Here’s a question I can’t stop thinking about: Is “sense of purpose” the true secret ingredient that makes occupational therapy unique and effective? I ran a survey of my OT peers earlier this year, and I was shocked that 17% of respondents selected “sense of purpose” as the main treatment area they address—second only to “daily activities,” which is what I traditionally think of as our bread and butter. This tells me that, on the ground, a surprising number of therapists see “addressing sense o...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 7 min
You know that sinking feeling you get before walking into a patient room, when you suddenly think: “Wait.. what exactly am I going to do with this patient?” Creating a treatment plan entails a complex synthesis of the patient’s needs, the available evidence, and your expertise. It’s no wonder it can be hard to pull all this information together on the spot. So, it’s easy to see why therapists are starting to utilize AI tools as a brainstorming assist for treatment planning. But, this also raises...
Jun 12, 2025•57 min
Far too often, people are not referred to occupational therapy until their disease course has progressed to a level of high complexity. But, what if we could start seeing our clients sooner? Ideally, we receive the referral at the first sign of trouble. In some cases, we could prevent the full expression of a condition. In other cases, we could work with the client so their condition presents in a less severe way. These services are low cost and high impact. While it feels obvious that this is t...
May 15, 2025•59 min
Stroke rehab is an area where we have some of the most abundant research to draw on as occupational therapists. But, this can also make it feel difficult to synthesize it all into the right actions steps for your clients. In this Ask Me Anything style episode, we will be answering your questions on chronic stroke assessment, goal-setting and treatment. We’ll have a full clinical decision support for you reference during the episode, and then plan to keep it up to date. Our guest Christopher Gask...
May 01, 2025•56 min
Between 20-30% of typically developing children experience sleep difficulty in childhood. The percentage of neurodiverse children with considerable sleep problems is even more staggering at 40-80%. On one hand, it is sobering to consider the impacts of sleep difficulties on children and adolescents. As you’ll hear in this week's article review: Sleep difficulties are linked with everything from poorer health, education outcomes and social outcomes. They can also exacerbate common conditions like...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 3 min
While many OTs work in a fee for service model, the reality is that we are undergoing a seismic shift towards value based care. In fact it's estimated that 238.8 million Americans receive healthcare in a value-based care model. These already large numbers are expected to grow significantly in the coming years. OTs has tremendous potential in value-based care models. But, the reality is we are missing the boat. That’s because becoming involved in a value based care model involves a contracting pr...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr
Nearly one third of people experience sleep disturbances. And, about 23% of adults experience mental health illness. These high percentages mean that both sleep and mental health are global, public health challenges in their own right. However, emerging research suggests we should not think of these challenges separately. They are more intertwined than we realize. Sleep difficulties aren’t just a sign of mental health challenges, sleep problems can contribute to mental health problems . But, the...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Starting a side hustle private practice is one of the best ways to safeguard your career, pursue a niche interest, and meet some of the many unmet needs in your community. But, let’s be honest: the process of getting going can be daunting. In this Ask Me Anything (AMA), we are welcoming Carline Reaume, OTD, OTR/L, DipACLM, PMH-C, PCES back to the podcast. Carlin has steadily grown her private practice over the course of several years, and has experienced the ups and downs of private practice man...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome affects quality of life in 1-5% of people. The first step in treatment of carpal tunnel should be non-surgical treatment, which includes education, often a steroid injection, and therapy. But what should that therapy look like? In this live webinar, we will discuss carpal tunnel education, assessment and treatment with Rachel Egan, OTR/L, MS, CHT, COMT-UE . Rachel is a Certified Hand Therapist, a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, and currently manages operations for 1...
Feb 20, 2025•55 min
Childhood feeding problems are one of the most common complaints raised during primary care visits. Which is not surprising, given that the prevalence of pediatric feeding disorder is around 1 in 37 children under age 5. Feeding disorders overall are common in the pediatric population , with a prevalence of 25% of children in the general population and of up to 80% of children with developmental disabilities. Unfortunately, many feeding problems are too often normalized, and parents are told to ...
