Therapy Resumes: How to Build One That >Stands Out

Featured by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in blog, occupation

Whether you are a new grad, looking to move to a new company, or looking to change settings completely; there are things you can do while writing your resume that will support your aim and help you to stand out!

As a COTA and soon to be OTD, I have had many jobs within the healthcare and therapy field. I have worked in 6 settings (both adult and pediatric) and I have had input on the hiring of new therapists in a couple of these settings!

I may be an odd duck; (actually, I know I am) but I really love writing and formatting resumes! I wanted to take this interest and love and combine it with my husband’s expertise as a recruiter! Although, I think I’ve got a handle on my resumes for the most part, I always ask him for his input. We both have some tips and tricks for you to make resume writing easy, with the end goal of getting that position you are hoping for! I’ll also be answering some FAQ’s that you submitted through the Life’s Occupations’ Instagram page.

First thing is first.

Formatting the Document

Margins can be decreased to 1/2″ which will allow you to include more information on one page.
Choose a font that is easy to read, but a little different than your typical Times New Roman or Arial.
If you’re having alignment issues — use a Microsoft Word template or use LiveCareer Resume Builder to get your format down. You pay for a subscription to LiveCareer, but what I have done in the past is use it for the month I need then end my subscription. With the subscription you can download your Resume in a Word Document and then save that formatting for future versions.
ALWAYS SUBMIT YOUR RESUME to an electronic database as a PDF DOCUMENT — this will prevent your handwork in formatting your resume from shifting in the uploading process.

Now the important stuff:

Headings Ideas and What to Include or Omit

Personal Information

I personally like including an Interests section at the bottom of my resume. Many will advise against this citing that even though it is illegal, hiring managers may discriminate based on their opinions of your based on your personal information. I would prefer to work for a company that sees my interests and sees them as an asset. If I include my interest in natural living and life-long learning — and the company judges me based on this, then I don’t really want to work there. That being said, at the beginning of my career when I had less experience and I wanted THAT job, I felt differently. I was willing to curb my personal opinions and preferences to get the experience I was eager to get. All in all, this is going to be at your own discretion! Here is an example of how you could format a section like this.

The Heading

This is where your name and contact information lives. You will want your name to be something that stands out but is not over stylized, but should be the biggest item on the page and call attention to the resume. Recruiters and interviewers see some of the most bizarre email addresses come across their desk — make sure your email address is professional and easy to understand. Yourname@xxxx.com will be the best choice.

Professional Summary

This is a short, well-written sentence, summing up who you are and what your goal is in submitting your resume. Ex: Doctor of Occupational Therapy student seeking to gain a fieldwork opportunity in an area of interest of challenging setting OR Occupational Therapist seeking to apply skills as a feeding specialist within a pediatric setting which is sensory-based.

Education

This is where you will list the schools you have attended and the degrees you have earned. Make this part simple and short, the only thing an employer will want to know is where you went and when you graduated. I have never met an employer who cared about my GPA and seasoned therapists will not have this on their resume. I would recommend omitting this from your resume. If you are a stellar student, that is awesome! Highlight your honors society membership at the bottom of your resume in a Community Involvement or Awards section.

Experience

This is one of my favorite sections. I like to include experience in two formats; 1) Core Qualifications and Experience and 2) Past and Current Employment.

My Core Qualifications and Experience are at the top of my resume, right underneath my Professional Summary. I like these two sections to live together because I want to grab the readers attention with a summary of myself right from the start. Here is who I am and my intentions (Professional Summary) and here is what I can do (Core Qualifications and Experience). My Job Experience comes underneath the Past and Current Employment section.

Past and Current Employment

In this section, you will want to include the name of the company of facility you worked, the dates you worked there, where it was located, and BRIEF description of your role. If it is more than one sentence, use bullet points to organize the text and consider making the sentences one line of text each. In this section you will want to include relevant employment history. Example: if I am applying for a job as an Occupational Therapist, I will not include my time spent as a student worker on campus sitting at the front desk. I will however, include a Teacher’s Assistant Position in Anatomy Lab from school because this is more clinical and shows that I am strong in Anatomy. If I am not a new grad, I am not going to include that I am a flight attendant 4-6 days a month — this is not relevant and is only going to take up space.

New Grads: This is where you highlight your fieldwork experiences (Level I and II), volunteer experiences and shadowing that you have done on your own outside of your academic program. If you do not have experience in the setting you are applying for, I would get some! Shadow, volunteer, find a mentor — do whatever you can get expose yourself to the setting you want to work in.

Certifications and Competencies

This is where you list your NBCOT license #, state license #, whether or not you are CPR/BLS/Infant CPR certified, FIM Certified, and any other certifications you have obtained throughout your career. If you are looking to switch settings; take a continued education course in the setting you are looking to switch to and list that here! Show that although you may not have opinions of in that area, you have taken initiative to seek out knowledge about that population/setting on your own.

New Grads: This is where you can shine from your fieldwork experiences! If you become competent in an assessment tool, list this here! In Colorado where I practice, these are called “service competencies.”

Tips and Tricks from a Recruiter:

My husband is a recruiter and these were his quick 5 tips on writing resumes for the job you really want. Some of these I need to do to update my resume (which you’ll see in the screen shot examples 😉)

The 1-page rule is a myth, but definitely do not have an excessive amount of information.
Make the resume as relevant as possible to the job you are applying for. Tailor your resume to that job. Don’t make anything up, but look at the job description and to the best of your ability, relate your experience to what they are asking for in a candidate. It is perfectly okay to have multiple resumes, in fact I recommend it.
Keep work experience to the last 10-15 years.
Quantify your experience and accomplishments (led a 15 person team, carried a 45 patient caseload).
Get on LinkedIn and network. Connect with as many people in your field as possible. Connect with hiring managers of the jobs you are applying for and send them simple professional messages when you apply. See if you have a mutual connection with others who already work there to see if there is a potential for a personal or professional referral; these will always increase your chances of getting an interview and getting the job.

