Interview with Alicia McDougall
Late last week we caught up with Alicia McDougall Occupational Therapist and founder of Holistic Annex to learn a bit more about her and what drives her in her practice!
Q. Tell us a bit about you and how you got started as an Occupational Therapist?
A. I always knew that I wanted to be in a helping or healthcare profession but hadn’t figured out what direction to take. About 15 years ago, my mom became very sick and required extensive rehabilitation and care over several years, which included Occupational Therapy. The Occupational Therapists worked so hard to help her regain some independence, dignity and re-engage in parts of her life that she had lost due to her illness. Witnessing my mom reconnect with meaningful parts of her life, even during her end-of-life care, due to the help she received from the Occupational Therapists made me realize that this was the profession for me. I will be forever grateful to the amazing caregivers my mom had during those years, and I dedicate my career to providing that same level of care.
Q. As an Occupational Therapist, how do you determine realistic goals for clients?
A. The most important part of creating goals with my clients is ensuring that the goals are client-centered; the goals need to come from my clients, not from me for the goals to be meaningful and motivating. My job is to help clients break down the goals into bite-sized pieces to help work towards the bigger goal. Helping my clients create manageable and attainable improves success and I get to help problem solve and cheer my clients on along the way.
Q. Tell us about one of your side projects?
A. This year, I have been working with Occupational Therapy (OT) students from the University of Toronto on a research project to develop research and evidence around the use of yoga as a treatment intervention in OT and mental health. The benefits of yoga for the body and mind are well known but there isn’t a lot of research on this topic in the context of OT so we are working to change that. Evidence-based practice is an important part of OT so contributing to growing the evidence to support the use of yoga in OT will help more OTs integrate these methods to help more clients.
Thanks, Alicia for giving us more insight into your passion for helping others and your drive for being an Occupational Therapist!
