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Hi everyone! I’m thrilled to share this episode with you today.
If you’ve been following this podcast since it started in 2023, you might know it grew out of my doctoral capstone project during my time in the University of Utah’s Post-Professional Clinical Doctorate program from 2019 to 2023. This journey unfolded during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the global impact that devaluing public health initiatives has had on collective on health and well-being, and made deeply evident the barriers and costs to humanity created by maintaining dynamics of scientific elitism, and the lack of accessible frameworks for translating impactful health interventions and knowledge from the academy to the field, especially frameworks informed by disability and occupational justice.
After navigating two stalled capstone projects due to pandemic-related challenges, I shifted my focus to creating resources for field clinicians to develop occupational science literacy for direct practice. Over three years, I poured my heart and all my spare time into building a fully virtual introduction to occupational science, using innovative online learning tools and best practices in adult education. If you’re curious, you can explore this project at engage.evolvelivingnetwork.com, and just by subscribing to this Substack, you can get free access to the OS 101 guide, which includes a glossary of all foundational occupational science terminology.
My journey back into occupational therapy higher education began after feeling disillusioned during my first two years of clinical and school-based practice as a travel therapist. I was searching for a space where I could thrive using holistic approaches that integrated mental and physical health. Initially, I hoped to work in pediatric and school-based settings, but I quickly encountered policy limitations that narrowed the focus of occupational therapy to handwriting and fine motor skills. This was disheartening, especially since my master’s research centered on executive dysfunction supports for adolescents and assistive technology in schools, areas that were largely controversial for occupational therapists in traditional settings at the time.
These challenges revealed deeper issues within the field, including limited access to occupational science developments and foundational frameworks like the “Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Fourth Edition.” I realized through my my more in-depth study that these barriers were tied directly to historical inequities, such as structural sexism in higher education and healthcare leadership sourcing all the way back to the 1500s. This understanding fueled my passion for creative problem-solving and building community around these issues. I have a free training in the evolved living collaborative skool community on how Occupational Science is integrated with the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Fourth Edition for anyone who is looking to get caught up on out latest practice guidence updates.
After graduating, I launched this podcast to raise awareness about Occupational Science and my capstone course. Later, I collaborated on a textbook chapter proposal for the “Occupational Therapy Without Borders” third edition, exploring innovative ways to circulate knowledge beyond traditional academic institutions. While the chapter ultimately missed the publication deadline, the experience taught me valuable lessons about resilience and navigating academic challenges.
Since then, however, I have been challenged in relation to this podcast by writer’s block, perfectionism, shame around missing the deadline, and a lack of direction without the structure of a prompt, deadline, or institutional affiliation to prove the value of my work to or rebel against. I’ve been on a personal journey of healing and rediscovery, exploring the roots of occupational therapy in the moral treatment and arts and crafts movements, and deepening my understanding of decolonial healthcare frameworks. This has included honoring the wisdom of indigenous and folk healers whose contributions have often been suppressed or commodified by modern healthcare systems. To support my own recovery, I created a podcast and community called “Rewilding the Mythic Self,” where I’ve been reconnecting with creativity, spirituality, and interdisciplinary collaboration outside of formal institutions. Over time, however, I have come to realize that fracturing out these parts of myself wasn’t really possible and was actually disconnecting me from the type of integrative work I am passionate about reviving in Occupational Therapy practice throughout the world and thank goodness I am not alone in this mission!
One of the most transformative moments in this journey recently has been discovering the work of Libby Lamb an occupational therapist and poet (Author of the Acacia Project) based in UK and Australia who powerfully integrates spirituality and creativity into her personal life and practice. Participating in Libby’s writing workshop this past July has helped inspire me to revive this podcast and explore in community how occupational therapists can reconnect with their creative and spiritual selves while navigating the demands and restrictions of traditional practice settings. Her insights have been invaluable in addressing my own creative blocks and building confidence to embrace my full self in both my persional and professional practice.
Together, Libby and I have been exploring themes around the “witch wound”, the historical legacy of suppression and violence against women healers, and its relevance to contemporary occupational therapy. In relation to our discussion, Libby wrote an incredible article on the complexities of navigating one’s identity as an OTP while also making space for one’s own spirituality and creative expression for our own wellbeing and holistic fulfillment. I highly recommend reading this article and subscribing to her work here: Libby Lamb
Find Libby on instagram: @OTandbiscuits and @wordswithlibby and join her free facebook for OT’s Reclaiming Craft here:
These conversations have deepened my appreciation for the power of occupational science in addressing systemic barriers and promoting inclusive healthcare practices. I encourage you to check out Libby’s work, including her poetry book and coaching program, “Duality,” which supports occupational therapists worldwide (US-based OTPs are invited to participate in her creative writing offerings through words with libby however she is currently unable to offer 1:1 coaching for OTPs in the USA at this time.)
This past fall I also explored simliar themes in a reflexive intergenerational workshop on the concise classic text: Witches, Midwives, and Nurses by Barbra Enenrich and Deidre English on the historic orgins of the American Medical Association and the ties between imperial and colonial Western biomedical models and the formal exclusion and suppression of women, people of color, the global south, and criminalization of folk medicinal practices that are foundational to the fear and apprehension many of us continue to hold up into this day inspite of OT inseperable tie to the arts and crafts, mornal treatment, and spirutality through and self determined engagement in meaningful and purposeful activity in context. This powerful workshop is currently freely available in the Evolved Living Collaborative Skool Community Classroom.
This legacy has persisted until this day in the podcast I referenced Drs. Vivian Tatiana Camacho Hinojosa and Bolivian midwife who trained in the west as surgeon before returning to ancestral practices and fighting with her community to protect and expand access to water, food, and traditional medicine world wide. Her powerful work has helped advance protections for folk medicinal practices and keep sacred midwifery practices alive with broad coalitions internationally. She is currently facing political persecution and encourages us to reconnect to honoring life and finding health in connection to life affirming community and protection and collaboration with nature as warriors for life and protection of its most tender expression.
Quality outcomes from access to Midwives in childbirth: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9584105/
Here is the reference article on how weavers made Apollo Space Mission possible: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/core-memory-weavers-navajo-apollo-raytheon-computer-nasa
Along with the powerful science of knitting:
There are some amazing resources available that I plan to read and review on this Substack this year and possibly host discussions on in the Evolved Living Collaborative:
I’ve come to realize that true liberation lies in integration, bringing together my creative, spiritual, and professional identities to build coalitions and navigate challenges collectively. This perspective has guided my recent collaborations, including sharing my folk arts and crafts experiments with the Canadian Society for Occupational Science and the American Occupational Therapy Association, and attending the Decolonizing Healthcare Knowledge Summer School Institute in Mexico City.
For those interested in joining these conversations, I invite you to explore the Evolve Living Collaborative platform, where we host free workshops like “Witches, Midwives, and Nurses,” weekly craft nights, coffee and co-occupation sessions, and a monthly journal club focused on foundational occupational science articles and emerging interdisciplinary books. Together, we can revive the optimistic origins of occupational therapy, celebrate the power of meaningful activity, and create spaces for healing, creativity, and connection.
Direct Link: https://www.skool.com/evolved-living-collaborative-6395/about
Thank you for being here, and I hope you enjoy this episode!
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