Your FAQs:

How do I showcase the important things as a recent graduate and keep it to one page? Per my (recruiter) husband and in my experience, it is not important to keep it to one page! I know some keep a condensed one-page version of their full resume just in case, it’s not important unless that’s what the application requires.
How do I make my resume reflect my passion for life-long learning and advocacy? Reflect this amazing quality throughout! List it in your positions of a role as a teacher and as a leader. Under Certifications and Competencies, list all of your accomplishments and courses you have attended. Consider including a Community Involvement heading a list your advocacy. i.e. Capital Hill day 2019, Lobbied for Bill xxx in the Colorado Capital.
How do I organize my subheadings? However you want! But I personally like to include things that will make me stand out at the top. I don’t think anyone is going to keep reading if I start with listing my alma matters. I choose this order typically; Name/Contact Heading, Professional Summary, Core Qualifications and Experience. Like this:

4. What is more valuable? Experience vs. GPA as a new grad? Experience, always. List your fieldwork opportunities, Level I and II. List shadowing opportunities you completed, volunteer hours — any experience that has exposed reading to the population you want to work with. If you don’t have it to list, I would recommend completing some typically outside of your academic program!
5. I’m a career switcher, I just became an OT. How do I tie in non-OT experience? It’s all about how you frame it. Your prior work experience has prepared you for a career in OT more than you know. I would head my husband’s advice and frame your current experience in terms of the OT job you are applying for’s Job Description. List your prior jobs (if you can make it relevant) and frame your job description this way. But make sure you list your Fieldwork experiences and volunteer hours as well! The fact that you have already held positions in a career is a plus for employers because you are not the typical 24-year-old new grad looking for their first job — own that!

My (personal) Beef with Chemicals

January 3, 2019May 27, 2019 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in blog, life & adventure, occupation, Slider

A quick tip for reading this blog: when there is a link — click it!

Read the research/article then or bookmark it for later. My research is linked throughout this blog and I made sure to include resources you could read and use. I also encourage you to do your own research on sites like PubMed with keywords like (“phthalate“, “paraben“, “triclosan” “personal care products”). THEN, research your current products — use the EWG (Environmental Working Group) and Think Dirty apps to scan your products and see what’s in them. This will help guide you if you decide to take action after reading all of this!

Let’s start with how I got here — writing a blog about the not so joyous topic that is chemical safety.

As many of you know, I have been on a dedicated mission over the past 5 years to rid my household and my beauty products of harmful chemicals and toxins. I initially started down this road because I was breaking out with contact dermatitis and dermatographia — two condition that cause welts to form on your skin — your skin itches, you itch it, and then welts start to form wherever you scratched or made “contact.” This prompted me to switch out my laundry detergent to Seventh Generation and from there it all began.

To be honest, at first, I thought it was just me and the fact that I have sensitive skin. I figured that chemicals are cool for everyone to use unless you had sensitive skin. But after going down the rabbit hole that is chemical safety research — I found the absolute opposite to be true.

Slowly but surely I began switching to safer products. I was doing pretty well and I was content with where I was at. I figured you can’t protect yourself from everything and I became complacent, to be honest.

THEN, Last year, after falling ill and spending hundreds of dollars of testing to figure out what was happening in my body, I discovered I have autoimmune issues. I struggled for months to get everything under control, I could not believe with how conscious I was with my health, that this was happening. During this time, any products that remained in my home with harmful chemicals were out — some of them literally went down the drain. I again dove into the research — I wanted facts on what was true, data-based, and proven about what was in my products and what they were doing to my body.

Here’s a summary of what my research found:

How Environmental Toxins Can Impact Our Health

Not all chemicals are bad… In fact, the human body is made up of many chemicals – it’s the toxic or harmful chemicals that we need to be educated on.

These are substances that can cause neurological, immune, and biological toxicity, altering how our body functions in a biological manner potentially causing numerous conditions from autoimmune disorders, endocrine disruption, hormone imbalances to cancer and issues with fertility.

Personal Care Products Enter our Bloodstream

through our skin + the air

Our skin is our largest organ and is accepts whatever we put on it! This includes everything you put on your skin, eyes, nails, etc.

Chemicals can also enter through the air and can be as toxic as second-hand smoke. (Don’t get me started on Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle, it gets ugly — but read more about it here — there are research articles linked throughout). Candles are a great example of airborne chemicals, so are face (makeup) and baby powders — when you apply it you naturally inhale it.

This is NOT About Skin Irritation

Most products will not cause an immediate allergic reaction unless you are allergic to a specific chemical.

It’s about the chronic long-term exposure of using multiple products each with dozens of chemicals that add up and cause biological harm on our systems.

Some statistics about our current health:

Childhood cancer has increased by 21% in the last 30 years – it is now the second leading cause of death among children
90% of the breast cancer population does NOT have the gene for breast cancer
Fertility issues have seen a 40% increase between 1982 and 2002. These are issues for both men and women!

Our Government and the FDA look out for these things, right?

WELL! you would think… but here are some not so fun facts;

The United States has banned just 11 chemicals (ELEVEN!) from personal care products to date while the European Union has banned 1400.
What was most shocking to me: the EU, Canada, Brazil and CHINA all have stricter chemical regulations than the US — China, CHINA. (sorry, this one blows my mind.)

