2023

2023 was the year…

• I turned 40 years old. (February)
• Where several members of my family experienced various health issues and conditions. And I started providing more emotional support to both parents. (March-present)
• Where my father, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. He finished chemotherapy in late August/early September. He’s generally doing well and staying physically active. (April-present)
• I finished my first year of graduate school for occupational therapy and started my second year. (June/July)
• My spouse and I celebrated 7 years of being married and 16 years of being together. (October)
• I started my first Level II fieldwork clinical rotation. (November)

So much is happening in the world and in my world. I am grateful for my friends and OT school cohort. I am grateful that the aforementioned family members are still alive right now. At the same time, it’s really hit home that everyone is getting older and that their health and well-being is not guaranteed — no one’s is, really.

Sometimes it feels anti-climactic to me to get through 12 months of a year and start again at 1. But in any case, it’s not really a reset; the years keep advancing, after all. There will be new beginnings and closing chapters in this next year too.

Goodbye, 2023. And Happy New Year!

One year down.

So…I know it’s been a while.

I just started the second year of my occupational therapy doctorate program. So I am now 1/3 done with my program!

I wanted to share a few thoughts from my first year.

Being in occupational therapy school has definitely confirmed how much I love occupational therapy. It has involved moments of doubt (can I really do this?) and triumph (I did it!). School is challenging and worthwhile overall. I definitely have had moments of frustration, things I would do differently if I were the professor, but overall I really like my program. I have made good friends and I really like my cohort.

I’m learning to be less of a perfectionist on assignments. Taking more time and energy to review a final draft of an essay multiple times often does not help me. It can also lead to more stress. I end up giving myself more space when I set boundaries for myself, allow myself to get some feedback, make any necessary changes, and turn the essay in. I realize this approach is something I need to continue to cultivate, as it’s so easy to fall back into the “I need to do well” as though everything depended on it. I have been doing well in school, but the most important thing is that I learn. If I miss a few points and get feedback, I’ll learn from that. When I give myself more time to rest, dance, and connect with my spouse and dog, I feel much more balanced.

I have had to face unexpected curveballs in life outside of school, such as being in a car accident early in the school year (I’m fine) and my father recently receiving an unexpected medical diagnosis (so far, he’s doing well despite it). Maybe I’ll share more in the future. I’ve been learning how to manage school while also dealing with those events. It’s been a lot. In many ways, these events and experiences have also forced me to be more present and evaluate what is most important to me at any given moment.

My first year also gave me opportunities to explore and expand my interests in the field. I am still passionate about sensory processing across the lifespan. I have been learning more about neurodiversity-affirming practice and I want to continue to explore what that might look like for me as a neurodivergent OT-to-be as well as how I approach my future clients. I also really love the mental health aspects of occupational therapy, which can be incorporated into any setting. I am also interested in neurorehabilitation. I am still interested in working with children and adults; we will see if or how that changes after I have a Fieldwork II experience with each.

I have one more full didactic/academic semester, and then I’ll be off to my Fieldwork II experiences, which are two three-month clinical rotations. I’ll do my best to take one day at a time, learn as much as I can, and seek occupational balance.

One year down, two to go.

First semester done!

Semester 1/9 of my occupational therapy doctorate program is done!

The adjustment to graduate school has been challenging, but not always in the ways I expected. It certainly took time to adjust the number of classes, the schedule, the new people, and the environment. But it was often unplanned events outside of school that added to my stress that provided the most challenge. If possible, I could certainly take fewer disruptions to my daily life this coming semester. That’s not something I can necessarily arrange, but I can hope for it.

School-wise, I love being a student and my classes are stimulating and challenging. I was getting a little restless with my prerequisites, and the OT school coursework definitely keeps me on my toes. Some classes require less work than others but most kept me busy. Anatomy was our heavy hitter this past semester, with 5 credits that included lecture and lab.

A few highlights:

• White Coat Ceremony — getting to introduce my spouse to some of my classmates, walking across the stage, and having things feel a little more official.
• Field trips! One was a field trip to the Bodies Exhibit at the Luxor for our anatomy class — it’s definitely a perk to being in Las Vegas — and getting to see so many of the muscles so well defined in how they were preserved. The other field trip was painting pottery at Color Me Mine and doing an activity analysis afterward for my clinical reasoning class.
• Getting to play games, do art, and do other fun activities which all apply to occupational therapy. I relish the amount of creativity that this field involves.
• Learning about all the theories, models, and frames of reference. I know that those aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed learning about them and starting to see how theories can apply to real-life practice.