Jan 30, 2025•55 min
However you think about group strength it probably is not broadly enough. Grip strength is NOT just about hand strength. It is NOT just an indicator of upper body strength. It is NOT just about overall strength. Grip strength is associated with: mortality psychological health functional disabilities hospitalization morbidity The article we are reviewing today, is seeking to convince you that grip strength should be considered as a vital sign, as it is an overall indicator of well-being. And, I b...
Jan 16, 2025•58 min
We’ve all known for a while that the current fee-for-service models that most occupational therapists operate under are bad for patients and bad for healthcare. Why? Because it incentives volume of services over quality of services. If you’re like me, you may feel like you’ve been waiting for years for value based care to really take hold in the United States. But, this new future has felt like a distant reality. Our guest today, Dana Strauss, PT, DPT , sees things from a different vantage point...
Jan 02, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Through OT Potential, we’ve released over 94 episodes all exploring new influential OT research. As we enter 2025, it’s time to reflect on the research and ask: What trends are we seeing in OT? How is new research enriching how we think about our practice? In this 1 hour-episode, we’ll talk about new trends, with a particular focus on what commonalities we see leaders in our field doing in their occupational therapy process. We’ll culminate our discussion by exploring how people describe OT. Thi...
Dec 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Artificial intelligence is ushering a new era of healthcare tools. These range from ambient listening to streamlined practice management. But, the AI-supported that I believe will truly transform occupational therapy is: Clinical Decision Support. To be honest, it often feels like we have more clinical decision barriers than we have support. Our EMRs currently give us a set number of checkboxes, which massively pigeonhole our services, and often DO NOT reflect the kinds of best practice we teach...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min
The Epley maneuver is a 💎 rare gem 💎 in the OT toolkit. A patient can walk into our treatment room, and they can walk out cured. They can walk out with instant relief. (Yes, there is nuance to this. Sometimes the maneuver needs to be repeated. Sometimes it simply doesn’t work. There are important contraindications.) But, the other thing that makes this a GEM is that more so than any other condition we treat there are clear clinical guidelines for treatment of benign paroxysmal positional verti...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common cause of non-traumatic disability in people aged 18-65 years. As rehab professionals, we know that exercise is one of the mainstays of treatment for these clients. Though not definitively established, exercise has the most potential promise to be disease modifying if started early in the course of disease. But, alongside exercise there are other important interventions to consider like fatigue management and education. In today’s article review, we will...
Nov 07, 2024•59 min
As occupational therapists, many of us have witnessed the wonder of motor learning in neuro rehab. Yet despite years of research attempting to identify the most effective post-stroke interventions, the reality is that our understanding of how to improve recovery of function remains incomplete. The article we are reviewing today serves as an update on the state of the science in how new theories of motor control and learning can be incorporated into practice. The authors put particular emphasis o...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Unfortunately, research on the lived-experience for those with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome shows us that we as a profession need to be doing a better job. People with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome report: A lack of reliable information for themselves Social stigma from peers. Lack of awareness of EDS in the healthcare community As occupational therapy professionals, there is much we can contribute to supporting this population. And, today we’ll look at a self-management program that is grounded in behavior ...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 14 min
In 50 years, you will look back on your occupational therapy practice and see a clear line in the sand between pre-AI augmented documentation and today. Ambient AI augmented documentation is going to: ✅Make documenting QUICKER ✅Make your notes HIGHER QUALITY ✅And, transform how you interact with clients And, if we harness this technology correctly, it will improve👏 client 👏outcomes. 👏 Today, we’ll look at an example of the research that is already being published about how an ambient artifici...
Sep 26, 2024•1 hr 16 min
The population of the United States is older than it has ever been. And, by 2050 the older adult population (>65 years) is projected to increase another 47% (from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050). This will transform many aspects of our society—and one change we need to prepare for is: The safety of older drivers. Because by 2050 the older adult population (>65 years) will make up 25% of all drivers. You may be aware that our youngest, newly licensed drivers are the most likely to...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In our OT work with individuals, there can be a feeling of futility. As there is a growing collective consciousness around what we, as OT professionals, experience day in and day out: The communities in which we live have such a profound impact on our health. And, we can fail individuals by focusing only on their individual choices—and not the larger driving forces of their lives. I think this expanding view of health is why we see so much interest in community practice from students, new grads,...
