Spreading the benefits of purposeful occupation to all the land!
Your Season One Hosts
Nicole Cipriani is the creator of Occupy Yourself, and an OTR in her 20th (platinum!) year of practice. She started her career as a young generalist, working in a small community hospital in New England. There she worked with with all sorts of interesting people, supporting them in meeting their goals through upper extremity injuries, inflammatory conditions, neurological events/conditions, and also did a little bit of driving rehab! When she piloted a pediatric program to add to the clinic's offerings, she sparked her next 18 years of working exclusively with children and teens (and the occasional adult with sensory processing disorder) in both outpatient clinic and school settings. She has been AOTA board certified in pediatrics since 2011. As an adult with ADHD, she has spent her professional career collecting treatment approach trainings as little badges of honor, and enjoys reflecting on occupation and making connections between different frameworks. She has also spent a significant amount of time using the benefits of purposeful occupation (and all those little treatment techniques) to help her optimize her days (still a work in progress!) After all these years of lighting up when she talks about big picture occupation to OT's and non-OT's alike, she decided to start a podcast to give these ravings a home!
Valerie Khodorkovskiy is a new grad OT who did her second level II fieldwork with the OccYouPod. She worked with Nicole at her previous level II, spending 12 weeks working remotely with teens who have learning, emotional, and language challenges, and building her skills in facilitation of middle schoolers' confidence and proficiency with this new occupation of remote learning! Her previous level I and II fieldwork experience has been in areas of pediatrics, neurology, and psychosocial settings.
The challenges brought about by Covid gave us the opportunity to embark on this 12-week role emerging fieldwork, where Val helps Nicole stay focused while she explores different applications of occupational therapy, and builds her skills to emerge as a well-rounded OT, using her knowledge to help people!