The more I learn about occupational therapy, the more I’m glad I chose it as my future profession. There’s so much room for creativity, for working in a variety of settings, and for being able to help people through doing. It suits me.

Things I want to remember:

• I want to continue to work on not underestimating my ability, especially when I am in the process of learning something. When concepts and activities are new, they might seem intimidating. I often do better than I think I will, especially since I invest time into studying when learning concepts or practicing when learning hands-on skills.
• Feeling the need to decompress or feeling heavy after an exam does not necessarily reflect on how well I did on the exam. My past pattern was to expect the worst, which is one thing when there’s only one isolated exam but feels awful on weeks when I might have two or more exams. I am striving towards a more neutral post-exam stance, which I was more successful at towards the end of the semester. I want to invest less energy into how I might have done and just be able to take time to clear my head and do something else for a while.
• Take one step at a time, one day at a time. As I go into a new, busy semester, my schedule looks like it will be quite full. This next semester is mainly our pediatric semester, along with an applied research class and neuroscience lecture and labs. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when looking at the whole semester, but working on one assignment at a time is manageable.

If I could talk to my past self of one year ago, which would be around the time of my first graduate school interview, I would tell her that she’s more than capable of doing this and that her experiences and personality lend themselves wonderfully to this program and field. I might need to occasionally give my present self that same reassurance sometimes too.

Reminders to self at the start of graduate school

I wrote a list of reminders to myself as I start my first semester of OT school. Orientation was last week and classes start tomorrow!

I belong here. I got accepted to the program along with everyone in my cohort. I have worked hard and earned my place here.

In times of stress and doubt, remember my why.

Avoid comparison and competition as much as possible.

I am likely judging what I say or do far more harshly than someone else is. Be gentle with myself. As much as possible, try not to over-rehash what I said or did; take notes only when it might be helpful for future interactions and learning.

Don’t let fear of missing out (FOMO) be the driving factor for decisions, especially socially. There will be events I will actively want to go to and invitations I will want to take up. I do want to make a point of doing things I haven’t done before and I do want to connect with members of my cohort. However, I don’t want to force myself to go when I don’t actually want to go and if it isn’t convenient for my time, energy, etc.

Advocate for myself and my needs. I plan to be transparent about my SPD, but this is also the first time I’ve been in a full-time program since I learned about my sensory processing challenges. Advocating for myself will help me meet my own needs, help others understand me better and hopefully encourage them to advocate for themselves, and also help me advocate for my future clients.

Keep up my self-care routine and set reminders for myself to follow through. When things feel overwhelming and stressful, stop and take a few moments for movement, breathing, stepping outside, etc. Include blocks of time for these activities in my schedule too.

Remember to get quality time with spouse, dog, and self. Make a point to do non-school-related things; schedule them if needed.

The start of graduate school and a new semester will all feel new and sometimes overwhelming for a period of time. Do the best I can and give it time.

First year graduate school questions

Questions I am seeking insight into during OT school. Some of these may have more objective answers, while others might be more subjective. All are more ongoing questions or at least need more time and/or research.

What does it mean/look like to advocate for myself as a neurodivergent occupational therapy student? What will it be like to advocate for myself as a neurodivergent occupational therapy practitioner, and in turn advocate for others?

If I stay with my current goal of wanting to do sensory processing work with adolescents and adults, what would that look like? An independent private practice? A department within an existing practice? What does a practice that targets all ages look like?

What is the existing research on adolescents and adults and sensory processing and integration? Can activities and interventions designed for children be used or translated for an older audience, or are there other approaches to use? What assessments are most helpful for evaluating these populations?  

I may add to these as I go through the program; hopefully I will have some ideas or answers to share at some point. In the meantime, I hope to allow them just to be guiding questions.

My OT school application process

There are a lot of resources out there for Pre-OT students. During my application process, I personally felt overwhelmed by the amount of advice out there. I came to realize, post-acceptance, that I hadn’t even really discovered many of the resources out there on social media.

I felt kind lonely in my journey until the Fall 2021 semester when I was actively applying and taking an intro to occupational therapy course at a local university. The process and course helped connect me to the local OT community (pre-OT & OT students and practitioners) as well as the state occupational therapy association. If I could do it over again, I would have liked to feel less alone sooner, more part of something.