There is Regulation

(but don’t get too excited…)

Current Regulation in the United States

It is currently completely legal for companies to use thousands of harmful chemicals in our personal care, cosmetics products and home cleaning products. Even if the ingredient is linked to cancer or autoimmunity or reproductive harm – there are no repercussions from the government for selling these chemicals to consumers.
The last time a major federal law was passed governing safety regulation was 1938 for this modern day $60 Billion industry.
Over 80,000 chemicals have been introduced into the marketplace since then, the vast majority of them have had no or very limited safety testing
- Less than 1/3 have publicly available safety data
- Less than 2% are verified safe for use on children
- The current regulation is only 1 ½ pages long and only bans or restricts the use of 30 chemicals (1 ½ pages of regulation for over 80,000 chemicals… what?)
- FDA is unable to verify safety before a product hits the market
- FDA is unable to issue product recall for known harmful products – you read correctly — if LEAD IS FOUND in a batch of children’s lotions or in women’s lipsticks, the company is not required to recall the product and the FDA cannot call for the products to be recalled either — SO who is in charge here?

What to Look For in Products

Supplier screening and consistent quality audits – the supplier needs to be screening their own final products because if they are not, no one else is.
Heavy metal testing
EWG Skin Deep Database Verification (Download the App or visit their website)
B Corp certified companies
Safe Packaging – BPA (bisphenol-A) free and safer plastics, FSC certified paper, and glass

With 80,000 unregulated chemicals, where do I start?

Here are chemicals that are easy to check for on labels and are some of the most harmful:

Phthalates

(Most often found hiding in “Fragrance”)

Endocrine and reproductive hormone disruptors. Commonly found in personal care products like lotions, moisturizers, body wash, hair care, and nail polish. They are one of the more toxic ingredients in PVC plastics which you find in shower curtains.

Parabens

Parabens are used to prevent the formation of bacteria and mold. Brands source seemingly innocuous ingredients such as grapefruit seed extract or aloe vera that have been preserved using parabens. The ingredient label does not have to disclose this, and it can still legally state the product as preservative and paraben free

Fragrance

Fragrance goes by many names — Parfum, Perfume, Scent — listing “Fragrance” as an ingredient is an industry secret. This works because the industry can currently legally list thousands of undisclosed and untested chemicals under the term “fragrance”. It’s best to source products that contain natural fruit or plant extracts as the scent and have them clearly disclosed on the label.

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are most prominent in makeup, face paint, and children’s toys. They are often found in cosmetics like mineral makeup which is likely to pick up heavy metals during the sourcing process.

WHOA – so much.

If you just need to process all of that for now, I get it. It took me weeks to process and it made it hard to use anything in my home or on my body for a long time — I was truly paranoid checking labels and just felt so overwhelmed. It took a while before I could act.

If you would like to make some safer switches, head over the Clean + Conscious Products blog to start the process. It was a slow process for me at first because of the cost. But I’ve got some great ideas on where to start and some amazing product recommendations to make it easy for you.

Resources

Clean + Conscious Products

January 2, 2019June 30, 2019 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in blog, product reccomendations, Uncategorized

If you have not yet read the My Beef With Chemicals Blog – start there first. It will guide you through my research on chemical product safety, safe products and give you an idea on why all of this is so important.

One more thing — I am doing a weekly giveaway (January 6th-March 28th) where you can win many of these products! Sign-up here for the giveaway and message me with questions!

After finding all of the research (and then processing it all) I began my journey to start making a safer switch to chemically safe products. BUT, I didn’t do it all at once because I could not afford it. Quality products come at a little bit of a higher cost. I would have liked to throw everything I was using out and replace it with safe products, but this had the potential to cost me hundreds of dollars. So, I decided to make a gradual switch by using products until they were empty, then when I bought new, I bought safer.

THEN, last year — I was forced to go all in. Last year I discovered I have autoimmune issues and I struggled for months to get them under control. During this time, any products that remained in my home with harmful chemicals were out — some of them literally went down the drain.

Making the 100% safe switch proved difficult — navigating the world of chemicals in our country is hard! Information is hidden, and labels do not list everything because companies are legally not required to do so.

So — I had to do my own research on every single product every time I bought something. Not to mention I had to try the product to see if I liked it and it worked! I cannot tell you how many “chemical free/organic” deodorants, toothpaste, shampoos, candles, (ETC. ETC. ETC.) my family and I have tried and how many I have thrown out because they just didn’t work, or the smelled horrible.

Since getting my autoimmune issues under control, I have become so passionate and inspired to help others reduce the chances of having these symptoms and issues. As an Occupational Therapist, I have seen the impact skin absorption of harmful chemicals and environmental toxins can have on kids’ and adults’ physical/mental health and behavior – and I am passionate to educate others about it. I have seen children’s neurological systems and behavior completely shift just from shifting which products they are using and their environments. As a friend, I have seen those close to me make changes to clean products, and the swap has changed their lives drastically — even getting rid of their eczema and balancing their hormones.

And all of this is not without hope, it only takes a few days for your body to process these chemicals out of your system! — great news!

Please let me know if you have questions or I can help. There are many efforts (some of which I have joined) to get safer product protection bills passed, but until then it’s up to us to keep ourselves safe.

Here are some of the brands/products I have found to be “clean/safe” and actually work. I am not sponsored by any means by any of these companies — I just want to share with you what works.

