Student Blog
What are OS/OT?

From Patient to Practitioner ⟩
October 30, 2018, by Jessica P.

What are OS/OT?

Growing up as a competitive figure skater, I was no stranger to frequent emergency room visits. From broken bones to run over fingers, I had it all. For me going to different orthopedic doctors and physical therapy was as much part of my weekly routine as going to school or practice. I think this is where my love of the healthcare fields grew. I knew firsthand how much different injuries impacted my own engagement in one of my favorite occupations, figure skating.

My senior year of high school, while training to compete for Team USA, I suffered an injury while practicing lifts with my teammates. I was devastated that my competitive career had to come to an end and I felt like there was a hole in my life where the sport I had dedicated my life to once was. Luckily, I was able to find ways to stay involved with the sport as I left for college. I joined the USC Ice Girls and cheered on the USC men’s ice hockey team at weekly games. I even learned how to use hockey skates for the first time in my life, which is no easy feat for a former figure skater! I felt that this experience really helped me understand some of the transitions in roles that my patients also go through when they can no longer engage in their meaningful occupations in the same way that they once did. But still, when I would meet a lot of my patients I would think to myself “I can’t even imagine what they are going through.”

And it was true, until this past year. After a complication from a routine surgery in January, I spent the first week of my spring semester in Keck Hospital of USC. This experience completely changed how I look at and approach a lot of my patients, especially when working in an inpatient setting. I finally felt I could understand what it was like to be in this unfamiliar environment, in a bed that’s not your own, and machines beeping at all hours of the night. All I kept thinking was, I want to get back to class. My biggest role at that time was that as a student and because I wasn’t able to participate in that, I didn’t know what else to do.

My interactions with my own healthcare team taught me lessons about what I liked from these providers and what I hope to provide to my patients. I think it renewed my therapeutic use of self, especially in taking an empathetic approach with everyone I encounter. While being a patient is not usually a fun experience, it was a valuable one.

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Why I’m Doing the OTD ⟩
October 18, 2018, by Antonietta

What are OS/OT?

I decided to pursue the OTD at USC because I love our profession and I want to give back to it. I see the OTD as a way to grow and blossom as a leader. It is a guided experience to gain clinical expertise, discuss current issues in occupational therapy on both a micro and macro level, and develop professional skills. I know the area of practice that I am interested in and the bigger picture problems I want to fully grasp and then help crack open. The OTD process will help me accomplish these goals.

After completing the coursework for a sensory integration certificate during my Masters, I realized that I wanted mentorship from leaders in SI as I take these concepts from the classroom into practice. This lead me to do half of my residency at Therapy West. I think I could build these clinical skills as an entry level practitioner; the OTD is both a tool and an experience that will let me go a step further. I want to take SI out of the clinical gym into a community based setting. I am developing such a program as the second half of my residency, at The Children’s Ranch, where additionally we incorporate animals into our sessions. I want as much support as possible as I try develop this unique area of clinical practice, which I get from both preceptors at my residency sites and my faculty mentor at USC.

Finally, I’m doing the OTD because I am interested in being a professor of Occupational Therapy. I am building my skills at collecting and collating information as well as presenting it. I’m excited about this upcoming year and look forward to sharing my experience with you. Fight On!

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The Benefits of Yoga in Occupational Therapy ⟩
September 24, 2018, by Serena

What are OS/OT?

My relationship with yoga started when I graduated from undergrad in 2015. Growing up and living in Los Angeles, I always knew about yoga but had never tried it. Like many, I enrolled in a yoga class with the intentions of becoming more fit. Fast forward 3 years later and I not only practice yoga 5-6 times a week for my own physical and mental healthy but I have also received my yoga teacher training certification with the intentions of using it within my occupational therapy practice. Not only has yoga transformed my physical health but my entire way of living. Through yoga I have cultivated an overall healthier lifestyle. Specifically, yoga has positively impacted my sleep, stress, eating, and exercise habits and routines.

As occupational therapists we understand that not every activity is going to reap the same benefits for every individual. We all have different preferences. With this in mind I plan on helping individuals who are interested in yoga, use it as a tool to meet their health goals. One of the many things that I love about yoga is that there are so many variations. There is hot yoga, power yoga (vigorous), kundalini (psycho-emotional focus), chair yoga, aerial yoga and the list can go on and on. Even within the yoga practice, it is not only about postures but also about strengthening one’s breath work, meditation, concentration, and so on.

With the huge variations in types and focus of yoga comes the wide range of ability to grade yoga to match the client’s needs and desires. As an OT, grading the activity to find the just right challenge for the individual is crucial for optimizing health. Yoga gives you so many options to be able to successfully meet the client where they are, at any given moment.

Yoga can be a community or an individual practice, it can be practiced in the hot or in the cold, rain or shine. Yoga is all about what you make it and what you take from it. It is such a giving practice with many styles and techniques. With the design to keep the mind and body healthy, it is a perfect tool for OTs to use to help their clients reach optimal well-being in a meaningful way.

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Play ⟩
September 6, 2018, by Evan

What are OS/OT?

School is really the focus of my family at the moment.  As I begin the last year of my master’s program my son is beginning his first year of preschool.  We both get dressed in the morning, have some cereal together, and make our way to class.  What we do there, however, is a little bit different.  While I spend most of my day engaged in lively discussion with professors and collaboration with student colleagues, his main occupation at school is play — and this is just as it should be.  Fred Rogers once said “play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning.  But for children, play is serious learning.  Play is really the work of childhood.”  To my knowledge Mr. Rogers wasn’t an OT, but with this statement he sure sounds like one!  I love the sentiment, and am filled with gratitude when I consider what the occupation of play still brings to my life even though my own childhood is firmly in the rearview mirror.  Whether playing with trains on the floor when I get home from work, “racing” to see who can put their shoes on faster, or playing the “quiet game” at church, I relish the opportunity to be pulled into the moment by my son’s insatiable appetite for play and am often impressed with how functional it can be for us both.  Dr. Kingsley, my pediatric immersion professor, always encouraged us to frame therapeutic interventions into the context of play and now it’s easy for me to understand why.  How cool to be in OT school learning things that are not just important for my future career, but also contribute to my being a mindful, deliberate, patient, and informed parent.

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Why Did I Choose Occupational Therapy? ⟩
August 30, 2018, by Goeun

What are OS/OT?

Whenever I say to people that my major is occupational therapy, they ask me, “What is occupational therapy?” then other questions that follow are “How did you know occupational therapy?” and “Why did you choose occupational therapy as your major?” So, I’d like to share my story about why I wanted to study occupational therapy and came to USC for further studying.

I can say whenever I get questions about the reason I chose occupational therapy, I say the word “participation.” I first heard about occupational therapy when I was in senior year of high school. I was searching a major for a university, and I could find occupational therapy on the list that might fit me. I searched for it, then I could find the definition which was helping people with physical or mental illness to “participate” in the meaningful activities that they used to do before the injuries. I thought this is interesting and rewarding as I thought by helping them participate in their daily lives, they can live happier despite their illness.

After graduation, I worked as an occupational therapist for one year in Korea, and I kept thinking that I need to study more about it because I wanted to be a better professional and learn more about some parts which I was interested in but I haven’t experienced much (e.g., out-patients’ environmental modifications, since I was working with acute patients). So, I decided to apply for the Post-Professional Master’s Program here at USC since it is one of the best schools for occupational therapy. These are the reasons why I chose occupational therapy as my major and came here to USC to study more about occupational therapy. I’m looking forward to learning and exploring more about it!

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