Episodes

Dr. Sakshi Tickoo (she/her) is an Occupational Therapist, Personal Counselor, and Student Mentor based in Mumbai, India. She currently works in telehealth, school-based and home healthcare settings serving a diverse population of age 3 years to 65 years. She’s also the brains behind Sex, Love, and OT. Sex, Love, and OT is a sex-positive space for everyone to embrace their whole being and be respectful of everyone else’s choice(s). It is to build a better ecosystem, a healthier community, and be ...

098 – What Does My Depression Look Like? Description On December 8th I went public about my journey with depression. Some of you may have seen this on the Occupied Insta and some on my personal FB. If not here is the post: “Story time about a little photo project I did. About 2 months ago I was depressed. My time management disappeared, I isolated, didn’t want to get out of bed, no motivation, tanked mood, drowning in work, barely left the house and all these things combined in a perfect storm o...

Rhiannon Crispe describers herself as “a salty soul, health enthusiast, sun chaser and blessed mumma & wife. A dreamer and a doer. A goal setter and a go-getter. A change agent and a game changer. And also a proud Occupational Therapist and business owner.” I’ve wanted to talk to Rhiannon for a long while and once she started the OT Lifestyle Movement it was the perfect reason to get her on! Rhiannon Crispe describers herself as “a salty soul, health enthusiast, sun chaser and blessed mumma & wi...

WELCOME TO 2021!!! And to kick off another year of podcasting I thought I’d take a look at that age old tradition of making New Years Resolutions…..or rather why you shouldn’t bother. I wanted to look at why soooo many people fail their resolutions and an alternative method that I use and you might find more successful! Mentioned is a previous episode that you can find right here: What SMART Goals are DUMB Keep Occupied Brock@brockcookOTbrock.cook@me.com Episode Transcript 00:00:00 – 00:05:11 Hi...

Some of you will remember Erin from the Occupied 2020 Guide to Job Interviews….Well she’s back! and this time we are delving into her true passion, falls prevention. This is an area I will openly admit that I didn’t know much about the specifics of it so i absolutely loved this conversation. Erin is very occupation based in her views and practice and very practical in her advice. Give it a listen. Check her out here: Keep Occupied Brock @brockcookOTbrock.cook@me.com

This episode the lovely Clarissa Sorlie joins me again to shed some light on her interest in the occupation of graffiti. Considering this occupation using the concept of the Dark Side of Occupation we explore the depths of why people engage in it and some of the meaning they often assign to it. If you’re a person that holds the belief that graffiti is something done by “delinquents” or “criminals” than this episode is a absolute must listen. Keep Occupied Brock @brockcookOTbrock.cook@me.com

Jess is a phenomenal OT and a great friend of mine. She has often explored the road less travelled in this profession and has developed into a clinician with a unique perspective on life, health, wellbeing and OT. In this episode we delve into Jess’s story, her burnout and how she rebuilt herself to be a better, stronger OT. She talks about her use of mindfulness, self-awareness, rest, and yoga among many other things. I’ve been trying to get Jess on the show for quite some time so I’m super sto...

In these unprecedented times, many many people are experiencing occupation disruption on a large scale. Many people are starting or looking for new occupations in order to maintain their occupational wellbeing. Today I wanted to explore a small part of my journey into a new occupational engagement. A new hobby in a crazy world. I took up photography and am aiming to learn as much about it as i possibly can. The more i learn, the more i find i have to learn. But I’m absolutely loving it and immer...

You asked for it, so here it is! The 2020 Occupied guide to job interviews. With the assistance of the awesome Erin Jeffords we give you the extent of our knowledge and experience to best prepare you for your first or next job interview. If you’re a student, a newgrad or an OT looking to brush up on their job-hunting skills then tune in and learn how you can give yourself the best shot at landing that job! We explore tips for everything from the preparation right through to what to do post inter...

Exploring the Dark Side of Occupation in more detail this episode, Rina and I delve into the world of harm minimisation. A question that I’ve been asked by many students is how can you work with someone who is “using illicit substances” when its “illegal”. When is “getting off” or “staying off” drugs not the goal? By not addressing these things are you encouraging it? These are the ethical grey areas that many students and clinicians have toyed with when moving into mental health or duel diagnos...

Tattoo’s and tattooing has become somewhat mainstream in western culture today and we, as therapists, will work with tattooed individuals every day. But how many of us have actually considered them through an occupational lens? The notes collated for this episode were kindly researched by the amazing Emily Cheesman. I can’t thank her enough for the time and effort she has put into this! During the episode, I also discuss Dr Sarah Grey, an Australian Surgical registrar who actively pushes against...

Virginia “Ginny” Stoffel has played a large part in my career without her even being aware of it. Her co-authored textbook helped shape a large portion of my early mental health practice knowledge and I continue to use the latest edition of it with the students I teach today. I was super excited to talk to this phenomenal OT and garner her perspectives on life, MH and OT. Ginny was also the recipient of the 2020 AOTA OT Award of Merit. The OT Award of Merit (Est. 1950) is the highest Association...