Full disclosure, because I believe being clear is being kind: I am a member of Young Living (which means you can order through me without signing up! score) and I am a “consultant” for Beautycounter because I love their company. They advocate in Congress for better chemical safety laws, and their products are 100% clean, and EWG certified — AND I get a huge product discount for signing up.

I’m not here to sell you anything, and if you ask me questions, I will not try to get you to sign-up for anything. I do not like being “sold to” and that is not what I’m here to do. I am here to share. Outside of YL and BC — I have no ties to these companies other than just being a big fan.

Body

Avalon Organics was one of the first “clean” products I found and we’ve been using them ever since. Their body washes and shampoo are great. I use Beautycounter for my hair products and B uses Avalon. For lotion, I love the Lotion from Everyone Products and the Beautycounter body butter is my go-to when we’re in Colorado (it’s very dry here!).

Nail Care

Detoxing my nail care products was one of the easier switches because it’s about the same price. I love everything Zoya, but the Karma Organics brand has my heart. Their Lavender Soybean Oil Polish Remover is fantastic — it’s moisturizing for cuticles instead of dehydrating, and the bottle I have now has lasted me 4 YEARS!

Make-up

I used to use whatever I got from Ulta/Sephora. I used all the brands; Tart, TooFaced, Urban Decay, etc. But with all of toxins I had to quit. Beautycounter is one of the brands I trust now for make-up, beauty, and things like lotion. They are EWG Verified and they have the highest quality standards in the industry. I don’t have to research every product I buy from Beautycounter because I trust them as a company! They are B Corp certified, and they lobby in Congress for industry-wide changes. win win win.

I’ve also used and liked Juice Beauty and Honesty Beauty! You will need to research each individual product because not all are clean. I really like both of their foundations, though!

Toothpaste

There are so many toxins in toothpaste — and we put it right in our mouths at least twice a day. Natures Gate is the best toothpaste we’ve found so far and we have tried many! Some were real grainy or they weren’t “minty enough” according to the husband (he’s my biggest quality control guy). So far this one is the best!

And while we’re on the topic of oral care… I started a search for BPA free toothbrushes and it ended with my finding these bamboo ones on amazon . To be completely honest, my husband hates these and it took me a week or so to get used to them. BUT! — once I did I love them now. They come in cute packs of 4 and I never feel bad about throwing out a toothbrush now because they are 100% biodegradable! yesss.

Deodorant

This, to me, is one of the most important and what I am relentless on with my family. You’ve gotta change the deodorant, at least! You put deodorant right over your lymph nodes every day! This one is important!

My husband and I have tried AT LEAST 17 different kinds of deodorant. It’s been an exhaustive search. He rashes really easily with certain ingredients, and well, he’s a man — it’s gotta work — the hippie make-your-own stuff doesn’t work on him. I, myself, can pretty much get away with any brand, but I wanted to find a brand that we both liked and could use — making shopping easier.

The brand we ended up loving after what felt like a year of searching is Schmidt’s Deodorant. The Rose Vanilla scent is my favorite and the Ylang-ylang sent is B’s favorite. He liked the Charcoal scent the best but its black and stained clothes, so, bye.

Wipes

People use wipes mostly for faces and bottoms — at least thats how I use them… Anyways I used to use Ponds make up remover wipes and Charmin for the restroom. But there are SO MANY chemicals in these. I am appalled they allow them for use on children but that sums up why we’re here.

Young Living Seedlings Wipes are by far my favorite general wipe (can be used for face or bottom) and there is a whole seedlings line for babes (linked below). But as far as makeup removing wipes go, HANDS DOWN — Beautycounter Make-up Removing Wipes are theee best — they are completely biodegradable! (my favorite phrase) — and they work well and smell amazing. Pampers Pure does a great job too! I was skeptical at first because I’m neurotic about all of this but I did the research and it’s a clean product!

Little Ones Need Safer (too)

I love all of these products not because I use them on my own family — don’t have any littles in my house just yet! — but I love them because I love these companies and my mama friends say they’re great products! Pampers also just came out with a Pampers Pure line, and after doing some checking on the ingredients, they’re clean! Very exciting to see a larger company begin to offer clean products. The companies and products I love; Young Living Seedlings line, Beautycounter Family (for infants + big kids too), Pampers Pure, and Honest Baby.

Be careful with Honest Baby though! — unfortunately, only some of their products are clean. Products like laundry detergent and some lotions are not, which is a bummer. I love the Honest Company because they are in all of the stores and they’re very accessible — you just have to do your own research with their products. Which is exhausting, but also the #1 reason why I’m so into companies that are 100% clean. (i.e. Young Living and BC)

Candles

When it comes to candles — if you don’t want to make your own at home — just don’t burn them. They are one of the worst culprits of chemical exposure inside our homes. I will use unscented soy candles when I can find them when I’m craving a hygee evening watching movies with B. Outside of that I diffuse everything. I have multiple in my house and usually, they’re all on. I’ve been through the gamut of diffusers on Amazon, this one is my favorite. But the Young Living diffuser s are by far the best quality. A lot of the Amazon ones will break within a year of me buying them. Maybe it’s overuse? No idea. I love the Aria Diffuser because it has a remote and it’s pretty — I’ve had a lot of unsightly diffusers I try to hide and it’s more fun to have it out and about.

