As a therapist, your relationship with the client can make or break the success of the therapy. The good news is that our greatest asset is using our own personality, knowledge and clinical reasoning with our clients.Tthe more we understand ourselves, the better we will be at adjusting to different clients and different circumstances and the better therapists we will be. Though developing our therapeutic use of self takes time, we can begin to build it by working on several core principles: trust, practicing active listening and being empathetic are all aspects of this understanding. This is something that I am just now understanding and have longed to better understand in the past. Even before OT school, I can think back to my days of student teaching where I struggled to adjust and know what to do in certain situations with particular students. Certain techniques weren't always helpful or applicable to all of my students, and I wasn't sure how to adjust between students without being inconsistent. I am thankful that OT allows me more space to learn how to do this well. It is built into our curriculum, and will especially be formidable during fieldwork. I long to be the best OT therapist I can be. I never want to give up on a client or think that I can't impact them because they were too hard or that I couldn't form a relationship with them... Therapeutic use of self will be what help me work better with my clients. This is going to take time, mistakes will be made, but I am going to learn from them and push forward to be the best OT I can be.

OT's are given new opportunities to expand their field of practice more and more every year. Especially as science and technology advances, new exciting frontiers are giving OT's the chance to bring chance and expertise with their specialized holistic, client centered approach  AOTA is beginning to recognize some of these new oppertunities and is offering further specialization in these emerging niches to therapist who are interested in order to continue pressing forward with the vision 2025 that has been established. These new areas allow us expand our practice, help more people, and advocate for OT, and gives exciting, new oppertunities for future OT's like me! Below is a list from the AOTA webesite (link attached ) of all the emerging list so far, and I expect this list to grow as new frontiers arise!

https://www.aota.org/Practice/Manage/Niche.aspx

• Broader Scope in Schools

• Bullying

• Childhood Obesity

• Driving for Teens

• Transitions for Older Youths

Health & Wellness Emerging Niches

• Chronic Disease Management

• Obesity

• Prevention

Mental Health Emerging Niches

• Depression

• Recovery and Peer Support Model

• Sensory Approaches to Mental Health

• Veterans’ and Wounded Warriors’ Mental Health

Productive Aging Emerging Niches

• Aging in Place and Home Modifications

• Low Vision

• Community Mobility and Older Drivers

Rehabilitation, Disability, & Participation Emerging Niches

• Autism in Adults

• Cancer Care and Oncology

• Hand Transplants and Bionic Limbs

• New Technology for Rehab

• Telehealth

• Veteran and Wounded Warrior Care

Work & Industry Emerging Niches

• Aging Workforce

• New Technology at Work

Education Emerging Niches

• Distance Learning

• Re-entry to the Profession

Kevin "KT" Turner was a talented football player who played for the Alabama crimson tide, and both the patriots and the Philadelphia eagles. When he was 41 years old he was diagnosed with ALS after noticing that his left hand was not able to pick up things. After the diagnosis, his health rapidly declined, his first wife divorced him and he married his nurse and moved in with his parents. His diagnosis can be linked to his years as a football player where he said that he had multiple head trauma incidents from direct hits on the football field. I did not know that ALS could be linked to direct head trauma but apparently, multiple football players are later diagnosed with ALS. KT passed away last year at the age of 46. His hometown has built a football field in his honor, to always remember their hometown football hero.

My beautiful broken brain documentary gives a personal glimpse into what have a stroke is like. The documentary closely follows Lotje Sodderland, a 34 year, in the year after her stroke. Most of the film in the movie is filmed by Lotje herself, beginning four days after her stroke where she sends a very slow, stuttering message to the world, "okay, I'm alive, I'm not dead. That's a start." The stroke impaired Lotje's speech and drastically affected her ability to read and right.  throughout the movie, As she regains and relearns words and sentences, her ability to explain her experience also increases. This was fascinating to hear in her own words about what experiencing a stroke and its aftermath is like. She describes it as almost psychedelic, bright colors and flashes of light constantly blurring the lines between reality and an alternate universe. Her poignant words and her ability to express her experience make this documentary very personal, as if you are are on of her friends getting one of her many selfie videos as she undergoes neurological testing.
 I am so glad that I picked this movie because I have wanted to better understand what life is like after a stroke. My grandfather experienced a stroke before he passed, and at the time I did not understand what was happening. This movie gave insight into the very real experience of one particular type of stroke and Lotje's journey through recovery and to acceptance of her new life after a stroke. To watch this movie, head to Netflix, pop a bag of popcorn, and enjoy and learn from a stroke survivor herself.

"Health care professionals should understand the effect that different language and non-verbal communication patterns, explanatory models of disease, and contextual factors may have on the expectations of patients and their perceptions of the behavior of [providers]. An appreciation of cultural practices and possible ways to incorporate them into ... treatment can further enhance health care delivery" (Nora, Daughtery, Mattis-Peterson, Stevenson, & Goodman, 1994, pp. 146-147). 

Cultural Competence opens the door for us to work and impact people who may look or believe differently from us.When we look at the bigger picture of who a person is and seek ways to learn and appreciate aspects of their culture, we actually become better therapists and can serve in a more holistic way. We need to be aware of our own bias and need to be willing to reflect and take the time to learn ways to incorporate culture into our practice, and into our daily lives outside of our profession. 

Occupational therapists are problem solvers. We are creative minds that seek to impact those individuals all around us using any means possible. We flourish in the gray and seek out new opportunities to learn new ideas and branch out past our field into new fields and frontiers, bringing our expertise with us. It is a goal established in our Vision 2025, and we as OT's are striving to meet it. This is why it is important for OT's to find new areas to specialize in. With the world quickly changing and modernizing, new opportunities are not hard to come by. Several areas of specialization are more established than others and can be certified by AOTA, while others are just now developing.

One particular field that I found interesting is home modifications. This is fascinating because it combines OT knowledge, creativity and architecture! This specialization is so important, especially with the statistics of individuals that live with a disability, or are aging making living at home difficult. Enter OT's, who go to clients houses and observe their living situation and then problem solve to see how they can make life at home more livable. This can be as simple as a wheelchair ramp, or as high tech as cascade shower seat. This is an area that I believe more OT's should get involved in to further help their clients, and to impact universal design that could benefit more than the individuals we serve. It stretches our field further and is one step closer to meeting our Vision 2025 goal.

Today we got to learn about Sherri Woodbridge, an author, photographer and grandmother who also has Parkinson's Disease. With a disease like Parkinson's, your symptoms gradually worsen over time, making things that you used to enjoy hard to do. It was interesting to me that Sherri talked about the impact about the impact of OT on her life, but not the impact of OT. OT would be so beneficial to her, especially in helping her find new ways to enjoy the things she loves. These mainly being writing her blog and being an active and involved grandmother. Although there isn't a cure for Parkinson's, OT's can help manage the symptoms so that the individual can still live a meaningful and purposeful life. Here is the link to her bloghttp://parkinsonsjourney.com/author/sherri/