticoccupational therapy books up
and you have 10 clients in a rowand you haven't ever done it.
You're going to regret it.
Like, don't do it.
Same if you are incorporatinghippotherapy, into your
(21:57):
occupational therapy sessions,don't book 10 back to back
client don't book 10 clients ina day, even if they're all
spread out.
It's, it's a good way to ruinyourself.
And so it's a good way to getburnout.
So starting too big, startingtoo long, start small.
1, 2, 3 clients.
Three's a great number.
That way, if somebody is absent,you still have to, three is a
(22:18):
great number and not too long.
Six, six is a good six is goodfor me.
Maybe eight might work for you.
Six is good for me.
So the three biggest mistakestrying to do all the things,
recreating the systems of yourlast job.
Starting too big or too long.
Don't do them learn from thestruggle that I had.
You don't have to go throughthat.
So to wrap up today's episode,the occupation based phase.
(22:42):
Is where you start living yourdream, working in a unique
niche.
It might be for a few hours aweek, and that supports your
enthusiasm for OT, or it mightbe part of a larger vision to
transition to a full-timepractice in a unique area of
practice.
Either way you want to masterthe three key priorities and
avoid the top three mistakes tosee success without the
(23:02):
struggle.
Until next time on animals andaquatics, keep it warm and
snugly.
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