For Home

I was a Lysol ADDICT. I loved it. Everything got Lysol’ed before I found out how toxic it is. The first thing I tried from Young Living was The Thieves line and it’s SO good. The smell is phenomenal, and it works better than Lysol in experiments (see below for an experiment my friend did — fair warning, it is disgusting). The concentrate isn’t cheap, but it makes 20+ bottles of cleaner and then you use it to make things like stain sprays etc. I bought the bottle I have now 2 years ago and it’s still kickin’. Thieves has a laundry detergent that people love, but I haven’t tried it yet! The one we love and use is this one from Amazon — and it’s made in Ohio (our home state) which makes us happy.

For the Guys

My husband likes Every Man Jack products and I have heard amazing things about Beautycounter’s new Counter Man line but he’s yet to try it! I’ll update ya when he does.

images provided by: thrivemarket.com, beautycounter.com, amazon.com, honest.com, youngliving.com, livingspunky.com, eoproducts.com, @pamperspure instagram

Sensory Toy Ideas for Littles

December 18, 2018May 27, 2019 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in blog, for OTs, occupation, product reccomendations

The following is a list of toys I typically send to parents and fellow therapists around the holidays. There are all great ideas to get some movement and sensory play in while the weather may be keeping kids inside. These ideas are great for holiday shopping but can really be used year round!

Parents typically like to pass this list along to grandparents, or anyone asking for ideas on what to get their little one. Most are sold on amazon, but a simple Google search of the toy name may provide additional purchasing options. Please feel free to reach out with any questions at OT.LeahForeman@gmail.com.

PEA-POD

Great for sensory breaks, joint compression, and a make shift swing for small spaces if hanging a swing from your ceiling at home isn’t an option! If you want the swing feature get one with handles — I found this one on Amazon.

WEIGHTED BLANKETS and VESTS from The Sensory Project

**please collaborate with a therapist or a staff member of The Sensory Project for selection of weight and guidance in use **

KINETIC SAND

Texture, fine motor skills, pretend play, all of the fun things with Kinetic Sand, one of my favorites!

POP TUBES

Provide deep heavy input and auditory input for the movers and the seekers. I got mine on Amazon but I’ve seen them randomly in Dollar Stores too!

CANDO® VESTIBULAR DISC

Great wiggle seat for meal time or table time activities. Two sided texture depending on the child’s preference of level of input seeking.

SENSORY GEL MAZE

These are wonderful fidgets, car time activities, and amazing for finding calm. I also love that these address fine motor skills, finger isolation and strengthening, enhancing tactile awareness, and so many cognitive skills! Great buy.

SQUIGZ

Fine motor strength, joint input. These are so fun to put on a window and pull off, build towers — there are so many games and activities to play with these and kids just love them!

BALANCE PODS

For walking and balancing on. They make them in a smooth version as well depending on your child’s preference on texture.

POD SWING

If you are able to hang this swing in your home (maybe from a basement beam?) — they are awesome! Great for sensory breaks and for those who calm with swinging. IKEA has a similar version.

BALANCE BOARD/WIGGLE SEAT

For sensory seekers who may also need to work on coordination and impulse control. Can be used with adult safety supervision to stand or as a wiggle seat.

Z-VIBE

For oral sensory seekers (chewing or mouthing everything!) and low oral motor tone/strength or kiddos working on feeding. *these are typically used under the treatment plan of a feeding therapist (Occupational Therapist or Speech Therapist). It is best to at lest collaborate with a therapist on effect and safe use of this product*

PEANUT BALL

For bouncing and providing deep pressure during sensory breaks or within an OT prescribed sensory diet. There are many options on Amazon but make sure to buy child size, not adult. Most come with hand-pump.

SHAPE BEANBAGS

For color and shape learning and great for heavy work/proprioceptive input.

SENSORY TUNNEL

These are awesome for interactive play or sensory breaks. Amazon also has some with ball pits in the tunnels! So cool.

SCOOTER WITH PADDLE

Upper body strength and joint input for calming, strengthening — also helps with motor planning. And they’re just fun for the whole family.

INDOOR TRAMPOLINE

Awesome for use with sensory diet or before kiddo needs to attend to activity or family outing.

SIT AND SPIN

For kiddos who love to spin! This one can be used with a friend or by themselves.

WEIGHTED ANIMALS

Similar concept to weighted blanket or a weighted lap pad.

Sante Fe Birthday

November 27, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in life & adventure, my life, occupation

This birthday was one for the books. Okay, maybe not The Books, but in my book it was the best one yet. I promise you, I do not say this every year.

My birthday is very close to Thanksgiving, sometimes falling on the actual holiday, and typically it gets kind of shmushed in with family time and celebrating Thanksgiving. None of which I mind — having pumpkin pie for your birthday cake with all of your favorite loved ones is a win win for me.

But this year was different. We again, chose not to travel home for the holiday so celebrated my birthday just the two of us this year. Don’t let me fool you — there was a big November birthday celebration earlier this month that involved wigs and breweries and bikes that I wont go into here (Brendan’s 30th was celebrated there as well! — so fun).

So this year I decided to plan my own birthday weekend with exactly what I wanted to do and my husband helped make it happen. We ended up doing what we do best — roadtripping — and headed from Denver down to Sante Fe.

Our first stop was Meow Wolf which I have wanted to visit for a couple years — it was beyond expectations. If you don’t know, Meow Wolf is an immersive art experience/installation. It is so big and so cool. I am almost speechless, big and cool are the only words I can use. It was just beyond words. It was 10,000% worth the the 2 hours we waited in line (holiday weekends, it just is what it is).

