What drove you to choose a career in your discipline?
I was instantly captivated by Occupational Therapy and the idea that the things we do in our daily lives (our occupations), have unique meaning, purpose, and value. Our ability to participate meaningfully in our life has a direct impact on many health outcomes and our sense of wellbeing.
Basically, I love the idea that living a life that has self defined meaning and value improves our physical and mental health. So by supporting others to be able to live their lives to the fullest has a huge impact on their quality of life.
Do you have any special interest areas in therapy?
I have a keen interest in mental health, in particular with youth and adolescents. In the context of the NDIS I believe it is such an important consideration when working with people who may have more difficulty engaging in a mainstream mental health setting, either due to difficulties with their ability to express and understand their emotions, physical access barriers, and a number of exclusion criteria that apply to the mainstream sector.
I believe that our mental health and sense of wellbeing play such a pivotal role in the quality of life we get to lead and can often be the difference in being able to confidently pursue our goals and aspirations in life.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
Corny answers are hard to avoid, but I love the team I get to work with at Superyou. I place such a high importance on being able to enjoy the space in which you work and there are many like minded individuals who contribute to a wonderful and healthy work environment.
I also get a great deal of satisfaction seeing my clients working towards and accomplishing their goals, becoming more independent, ticking that thing of their list that they have been trying to achieve for months or years.
Why did you join Superyou?
After spending 5 years working across a number of different clinical areas during my time living in the UK, I decided to move home to be closer to my family and friends in Perth again. With this move came a big decision as to where I wanted to take my career next.
I have always loved working in the disability sector and with the remarkable people who comprise it. Families, therapists, support staff, and chiefly the people for whom I deliver services. So when a previous colleague, and someone I greatly admire, reached out to tell me about the organisation they had recently started with called Superyou, and after speaking with them about the vision and objectives for the organisation, and the ability to continue to explore my interest in Mental Health, within the context of the NDIS I was very excited to start to help build the organisation from the ground up.
What does Reimagining Therapy look like to you?
Reimagining Therapy is an opportunity to think outside the box of what is typical when considering how therapy is supposed to “look”. It gives creative freedom for therapists to address our clients goals in a means that best suits their unique strengths and abilities, as well as the strengths of the people around them.