There is some inherent apart-ness in where I stand, though, as a non-traditional student. I am starting an occupational therapy doctorate program at age 39. I graduated with my bachelor’s in women’s studies 17 years ago. I went back to school to take prerequisite classes at the local community college. Most advice seems geared towards students who are currently in undergrad or within a few years out of undergrad. It is still challenging for me sometimes to not feel like somewhat of an anomaly. However, I do think that my various experiences and going into a new career path set me apart from other candidates.

In terms of how many schools I applied for, I was limited by location. Since my husband has a steady job with benefits and we own our condo, applying to programs outside the area was not a viable option. I applied to two programs and both are doctorate programs. So the question of master’s vs. doctorate was never a question for me, and I chose the school that was the best fit for me out of those those two options.

What I did do as part of my process:

Personal Statement: I looked up advice on personal statements before I started my brainstorming process. OT Dude has some great advice for OT-specific personal statements. The Muse has ideas on how to start a personal statement in one hour for students from any discipline. I also got help from a trusted writer friend who helped coach me through everything from brainstorming to my drafts, which was amazing. I did not read any personal statement examples; I felt cautious about potentially unintentionally picking up on others’ ideas. It was challenging enough finding my own voice at the beginning. I would say that my personal statement process took me about a month. Two weeks of that took me from brainstorming to my first shareable draft; the other next two weeks involved taking a little time away from working on it and then getting feedback from another reader (in this case, my mom). As far as how much time someone should allot for a personal statement, I would first ask about their general writing process, how they approach essays in general and how much they like writing them, and how much time they can allot in the time they have available. I had two weeks where I had few other obligations, but it might have taken me longer if I had been working on it while also working and going to school and whatever else. I think the advice I saw ranged from suggestions of two to six months.

What I struggled with most in personal statement writing was in working towards making it genuinely feel like it was truly mine. Early drafts definitely read somewhat like a cover letter. As you put yourself and your experiences out there, answer the provided question and make sure to bring in your personal why. Read your drafts out loud and get feedback from multiple people.

Took an Intro to OT course: I took an introduction to occupational therapy course online as a way to fulfill part of my observation hours requirement for one of the schools. Taking this course helped me get a stronger foundation in occupational therapy theory and practice, which in turn helped me in my interviews. I would definitely recommend taking a course like this. It was also really great to be able to connect to other pre-OT students in discussion posts.

Went through my resume and wrote down how each job applied to OT: I did this before my first interview and also included some notes on accomplishments as well as how I overcame challenges and conflicts in each position.

Some other resources:

OTGenius: Includes opportunities for virtual observation hours, a podcast, and a paid program to help students go through the application process successfully. I just discovered this site recently, but I have attended two observation hour sessions and really enjoyed them.

 My OT Spot has a variety of blog entries with resources about applying to OT school, plus a guide you can purchase here.

OT Dude has a variety of blog entries as well as an entire Pre-OT online course. The course looks like it gives a good background on occupational therapy as a profession as well.

There are likely many more resources out there, and these are just a few I have found useful. Please feel free to share links to Pre-OT resources in the comments!

Occupational Therapy Career Plan (as of Fall 2021)

In honor of the last day of Occupational Therapy Month, I’m posting a discussion post I wrote for my Introduction to Occupational Therapy class in the fall. Also, it might be fun to look back on this later and see what has changed and what has not. It is already tempting to edit parts of this, especially since I wrote this before I was accepted to my program and I have learned a lot since then.

Prompt: Develop a career plan based on your education. In what role(s) and at what level of performance do you want to be functioning in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?

My career plan is based on the idea that I would graduate with my doctorate in occupational therapy by 2025 or 2026, with an ultimate goal of owning or co-owning my own practice.

In 5 years, I would be a year or two out of my doctoral program, so I would still be at the beginning of my career as a licensed registered occupational therapist. As an entry-level occupational therapy practitioner, I would mainly want to get more experience working in the field. According to O’Brien (2017), early roles and positions in the field often involve directly working with clients. My goals early on will be to gain learn as much as I can from hands-on experience and interactions with clients. As someone who is interested in doing sensory integration work with people of all ages, I might want to get a job at an established local clinic, which likely would be a pediatric clinic.