As soon as we thought we had seen the entire thing, we stumbled upon a new room. There is a story/mystery that goes along with it that you can find clues to solve — we were there for almost 4 hours and barely made a dent. I had read online prior to our visit that some spend 2-3 days in Sante Fe, going each day to Meow Wolf and I thought this was a bit much, but now I can see why. I wish we had more time to explore and we will absolutely go back a second, maybe even a third time. I chose not to post too many photos of the exhibit so you can go support the artists and see for yourselves!

That evening we stayed in Madrid, about 30 minutes outside of Sante Fe in the most amazing Earthship. If you don’t know what an Earthship is (I didn’t until a few years ago) — it is a house that uses passive solar for energy and does not have plumbing or any reliance on fossil fuels. It is “off the grid” living at it’s finest.

Typically they are built from resources from the surrounding earth. The one we stayed in was built from earth and straw with upcycled pieces used for cooking and access to water. The water source was rain water they collected and filtered and all of the lights we used throughout the night were solar charged battery powered which had been charging all day for us.

The house was rented to us through AirBnb and one of many structures on a 38-acre plot of land. The owners run a sustainable living school — Ampersand — where they host students and volunteers to share how to live sustainably. It was hard leaving and going back to our normal routines — it truly made our level of consumption evident after leaving such a simple way of living. And when I say simple — there wasn’t anything that was simple, really, everything was rigged in a creative way that created as little waste aspossible. Even the bar that you held onto to climb up into the lofted bed was an upcycled old road bike handle bar! It was obvous the work it would take to sustain a property like this, but it seemed to run flawlessly.

You can proabably imagine the stellar desert views from their property — but they were truly awe inspiring, the photos do none of it justice. The best view however were the stars at night. I have never experienced such a vast, glowing sky. We had fun with a healthy balance of quiet meditation and using our skymapper app to guess and check which constellations and planets were which — so much fun.

The next morning we hiked around their property to take it all in before we headed out. We stopped to have breakfast and shop in Taos. SO MANY BASKETS. Thankfully I only ended up buying two, but I could have bought eight — easily. I also found a beautiful piece smokey quartz that I cannot wait to add to my set-up in my reading room at home.

This trip was as much as a birthday trip as it was a getaway retreat for my husband and I. We are both learning more about ourselves and about our relationship together. Having the semi-unplugged time together was really beautiful. We had beautiful conversations about what we are learning about ourselves and about how we show up in the world. I think this these conversations were by far my favorite part.

Re-applying to Graduate School

October 17, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in for OTs, occupation

To be honest, the process of applying to OT school may have been more stressful for me than actually completing the program. As many of you know, it took me 3 application cycles to finally get in!

If you are re-applying next year because you didn’t get in this year — check out this short blog discussing what to do in between application cycles if you did not have success on your first try.

Part of talking about this is in my efforts to decrease the stigma around not having success in something on your first try! Our culture praises success, not effort — but there is beauty in the effort and process. 100% — growth does not occur when we are not challenged.

Here are some pieces of advice to consider while you’re waiting for the next cycle to start:

VOLUNTEER//WORK

Volunteer or work in a rehab setting to increase your experience and your hours that you add into your application.
⇢There are opportunities available for Rehab Aids and OT Aides that can get your foot in the door somewhere and also increase your listed experience hours on apps.

PICK UP THE PHONE

Call the school(s) you are trying to get into and talk to the admissions staff.
⇢Ask to go over your application and ask which areas you can improve in. If you are applying for the first time — call and ask what they focus on for applications. I found that some schools favored prerequisite GPA’s and some focused more on the essay! — tailor your application accordingly.

ENROLL

Become enrolled in your local community college and retake prerequisites.
⇢If you have any prerequisite grades that are a B or lower, you can take them online while you work. I retook sociology, psychology, abnormal psych, biology, and psychics to improve my grades which then increased my overall prerequisite GPA. I found out this is something schools look at even more so then your overall GPA

Find PATIENCE — but also KINDNESS

Yes, be patient but also be KIND to yourself.
⇢When we are pursuing something that we are passionate about, and we are not immediately having success, we can get wrapped up into others opinions of ourselves and even our own opinions of ourselves. Most do not share all of their failures or denials letters, only their acceptances and the announcements of their successes. Looking back the only regret that I had was the negative self-talk each time I was denied! Be good to yourself and try your best to trust the process!

featured image: psychologytoday.com

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Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Series #1 – Introduction

September 9, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in for OTs, occupation

Welcome! This is the introductory post for the Pelvic Floor Health blog series. In this post, we will be discussing the Pelvic Floor – what it is, what dysfunction in the pelvic floor looks like, what the symptoms are, and the anatomy behind the dysfunction.

I am an Occupational Therapist (OT) and a Certified Low Pressure Fitness Instructor. I completed continuing education and training through The Core Recovery Institute. The Low Pressure Fitness protocol I am trained in addresses Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD) with the use of hypopressive exercises as treatment (intervention). If this topic interests you, be on the look-out for follow-up blogs in the upcoming months!

Introduction to Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles and tissues that have many, many, MANY jobs. Some of those jobs/functions include:

postural control
support of organs
support for the hips
support of the spine
support of respiration (breathing)
lymphatic drainage
sexual function
control of sphincters that control urine and stool

For my fellow healthcare practicioners — the pelvic floor consists of three muscle layers:
(1)The Superficial perineal layer: innervated by the pudendal nerve. Bulbocavernosus, Ischiocavernosus, Superficial transverse perineal, External anal sphincter (EAS) (2) Deep urogenital diaphragm layer: innervated by pudendal nerve. Compressor urethra, Uretrovaginal sphincter, and the Deep transverse perineal. (3) Pelvic diaphragm: innervated by sacral nerve roots. Levator ani: pubococcygeus (pubovaginalis, puborectalis), iliococcygeus, Coccygeus/ischiococcygeus, Piriformis, and Obturator internus.

http://www.beyondbasicsphysicaltherapy.com

Why does Pelvic Floor Dysfunction occur?

