New Clients

Occupational Therapists (OT) look at how a person “occupies” or spends their time as a way to enhance health and as an outcome of health. Depending on the setting or clinic an OT works in, their practice can look very different. Within mental health settings, occupational therapy can be used as a stand-alone treatment or in conjunction with treatments provided by other healthcare disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology, social work and counselling.

Here at Skills to Thrive, we help you spend time on things that matter, like social relationships, leisure pursuits, employment, schooling, self-care and more.

We accomplish this in four steps, the length of which varies for each person. Throughout the process, we collaborate with you.

1. Understanding what your goals for “occupying” your time are. We do this through an informational interview where we get to know you, and you get to know us.
2. Uncovering the block to why you can’t accomplish this goal. We do this through assessments and therapeutic approaches. Sometimes the block could be related to previous traumas, differing abilities like being neuroatypical or even the environment.
3. Treat the block. This could involve using therapeutic modalities such as cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance commitment therapy, accelerated resolution therapy, environmental modifications, or psychoeducation.
4. Teach you skills and give you a road map to accomplishing your occupational goal. We then check with you throughout the process until you feel comfortable to continue on your own.

Occupational Therapy is for those who have goals related to how they want to spend their time but are unable to do so due to mental or physical barriers. If you’re not sure if occupational therapy is for you, feel free to book a free 15-minute consultation, and we can chat further about your specific circumstances.

Note personal identifiers have been changed. Occupational Therapists employ evidence-based and best-practice strategies to determine interventions. The treatment length depends on the client’s goals, what research indicates is best, diagnoses, and the resources the client has available to them.

A client with major depressive disorder is now 44 years old and has never worked competitively due to their mental illness. The client is struggling with finding meaning and purpose in their life and would like to engage in the occupation of work again. Through therapy, the client works on resumes and cover letters and volunteers at places to trial potential work opportunities. The client discovers that they do not have the tolerance for shift work, and the therapist and the client explore other ways to engage in productive occupations, including why work is an important goal. The client is a skilled artisan who has lacked the confidence to sell their artwork. Therapy goals shift to building self-confidence, and the therapist supports the client in being a vendor at a store. The client sees boasts in other areas of their life and their mental wellness through achieving this goal. Therapy sessions started twice a month for six months, once a month for a few other months, and quarterly check-ins as the client sees fit.

A client with depression, anxiety, and treatment-resistant Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder struggles with emotional regulation and managing triggers in public settings, impacting their ability to engage in social opportunities. Working with occupational therapy, they learn to identify triggers and strategies to emotionally regulate in stressful situations, allowing them to continue engaging in social activities. Part of the therapy process involved the therapist and the client going to public spaces and public workshops together to apply the skills the client was learning. The therapy sessions are weekly for six weeks.

A client in their mid-thirties with a learning disability and fetal-alcohol spectrum disorder is interested in pursuing a romantic relationship. However, they have not received much training in the form of sexuality, consent or social skills. The therapist provides this training and supports the client as they engage in a romantic relationship. The skills the client learns regarding the occupation of romantic relationships facilitate learning and growth in other social relationships the client is engaged in. Sessions start weekly for a month, then bi-weekly for a month, and then monthly check-ins as needed.

A client with an eating disorder wants to redefine their relationship with food. Working with an occupational therapist, the client learns to be creative with food by decorating desserts. Through therapy, the client also regains the confidence to eat out in a public setting.

A client recovering from cancer treatment struggles with executive functioning skills (like memory, attention and decision-making). The therapist and the client work on these skills through an evidence-based plan. The therapist does a job demand analysis to determine what sorts of work would best suit the client’s current functioning and supports the client in finding appropriate employment for this stage in their recovery.