In 10 years, after several more years of direct service work, I would hope to be considered an intermediate-level practitioner. I might have more responsibility in my current workplace, which might include taking on a supervisory role over students in fieldwork or occupational therapy assistants. In that way, I could be an entry-level supervisor while also being an intermediate-level practitioner. Increased responsibility could also mean a higher caseload or working with a specific population of clients. As an intermediate-level practitioner, I could seek to specialize more within occupational therapy, which could mean working on certification in a specific area and/or taking certain continuing education credits. For example, I might want to seek specialty certification in neurodevelopmental therapy and administering the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests. I would want to be actively engaged in learning and following the latest research on sensory integration. Perhaps I would also seek mentorship and guidance from advanced-level practitioners, such as occupational therapists at the STAR Institute in Denver, where they work to advocate for and help both children and adults with sensory processing challenges (STAR Center Foundation, 2021).

In 15 years, I hope to be in the process of establishing my own business, but I could also be involved in creating a new division of an existing organization or part of a collaborative ownership practice. By this time, I might be considered an intermediate or advanced-level practitioner within my direct service role, although I might be an entry-level practice owner and administrator. At this point, I would hope to be recognized within the field – locally, and perhaps beyond — as someone who specializes in doing sensory integration work with adolescents and adults; as a resource in a specialized area of occupational therapy, I might be establishing myself as an advanced-level practitioner. I might also be actively engaged in collaborating with other practitioners nationally or even internationally, doing research and participating in panels to discuss and advocate for expanding sensory integration treatment to clients of all ages. No matter what combination roles and levels of practices I may take throughout my career, from 15 years into the future and beyond, I hope to constantly be learning and growing as a practitioner.

References:

O’Brien, J. (2017). Introduction to Occupational Therapy (5^th Edition). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

STAR Center Foundation d.b.a. STAR Institute for Sensory Processing. (2021). Sensory Processing – Star Institute. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://sensoryhealth.org/

In the space of “not yet.”

Some explanation/inspiration behind my poem “Not yet.”

After getting accepted into both local occupational therapy doctorate programs (yay!) and deciding on one, I’ve often had this feeling of wanting everything to happen all at once and not being ready for it quite yet. It’s the suspended “hurry up and wait” feeling. The excited and anxious anticipation makes it difficult to be patient at moments. I sometimes feel torn between wanting to rush forward and yet not move too quickly. School starts in July. I’m almost there — but not yet.

Over the past five years, I have taken many steps towards this larger goal. I went to school part-time and took prerequisites. I worked part-time as a freelance proofreader, and then I also got a job as a supplemental instruction leader at the local community college. Slowly but surely, even amidst the curve balls that came my way (hello, pandemic), I continued to grow my capacity to sustain a more full and busy life.

And then I applied to graduate school this past fall. This time last year, I was unsure if I would be able to pull all the requirements together. Once I did and hit the submit button on my applications, I prepared myself for possible rejection. I had my first interview. And then I got in. I felt so much relief and excitement. Pride, too. I did it!

It also feels strange to have put so much energy and time into the prerequisite and application process and then to have that particular process be complete. And so I tend to want to put my energy towards the next big thing. But it’s not quite time for that yet. There are plenty of daily tasks and small steps to take in the meantime.

So, for now, I resolve to live in the moment as much as possible and prepare as needed. Soon enough, my time will be subsumed by a full-time graduate program. But not yet.

Not yet.

I reach out to the me 
that will be;
Not yet, she says, not yet. 

There are moments to prepare
and moments to rest;
moments to anticipate on tiptoes, 
and moments to stand still. 

Wait, she says, not yet. 

Stop to savor now,
the time before everything changes. 
Find the steady rhythm in your steps. 
Soon enough you will be running towards a dream. 
But not now, not yet. 

The present awaits with the wind through the trees
The colors of a sunset 
A roll of the eyes
A whisper of laughter caught in your breath. 

The in-between brings questions 
of what if;
each decision
one step towards a possibility.

There may be answers ahead, 
but for now, it is enough
to have decided what to ask. 

The answers will come, 
perhaps someday, 
but not now, not yet. 

Pondering: Where are you from?

I remember when I was attending a Spanish language immersion program in Costa Rica in 2010, and people asked me where I was from. Los Estados Unidos, of course, but where? At the time, I was living in San Diego, so I would say something along the lines of that I was living in California but I was from New Mexico. This confused one of my fellow classmates. In addition, the city and state where I consider myself to be from is not where I was originally born. I was born in Colorado, but I only spent six months there as an infant and then four years of undergrad, while I lived in New Mexico from age three on. I think that often people, at least in the U.S., are asking where people currently live, but I tend to have a more detailed explanation of where I’m originally from and how long I’ve lived in Nevada now.

When people ask you where you’re from, what do you answer? Is it where you currently live or your hometown/state/country?