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The BRAVE OT Podcast | Real Conversations with Occupational Therapy Trailblazers

The BRAVE OT Podcast | Real Conversations with Occupational Therapy Trailblazers

Auteur(s): Carlyn Neek - OT Entrepreneur Coach Educator Founder of ACTivate Vitality
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À propos de cet audio

 The BRAVE OT Podcast with Carlyn Neek is all about empowering occupational therapists to step-up, level-up, blaze some trails, and maybe engage in a little conscious rebellion in service of the profession, our clients, our work, our businesses, and living our mission wholeheartedly. We are all about keeping it real, doing hard things, unhuslting, being curious, trying new things, growing through our challenges, and finding joy and fulfilment along the way. Really, we are OTing ourselves and each other. About This Podcast The BRAVE OT Podcast features authentic conversations with occupational therapists doing innovative and interesting work, from private practice owners to clinicians pioneering new approaches to OTs, creating entirely new paths for the profession. Through real conversations, we explore the challenges of trailblazing, the reality of navigating uncertainty, and how OTs support each other through it all. Whether you're an OT practice owner facing uncertainty, a clinician exploring new directions to escape environments that contribute to burnout, or an occupational therapist who's ready to do things differently, these conversations will resonate. We talk about the messy middle of building something meaningful, the isolation that can come with going your own way, and what it really takes to create sustainable work that aligns with your values. Host Carlyn Neek brings her lived experience as a multipassionate ADHDer, her decads of work with adult mental health with high achievers and her OT mentorship and business coaching to these conversations. Creating space for honest dialogue about the challenges we face as innovators in our profession is her superpower. The BRAVE OT Podcast is perfect for: Occupational therapists in private practice, OTs exploring entrepreneurship, clinicians seeking inspiration and community, and anyone interested in the evolving landscape of our profession. We aim for 2 episodes per month. 💌 An invitation from Carlyn: If you're an OT who has built a solid private practice but it's time to evolve to make your business work for you in this next phase of life, I'd love to talk to you. I provide coaching for occupational therapists and support for overwhelmed OT practice owners who want to THRIVE without the HUSTLE through my ACTivate Vitality program, an evidence-based approach to building entrepreneurial resilience with a neurodiversity-affirming community where you can find your people as well as the strategy to make intentional, values-led changes in your life and business. https://www.balanceworks.online/avprogram Let's create clarity together by figuring out what you need to make this important shift away from your business running you toward loving your life with a business to support it. 🤗 Book a Clarity Call: https://www.activatevitality.online/call 🔗 Connect with me: https://www.balanceworks.online/contact-links2022 Gestion et leadership Science Sciences sociales Économie
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  • Ep. 55: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in OT Practice through Jen's Personal and Professional Experience

    Ep. 55: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in OT Practice through Jen's Personal and Professional Experience
    Jan 28 2026

    Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in OT Practice through Jen's Personal and Professional Experience

    What happens when an occupational therapist who supports others with mental health challenges experiences their own mental health crisis? In this episode, Jen Anderson-Frost shares their journey through perinatal OCD and how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy transformed both their recovery and their practice.

    If you're an occupational therapist curious about ACT, working with clients experiencing intrusive thoughts, or supporting parents with perinatal mental health challenges, this conversation offers practical insights alongside vulnerable, lived experience. Jen talks openly about the difference between traditional CBT approaches and ACT, why understanding that ego-dystonic thoughts are part of OCD mattered, and how creating space for difficult experiences, rather than fighting them, opens up new possibilities for recovery.

    This episode is particularly valuable for OTs interested in trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming approaches to mental health support.