Occupational Therapists focus on the activities you do that occupy your time, give you meaning, and help you enhance these activities to promote health. At Skills to Thrive, we focus more on the present and future as informed by your past, as we can only provide provisional diagnoses at this time. Occupational Therapy is goal-oriented, so it is beneficial when you need help achieving a goal related to how you spend your time. It’s not about understanding thought patterns or root causes, though that might arise in the therapeutic process. Instead, it looks at you holistically and helps you to understand your blocks, learn skills, and accomplish the task or goal. Another perspective could be that sometimes trauma is so intense and requires so much work that it can take years, if not decades, to heal. However, in the meantime, you’re still a human being living on Earth, which means there are specific tasks like self-care or being productive that you need to do. Occupational Therapy is about helping you survive and thrive in the moment while you get the other pieces sorted out. Occupational Therapy can be done in conjunction with other therapies or alone.

While psychoeducation and psychotherapy (i.e., talk therapy) are certainly part of occupational therapy, central to our practice is doing. So whether your goals are career exploration, finding balance, household management or something else, you can expect homework and some of our therapy sessions to engage in evidence-based activities that help solidify the skills and strategies we are working on.

Here’s an example that demonstrates this further. Let’s say your therapy goal is to be more confident and cultivate self-esteem. A psychologist might look at treating the underlying causes or trauma for your concerns as a way to promote healing and recovery. An occupational therapist will still delve into your past to inform therapeutic approaches. Still, we’re more focused on how your confidence and self-esteem currently impact your life. We’ll explore activities you struggle to engage with because of low self-confidence and then teach you strategies to improve self-confidence or modify the activity to promote self-confidence and self-esteem. Part of the therapy approach might include:

• Role-playing.
• Doing a form of therapy like accelerated resolution therapy to remedy the reason for low self-confidence.
• Learning a new skill.
• Modifying the activity or modifying your environment to encourage success.

Through this process, we might address the underlying causes for low self-esteem and self-confidence or discover that a referral to psychology or psychiatry to delve into the causes will serve you better. We are able to refer you on as needed.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is based on existing evidence-based therapies like Gestalt, Psychodynamic Therapy and Guided Imagery. ART works through voluntary image replacement, which means you keep the facts of what happened but lose the visual image of the trauma event in your mind by replacing it with something more positive. ART is rooted in the idea that people experience distress when they visualize trauma and aims to deal with that. ART uses rapid eye movements to help with processing sensations and visuals that come up. Throughout the process, the client only shares what they feel is necessary (so you don’t have to disclose your trauma event to your therapist). Although you focus on one trauma scenario during ART, the process helps to provide relief from all experiences related or similar to the trauma event.

ART differs from EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) in that there are a specific number of eye movements (EMDR varies), and the ART process is quite directive. EMDR also focuses on the content of one’s trauma and desensitizes a client to the images in their mind. ART focuses on emotions, body sensations, and images and replaces the visuals in the mind.

Most clients find relief in 1-3 50-minute ART sessions. ART is helpful in treating anxiety, depression, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorders, performance anxiety, poor self-esteem, relationship concerns, grief, job stressors, and pain management. ART is especially useful when traumatic sensory flashbacks are impacting your ability to engage in activities and occupations of meaning.

Juanita will let you know if ART is right for you and what to expect during your appointments if you choose to do it. You can see her directly for ART; in Alberta, occupational therapists are allowed to do psychotherapy.

-Assessments around frustration tolerance and how people learn best (ex. ACLS)

-Assessments around recovery and hope (ex. CPROM, QPR, PHQ-9).

-If cognitive challenges arise I can do initial screens (ex. MOCA, SLUMS).

-Sensory Processing Assessments (ex. Adult or Child Sensory Profile)

-Goal-oriented assessments (ex. GAS, COPM)

There might be other assessments we can do; we have just listed the most common ones. You can always connect with us to inquire about more details. With assessments, we often discuss the nature of what we’re trying to assess and how it’ll support your therapeutic goals. Once the assessment is conducted, we’ll do a write-up that we can use to inform future appointments or that you can take to other providers.

As an occupational therapist who has previously worked in career advising, we offer specialized support for individuals navigating the job search process—from crafting resumes to applying and interviewing. We can also help navigate building a career, cultivating a new one, or transitioning to a new one. Occupational Therapy’s holistic lens to this work sets us apart from a traditional career coach. We consider your cognitive, physical, emotional, and environmental factors to help you find and sustain meaningful employment. At Skills to Thrive, we do not have job placements or work experience programs.