Aug 22, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Children with emotional disability (also known as emotional disturbance) are significantly more likely than children with other disabilities to: NOT be integrated into regular classrooms Experience a disciplinary removal Drop out of school Over the years, multiple social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions have been developed to support children with emotional disabilities. But, New York City Public Schools found that one-size-fits all programs were not sufficient for their student population...
Aug 08, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Interoception is having a moment. The popularity of the 8th sense is likely due to the fact that it gives words to sensations that we all experience, like: hunger, fatigue, heart rate, and pain. But, even though these sensations seem universal the reality is that there are vast differences in how and to what degree we experience the components of interoception. We are beginning to be able to correlate brain-level differences with different experiences of interoception. And, what’s really interes...
Jul 25, 2024•1 hr 5 min
If you have not been paying attention to recent statistics on drowning, you need to be. After decades of decline, deaths by drowning are on the rise . Groups already at higher risk have seen the greatest increases in drowning deaths. This includes adults ages 65 years and older of all races and ethnicities, as well as Black people of all ages. But today, we’ll focus on an especially high-risk group: children (and particularly, children with autism). Drowning is the leading cause of death for chi...
Jul 11, 2024•57 min
Functional neurological disorder (FND) has been called a “silent epidemic,” a “crisis” in neurology, and psychiatry’s “blind spot.” And, I have to admit it has been a huge personal blind spot for me. Luckily, others in the OT community have been hard at work standardizing care for these patients. Multidisciplinary treatment, including referral to OT is a best practice for these patients. And, today we will look at expert recommendations for OT assessment and treatment. After we review the OT rec...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 1 min
The world desperately needs OT leaders. It needs leaders that can think holistically. It needs leaders that understand both individual level change and systems level change. It needs storytellers, collaborators, and compassionate thinkers. And, these are the qualities of an occupational therapy professional. Today, we’ll explore a paper on best practices in OT leadership curriculum development. This will help us understand the practical steps involved in leadership development. Both as an indivi...
Jun 06, 2024•56 min
In a massive 53 page treatment guideline on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), the authors state: “Occupational therapists are the ideal therapeutic leaders in the functional restoration process…” And, go on to devote 2 pages to what this OT care can entail. In this one hour course, we’ll pull out important implications for OT practice from the entire guideline. As you’ll see, when it comes to treating chronic pain, like CRPS there are a lot of best practices to draw on—but also a lot of unk...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 10 min
In a rapidly changing world, we as OT professionals need collective mobilization like never before. But, it feels like our systems of advocacy are all underfunded and difficult to navigate. Against this backdrop, which can feel discouraging, I think it is critical to shine the light on what I consider one of the greatest OT triumphs of the past decade: The breakthrough of OTs into pelvic health. This is a story of grassroots organization, individual thought-leadership, Facebook groups, podcasts,...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min
The idea of AI transforming occupational therapy stirs both hopes and fears. Will it help us revolutionize our broken systems? Will it augment the best of our care? Or will it bolster inequality and threaten our jobs? This is a story we are actively writing—and have the power to shape. In this one hour course, we’ll talk to two leading voices on the adoption of AI and OT, Alyson Stover MOT, JD, OTR/L, BCP and Karen Jacobs OT, EdD, OTR, CPE, FAOTA. We’ll discuss how they are currently using AI, w...
Apr 25, 2024•1 hr 2 min
There is a growing public consciousness around the power (and difficulty) of habit change, especially as the impact of chronic conditions soars. And, as we’ll see in the featured scoping review on OT and habit change/health promotion, we’ve been addressing habits since 1912, it is a core part of our 2020 practice framework, and is increasingly embedded in OT research. On this OT Potential Podcast episode, we’ll welcome Dr. Zipporah Brown, and her and I will discuss ways you can embed best practi...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min
