Well + Balanced OT

Welcome to Well + Balanced OT

Why well + balanced OT? I love occupational therapy, but graduate school can be very stressful and challenging! I created this site to share my health + wellness mindset as I navigate the balance between school, work and life. Thank you for visiting!

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FROM THE BLOG:

Fieldwork I: Home Health

I had my first taste of occupational therapy this past semester during my fieldwork I rotation with home health. I actually very much enjoyed it and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you! I enjoyed learning about the work/life balance and flexibility required for this setting and learned that it helps to beContinue reading “Fieldwork I: Home Health”

by Amber May 27, 2021May 27, 2021

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Wellness Wednesday! So this week in our health class we were talking about determinants and these are what the causality of key chronic diseases can be identified from. Proximal determinants are things that we’ve come to recognize as diet and activity, smoking, alcohol, pollution… things like that. Medial are less recognized and these can be things like stress, anxiety, depression, technology, occupation, relationships. And finally you have your distal determines which are things associated with the environment so your physical, political, economic, social cultural. The goal is to understand what can lead to the medial determinants. Tobacco smoking, for example, is prevalent because of peer pressure, social stress, anxiety, and other psychological factors. Similarly, obesity is undoubtedly influenced by factors such as social pressures to eat, eating due to depression or anxiety, and genetic influences, among other things. This wellness Wednesday we’re going to talk about things that we can do to assist in the medial determinant and reduce the stress, anxiety, and depression. One evidence-based method is through running. So let’s focus on how you can begin a running program. All of these resources were found on runnersworld.com which you can check out anytime. Stay well friends!

YOUR MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS! We had the opportunity to hear from a panelist of peer-support counselors who shared this bit of advice for working in mental health:

Channeling my inner Fall Goddess and loving on a pumpkin spice latte.

I absolutely love our health and wellness class. We’ve been learning about lifestyle medicine, and the differences between traditional conventional medicine approaches and I am absolutely blown away by all of the research that we found so far. Our class talks about how most doctors don’t have a nutrition class in their studies, and how it’s so important to teach disciplines such as occupational therapy because we spend so much time with our patients and we see them holistically. So this semester is talking about how we can look at their lifestyle factors and identify areas for change and perhaps even reverse noncommunicable diseases! #holisticot #occupationaltherapy #lifestylemedicine #lifestylemedicinemovement #wellbalancedot

Exciting schedule for this year! Excited to learn more about OT in the mental health setting. Anything you’re excited for in your program?

Nice to meet you…

Hi, I’m Amber. Previously a Navy photojournalist, I became a full-time occupational therapy student in 2020. When I’m not spending time with my homework, I love exploring all things occupational therapy, yoga, coffee, hiking, and living a healthy and balanced life!