This is a time of uncertainty and it’s also a time where we are seeing a huge uptake in clinicians trying to move their practice into the online space using telehealth, in a short period fo time. Melissa LaPointe is an OT who has been working in the online space for many years and supports other clinicians to do so as well. Bringing her on to discuss how therapists can make this transition more successfully is something I hope is of high value to you guys. Telehealth related tools were delved in...

Miri Lee is a super well-known name in the online OT content creation world, especially in America. She also has one of the biggest and most successful OT based Youtube channels OTMiri, where she releases videos for students and new-graduate therapists to assist in their studying for the NBCOT Exam. View this post on Instagram Happy birthday, Noah. I have never felt greater joy than the joy of loving you. Just when I think I can’t love you any more, you do something that utterly melts my heart. ...

This is most definitely a passionate plea from me to you guys. Firstly, I love memes. I think so many of them are amazingly clever and incredibly funny. Therapy-related memes, however, are a thorn in my side. Firstly, 99.99% of them are not remotely funny. I’m really sorry to break it to you guys but therapeutic relationships are rarely funny and trying to make light of them comes across as soooo forced and often offensive. And this is where today’s episode comes from. I’ve spoken many times abo...

Do you ever wish communication in healthcare was more efficient? Clarissa does – all the time. In this episode, Clarissa shares how her frustrations with clinical communication led her to seek out a job in the health technology industry, and what she learnt about transferability of Occupational Therapy skills in the process. Clarissa (@geekyOT on Twitter) works in forensic mental health, and also for the secure messaging app Pando. Pando is free to download in the UK. To get your name on the int...

This episode I wanted to reflect on an idea that I’ve been playing around with for a few weeks and that’s the difference between Mental Health and Mental Illness. Having an understanding of the links between wellbeing and mental health is a skill that every clinician can take into just about every clinical practice area. This is an area and a concept that fits core with Occupational Therapy and isn’t constrained by the boundaries of Mental Health practice. Exploring Mental Wellbeing with clients...

I know a lot of passionate people. I also know a lot of people in a lot of different practice areas. I’ve been lucky enough to know a couple of people who are incredibly passionate about working in the aged care sector. Brooke George has an amazing passion for working with people who have dementia. Those of you who have listened to a couple of episodes will know that this is far from my forte so I’ve been keen to learn more. This conversation was one that I’d wanted to have for a long time given...

Since the beginning of my involvement in the sport of powerlifting, I’ve always been fascinated by the similarities. There are close links between the skillsets required to excel in Powerlifting and those commonly utilised by Occupational Therapists. I have, previously, written blog posts on how I’ve utilised my OT skillset in my coaching. To build on those I have planned to record an episode on it for the longest time. At about the same time I started this podcast, I came across two ladies on I...

This is an emerging topic for me. It’s something for which I’ve seen a correlation for many many years. Now is the stage in my career where I’m starting to explore this more in-depth. Meaning is arguably the most important aspect of a person’s occupation. Yet, in my experience, it is also one of the most neglected or least understood areas of our practice. This episode I wanted to take some time to reflect on my thought process and how “meaning” has evolved over my career. I make reference to an...

I first came across Sense Rugby when the below video came across my facebook browsing. Being a strong advocate for occupation-based practice AND an old rugby union tragic, this video appealed to me on multiple levels. The use of Rugby Union as a therapy seemed so simple yea sooooo powerful. The combination of Occupational Therapist, Carlien Parahi and her husband, Australian 7’s Rugby representative, Jesse Parahi has produced an amazing service. Utilising the culture, training, social aspects an...

Alexis is an OT, an online juggernaut, a clinical mentor and metaphor aficionado. If you’re on Instagram or Facebook then you have more than likely come across some of her posts, stories or live chats. Hard to imagine how she has any balance…. 😉 A few months ago Alexis invited me to do an Insta-live with her. Honestly, I can’t even remember what we originally started talking about but we digressed to occupational balance. We decided then and there that we needed to record a podcast and give the ...

SOME CONTENT IN THIS PODCAST MAY BE CONSIDERED EXPLICIT BY SOME PEOPLE. SEX AND INTIMACY TOPICS ARE DISCUSSED AND MAY INCLUDE SOME COLLOQUIAL TERMINOLOGIES. EXERCISE COMMON SENSE IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY THESE OR RELATED TOPICS. I discovered the OT After Dark podcast only 4hrs after they released their first episode (Sex as an ADL). My initial reaction was “Yes! Finally someone is brave enough to talk about sex and sexuality in a public forum!” But it got even better. Firstly, they’re hilarious an...

As requested! an expansion of Episode 009 – How Do Values Fit with OT Practice by having a chat about how I’ve used these concepts in practice. Looking at a very practical way of finding a person’s occupational needs which can then be used to guide the occupation based practice direction. Super keen to start the discussion an hear if other clinicians have used any values-based perspectives in Occupational Therapy Keep occupied Brockbrock.cook@me.com@brockcookOT