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction can have many causes — but the underlying cause of PFD is increased intraabdominal pressure. Intraabdominal pressure is the amount of pressure that is in your abdomen/torso (the area between your ribs and your hips).

Naturally, there is always some pressure in your abdomen — if there were not, our organs wouldn’t be contained! Typical intraabdominal pressure at rest is 5mmHG. Certain activities and events increase this pressure.

These activities can be anything from:

coughing (90mmHG)
sneezing
valsalva — (bearing down) during child birth (60mmHG) or during defecating (35mmHG)
constant poor posture
running (34mmHG)
laughing
abdominal/core exercises like crunches (50mmHG!), bicycle crunches, leg lifts, etc.

**any activity that compresses the abdomen will, in turn, increase your intraabdominal pressure**

When intraabdominal pressure is increased on a consistent or repetitive basis, this is what happens within your body (anatomically):

The organs are pushed down and move out to the sides and out to the front (the occurs due to Pascal’s Law) Pascal’s Law states that when pressure is applied to an enclosed system, that system will then disperse that pressure equally in all directions within that system. Think of squuezing a balloon — when you squeeze and apply pressure, the pressure tries to escape through the areas that are not being squeezed by your hand.

http://www.boredpanda.com

The pelvic floor is already naturally heavily weighted by our movement and organs; it reacts to this weight by contracting. When muscles contract they shorten, and when they are always contracting they can permanently shorten and become what is called, ”hypertonic.”
The pressure also causes blood flow to decrease to the pelvic floor muscles, and when muscles are not receiving proper blood flow, function is impaired. This impairment may look like leaking urine or an organ prolapse.

Another metaphor…

In my training at The Core Recovery Institute, the instructors explained it this way; ‘You can think of your pelvic floor like an elevator – it job is to be move freely betweeen floors (body stuctures) to stop or start an action (hold urine or release urine). Our pelvic floor is meant to be healthy enough to be so mobile it can go to where it is needed as soon as it is needed. When our pelvic floor is dysfunctional it does not make it in time to where it needs to be, or it is not working at all.’

Symptoms of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Possible symptoms of Pelvis Floor Dysfunction include:

Incontinence (urine leakage) with exertion, coughing, laughing, etc.
Dysmenstria (irregular or painful menstration)
Organ Prolapse (seen as uterus, bladder, rectum poking through vagina in females and hernias in males)
Frequent urination (more than every 2-3 hours or 6-8 trips to restroom a day)
Trouble releasing urine (needing to push or strain to begin stream)
Irregular bowel movements (1-3 times a day is typical)

Impact on Occupational Performance

As an OT, I have to break down why this impacts our lives from an occupational standpoint. It seems a bit obvious to some, but I think what struck me the most, is how many individuals are willing to live with these symptoms and allow them to interfere with their daily lives and occupations.

There is a general consensus that if you are a runner or a mother than you just will have problems holding your urine — that it comes with the territory. It may come with the territory if our pelvic floors are not healthy, but it does not have to be an accepted norm!

Pelvic Floor Dysfucntion can interfere with so many occupations; toileting and toilet hygiene, dressing (needing to change or wear extra items to manage in continence), fucntional mobility (standing or sitting a particualt way to prevent leaking), personal hygiene and grooming, sexual activity, care of others (child rearing or petcare), home establishment and maintenance, religious activities and expression, shopping, sleep ppreparation and participation, formal education particpation, job performance, employment, volunteer particpation and retirement preparation for our senior cilents, play particpation and social particpation with loved ones or peers. Just to name a few!

As you can see, this is a real issue for our human population. In the following posts in this series, I will address evaluation and treatment options for this population. Please comment below or email me with your feedback, thoughts, or if you have expereince in this area — I would love to hear from you!

Information within this blog is based on education and training in Low Pressure Fitness through The Core Recovery Institute and within the following articles; Thompson & O’Sullivan (2003). Levator plate movement during voluntary pelvic floor muscle contraction in subjects with incontinence and prolapse: a cross sectional study and review. Int Urogynecol J, 12, 84–8. Sugrue M. (1995). Intraabdominal Pressure. Clin Intensive Care. 6,76-79

Essential Oils in OT Practice

August 18, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in for OTs, occupation

Essential Oils can be so difficult to navigate. What does this one do? Where do I put it? You can put it on your body? IN your body? Diffusing? What’s diffusing? I GET IT. Continue reading “Essential Oils in OT Practice” →

The Power Threat Meaning Framework

July 27, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in for OTs, occupation

I think this framework is very OT in the way that it looks at trauma Continue reading “The Power Threat Meaning Framework” →

Low-Vision iOS Device Adaptations

July 20, 2018 by Leah Foreman, OTDS, COTA/L, posted in for OTs, occupation

Apple has created the iDevices (iPhone, iPad) with settings to make them accessible for all sorts of situations. One major area of accessibility is for individuals with low-vision!

I am sharing some of the settings that I found most helpful when I sat in a class at The Braille Institute — San Diego. These are not all of the ways to make an iPhone accessible for someone with low-vision — there are dozens, and some can get very complicated with outside software and devices.

To begin…

You’ll need to navigate through these menu settings, most of the adaptations I will talk about below are found in the Accessibility menu option in General Settings:

VoiceOver

VoiceOver will read what the person has touched before they tap again to choose it. This way the person can navigate the phone with touch rather than sight, and use auditory cues to determine what they have selected before fully choosing it.

