Are you thinking of becoming an OT entrepreneur? Do you hope to one day open a private practice, start a company, create a non-profit or make a product? Or maybe you’ve started down the path and are feeling a little stuck. Today on the show, Trish Williams joins me as we have an awesome conversation all about occupational therapy and entrepreneurship. Trish shares her journey into becoming an OTpreneur and how that led her into finding her passion coaching other OT entrepreneurs. Trish shares a ton of information and resources in the episode which is all linked below in the show notes.

Ready for one more fun, celebratory episode? Last week’s episode was all about my podcasting journey including things I had learned along the way, changes I had made to my show, and sharing in the celebration with Brock Cook from Occupied Podcast in hitting 100 episodes. Today, I’m gonna take a walk down memory lane and share some clips from previous episodes that really stood out to me about the profession of occupational therapy. These clips are a genuine reminder to just how amazing this profession really is.

100 episodes! I can’t even believe I’ve made it to 100 podcast episodes of OT 4 Lyfe. And not only did I make it to this huge accomplishment, but my podcasting buddy and friend Brock Cook over at the Occupied Podcast hit this milestone at the exact same time. So we figured that what better way to celebrate hitting 100 episodes than to sit down together and do what we do best, talk about occupational therapy and podcasts. In today’s episode, the two of us chat about our podcast journeys, share some of our wins and also some of our fails... errr things we learned along the way. And let me tell you, we dive into it all. The good, the bad, and like umm ya know the ugly. I am so proud of us and am honored to share this accomplishment with Brock who has been such a huge part of this journey for me. So cheers to 100 episodes and heres to 100 more!

2020, what a year! I don’t think any of us were prepared for what happened. Usually at the start of each year, I take some time to reflect on what happened and my experiences, but this time I figured I would also reach out to the OT community and see what other OT practitioners and students had to say. So today’s episode will share some reflections from the community, as well as a deep dive into my own reflections from 2020. Make sure you stay tuned through the whole episode because I have some exciting news that I will be sharing with you too.

Last episode I had a fantastic chat with Crystal Cabrera about her experience so far training her dog Koopa to be a therapy dog. And this chat really got me thinking about a bunch of things that all relate to this topic and especially the power of incorporating animals into therapy. Today, I figured I’d take a minute and share my thoughts from the chat I had with Crystal. If you happened to miss the interview episode, you can give it a listen over at https://ot4lyfe.com/97 , that’s episode 97 titled How to Train a Therapy Dog.

Ever wonder what it takes to train a therapy dog? Today on the show, I have Crystal Cabrera, OTR/L, CSRS, an occupational therapist who has been training her dog Koopa to become a therapy dog. So if you want to know the steps to take in order to train your own dog to be used in therapy, tune into the episode and be prepared because there are a lot of parallels between our work as OT practitioners and training therapy dogs.

Mental health is one topic that needs to be talked about more. And I am so honored to have had the conversation I did with Danielle Miles about her work in mental health. If you happened to have missed that episode, check out episode 95 titled Working in a Behavioral Mental Health Unit. Today, I’m gonna be sharing my takeaways from this chat and some more mental health resources.

Mental health is a pivotal part of the profession of occupational therapy. And it’s one practice area that I absolutely love learning about. So today I’ve brought on Danielle Miles to talk about her work in mental health. Danielle is an occupational therapist who works on a behavioral inpatient mental health unit. In the episode, she shares what this practice area looks like, her role as an OT, and also how she navigates her own mental health while working in this area.

Who doesn’t love gifts? Especially when they have to do with occupational therapy. Being that it’s the holiday season, I wanted to focus this month’s Question of the Month on OT related gifts. So if you’re ever looking for a gift to give one of your students, your supervisor, your colleagues, or classmates, look no further, cause this episode is chock full of OT related gift ideas. I’ve also got a brand new Lyfer of the Month and an awesome new Question of the Month as we head into the new year.

Do you struggle to explain what occupational therapy is? Do you want to be able to promote the profession of OT better? It’s not up to society to figure out who we are and what we do. It’s up to us. If you happened to miss the full episode with the OT-her halves, check out episode 92 titled “The Other Half of Occupational Therapy”. Today’s episode is all about how we can and need to be better about explaining what OT is and why it's so important for the advancement of our profession as a whole.