To qualify for career services through us, which can be billed under insurance or claimed in your taxes, you must have a physical or mental barrier to working or returning to work. While a doctor’s note or diagnosis is not required, we will start with an informational interview and some assessments to ensure that employment is a feasible and appropriate goal for you. This process also helps determine whether our services or alternative support, such as career coaching or supported employment, would be most beneficial for you.

If it’s determined that our practice isn’t the best fit, we are happy to refer you to supported employment services within Alberta’s Public Health System.

Note that this list isn’t exhaustive and doesn’t include everything we can support. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, feel free to connect with us to see how we can help. If we can’t help, we have some fantastic connections to other therapists in the city we can refer you to.

I primarily work with ages 16-65.

-Managing symptoms of mood disorders to better engage in daily activities and tasks

-Dealing with visual or sensory flashbacks that impact your ability to engage in meaningful occupations. (For example, a traumatic work or life experience that you keep visualizing that makes it hard to return to work). This is done through Accelerated Resolution Therapy.

-Achieving occupational balance. This means ensuring you are engaging in activities that energize you and give you meaning and purpose. Some ways occupational balance can be achieved through therapy include: managing burnout, dealing with being overwhelmed, engaging in recreational activities, or implementing a healthier habit or routine.

-Career and life transitions (including transitions from high school to university and university to career, changing career paths, retirement, unexpected loss or change of career)

-Engaging and cultivating meaningful social relationships

-Returning to work or re-exploring productive or work occupations or identity

-Improving self-confidence, self-worth, self-esteem

-Supporting first, second and third-generation Canadians with managing cultural expectations and navigating occupational injustices due to racism

-Overcoming trauma triggers to engage in occupations (or the activities that occupy your time) that provide meaning and purpose

Unfortunately, not all insurance providers cover occupational therapy. Here is a link to ask your insurance provider to add occupational therapy services to your insurance plan. You can also contact us for support as well. When considering if occupational therapy is covered, here are some questions you may want to ask your insurance provider:

• Are occupational therapy services covered? And if so, what is the total amount (or number of visits) you can claim in a year and what percentage of each session would be covered? *Note some insurance providers cover occupational therapy under ambulatory care. Others will allow Occupational Therapy to be billed under Mental Health*
• What types of occupational therapy services are covered? (Some insurance companies only cover physical medical. If insurance providers say this, you can follow up by asking if a mental health occupational therapist’s services can be covered under Mental Health Services).
• Will the insurance provider accept direct billing from a registered Occupational Therapist?
• Are there any occupational therapy sessions not covered (like report writing or home visits)
• Can you upgrade your coverage to include occupational therapy services?
• Are you limited to seeking occupational therapy services from select Occupational Therapists?
• At Skills to Thrive our therapists having the training to be called Mental Health Therapists or psychotherapists. If Occupational Therapist isn’t an accepted title, see if these other two titles will work.
• ***Occupational therapy services are tax-exempt. This means receipts may be submitted as an eligible medical expense with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) when you file your income taxes, as long as you have not received full reimbursement through an employee health benefits program or private insurance. Your account or tax preparation person will be able to provide you with more details.
• Some clients allocate portions of their health spending account through their employer for occupational therapy services. This may be an option if your health insurance doesn’t cover Occupational Therapy services.

Through the secure booking app (Jane’s App) which is provided through Yeg Family Counselling.

Direct billing. I am currently working on direct billing to various insurance providers. Currently, I can direct bill to Alberta Blue Cross.

***Occupational therapy services are tax-exempt. This means receipts may be submitted as an eligible medical expense with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) when you file your income taxes, as long as you have not received full reimbursement through an employee health benefits program or private insurance. Your account or tax preparation person will be able to provide you with more details.

Some clients do allocate portions of their health spending account through their employer for occupational therapy services. This may be an option if your health insurance doesn’t cover Occupational Therapy services.

You can book a free 15-minute phone call with me to see if Occupational Therapy is right for you. During the call, let me know who your insurance provider is, and I’ll start the paperwork to see if direct billing is possible before our first session.

Either virtually, in person at the YEG Family Counselling office or in the community, depending on your goal and the interventions recommended to you.