When I was practicing with this feature, I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of auditory cues being given — if I were using this setting personally, I would need to customize the feature. VoiceOver is fully customizable and in the VoiceOver settings, you can:

change the voice rate
change the tone of the voice
change whether it speaks “hints” or the full text (to reduce the number of auditory cues given)

Gestures to use VoiceOver:

Single-tap on the screen and your iDevice will read out aloud the item you’ve chosen. You can continue to tap around until you find the item you are looking for.
Double-tap on an item to select it.
Scrolling is little different when in VoiceOver mode, you have to use three fingers instead of one because one is the signal to read aloud.
VoiceOver ON/OFF you can turn this setting on and off by double-tapping with three fingers when the screen is locked.
Action command – whether you would like to end a call or take a photo, double-tapping with two fingers tells the phone you would like that app to do something (this action will vary from app to app).
Notifications you can customize if you want your notifications and text messages read aloud automatically in the VoiceOver settings.

PRACTICE! — There is a VoiceOver practice setting on all iDevices that can help clients get comfortable with the adaptation before accidentally sending a photo of their dog to their boss, although if I was their boss, I think that would call for a promotion. 🙂

Siri for Occupations

Siri can be used to increase access and success in daily occupations! Below are some of the thousands of commands that can be used with Siri:

Safety

“Call 911”
“Call the Fire Department”

Social Participation

“Check my voice mail”
“Do I have new voice mail?”
“Play my last voice mail”
“Play the last voicemail from Scott”
“Play voice mail from Julie”
“FaceTime my Son”
“When is my wife’s birthday?”
“What’s Henry’s address?”
“What is my father’s phone number?”
“Show John Smiths’s home email address”
“Send a message to Michael”
“Send a message to Michael saying I” be home in about 20 minutes”
“New email to Jenn Smith”
“New email to Jenn Smith saying, okay I will see you tomorrow”
“Post on Facebook I love my Grandchildren”
“Write on my wall – going fishing today”
“Tweet Does anyone like LeBron James?”
“Read my notifications”
“Where is my wife?”
“Is my wife at home?”
“Let my husband know when I leave work”
“Let me know when my son gets home”
“Is my daughter at home?”

IADLs

“Create grocery list note”
“Find my grocery list note”
“Add eggs to my grocery list note”
“Read my grocery list note”

Home Management

“Reschedule my appointment with Dr. Smith to next Wednesday at 8am”

Work Particpation

“Reschedule my 11AM meeting today”
“Schedule a meeting with Mark tomorrow at 4PM”
“Schedule a conference call with Jamie today at 2PM”

Community Mobility

“Where am I?”
“How do I get home?”
“Directions to home”
“Directions to my mom’s home”
“Give me public transit directions to Home”
“Give me walking directions to Emily”
“What’s my next turn?”
“What’s my ETA?”
“Find pizza near me”
“Find coffee near me”
“Where’s a good Mexican place around here?”
“Find Starbucks near me”
“Show ATMs near me”
“Is there a pharmacy near me?”

iDevice Settings

“Turn on airplane mode”
“Turn on Wi-Fi”
“Turn on Bluetooth”
“Turn on do not disturb”
“Turn on flashlight”
“Turn up brightness of display”
“Make the screen brighter”
“Display privacy settings”
“Is Bluetooth on?”
“Open Phone Settings”
“Open music settings”
“Open mail settings”
“Open Twitter settings”
“Turn on/off VoiceOver”
“Open VoiceOver settings”
“Turn on Invert Colors”
“Show me the Accessibility Settings”
“Open (application)”
“Open Camera”
“Get my call history”

Zoom

The Zoom feature is similar to the Speak Screen feature (below) in the way that it “floats” over your screen at all times, ready to be used when needed. Once it is activated you can drag the Zoom box over what you would like to read and then use these gestures to control the feature:

ON/OFF to turn the feature on and off when you need it or want to put it away to look at a photo or something that requires the hole screen — Double-tap with three fingers anywhere on the iDevice screen.
Move it to move the zoom box around the screen to select something to magnify, Drag three fingers over the zoom box until you’ve found what you need to view
Scroll use one or two fingers to scroll within the Zoom box if you are reading text

Font Adjustments

Increasing the size of the text and boldening can really increase a client’s success in using their phone! My grandmother uses this option (she has Macular Degeneration, Cataracts, and Glaucoma) and it is really working for her right now. I think this is also a great first “intro feature” that could show a client how customizable and accessible technology can be.

Invert Colors/Grayscale

For low-vision clients, sometimes the color and brightness of the screen can be too much and turning down the brightness of the screen doesn’t cut it. Within the Accessibility menu you can find Display Accommodations — here you can invert the colors, or filter the colors based on the client’s needs. There are grayscale options and color filters. I also really like the Reduce White Point setting because it lessens the intensity of bright colors on the screen.

Speak Screen

Speak Screen is almost like a remote control for your iDevice screen — if floats over whatever is on the current screen and when you hit play, it reads the screen. I like this for low-vision clients because it is high-contrast making it more easily found.

Are there any settings you have found useful with low-vision clients? How savvy are you with adapting iDevices? I am just getting started, but I have been pleasantly surprised at all of the possibilities.

Photos and Tutorials Adapted from:

The Braille Institute, San Diego, Group Class, https://9to5mac.com, https://www.imore.com, https://www.applevis.com/guides/ios/ios-7-siri-command-list, http://mobilesiri.com/apple-homekit-smart-home/