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    IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS:

    - What perinatal OCD looks like and why it's often misunderstood
    - The concept of ego-dystonic thoughts and why this reframe matters
    - How traditional CBT exposure therapy can be traumatizing without nervous system consideration
    - The difference between CBT thought-challenging and ACT's approach to difficult thoughts
    - Why Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was more effective in Jen's recovery
    - How ACT fits naturally into occupational therapy practice across all settings
    - Using ACT with clients who appear "stuck" or "non-compliant"
    - Inference-based CBT (ICBT) as a neurodivergent-affirming approach to OCD treatment
    - Why professionals often hold themselves to impossible standards during their own struggles

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    ABOUT JEN ANDERSON-FROST

    Jen Anderson-Frost (she/they) is an occupational therapist and intuitive living coach based in the UK. Drawing on both professional training and lived experience as a queer, neurodivergent parent and perinatal OCD survivor, Jen supports queer and neurodivergent parents with perinatal mental health challenges and burnout. Jen also works as a pediatric OT supporting neurodivergent children and families, and hosts the Intuitive Living with OT Intuition Podcast focused on perinatal mental health.

    Connect with Jen: LINK TO LINKTREE

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    RESOURCES MENTIONED

    Books:
    - Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts by Sally Winston and Martin Seif
    - Break Free From OCD by Dr. Fiona Challacombe

    Podcasts:
    - Your Anxiety Toolkit with Kimberly Quinlan
    - OCD Stories podcast

    Additional Resources:
    - Inference-based CBT (ICBT) for OCD treatment
    - Research on intrusive thoughts in university students
    - OCD Action (UK support organization)

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    LEARN MORE ABOUT PRACTICAL ACT FOR OTS COURSE

    Registration is open NOW for the February 2026 cohort!

    The Practical ACT for OTs course gives occupational therapists practical tools and confidence to integrate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy into practice, regardless of your setting or specialty.

    What you get:
    - 4.5 hours of recorded learning modules (lifetime access)
    - Comprehensive resource library with handouts, worksheets, and references
    - 4 months of support including live Q&A calls
    - Online community forum for ongoing discussion
    - No certification required—ACT is designed to be accessible

    Enroll now: https://www.balanceworks.online/act-for-ots
    Registration closes soon for the February 1, 2026 start date.

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    ABOUT THE BRAVE OT PODCAST

    The BRAVE OT Podcast features occupational therapists doing innovative work and navigating the challenges of building sustainable, meaningful practices. Host Carlyn Neek, BA, BScOT, provides coaching, mentorship, and community support for OT practice owners and clinicians who want to thrive without the hustle.

    Connect with Carlyn:
    - Website: https://www.balanceworks.online/contact-links
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    45 min
  • Ep. 54: ACT for Occupational Therapists - Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Any OT Setting

    Ep. 54: ACT for Occupational Therapists - Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Any OT Setting
    Jan 22 2026

    ACT for Occupational Therapists: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Any OT Setting

    Have you ever worked with clients who seem stuck? The ones who don't follow through on goals they set themselves, the ones often labeled with judgy terms like "non-compliant" or "unmotivated"? As occupational therapists, we're often called in when all else has failed. But when psychosocial barriers keep people from engaging in meaningful occupations, we need tools that work with the internal experiences creating those obstacles.

    Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers occupational therapists a powerful, trauma-informed framework for helping clients unhook from difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations so they can move toward the occupations that matter to them. Whether you practice in physical rehab, pediatrics, mental health, persistent pain, or community settings, ACT can integrate into your OT approach.

    In This Episode, I Discuss:

    - The experience of clients being "hooked" and moving away from meaningful occupations despite having goals they care about
    - The ACT choice point model: toward moves versus away moves and what that means for occupational engagement
    - How the six core processes of ACT break down into mindfulness-based tools and values-based action (aka meaningful occupation)
    - The four ACT processes that help clients be more flexibly responsive to difficult internal experiences
    - Why ACT feels aligned with trauma-informed, humanistic, collaborative approaches to occupational therapy practice
    - How "open up, be present, do what matters" translates to occupational therapy
    - Practical ways ACT fits into OT sessions across different practice settings

    About My Practical ACT for OTs Course

    The Practical ACT for OTs Course is clinical education designed specifically for occupational therapists who want to integrate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy into their practice. It is a psychosocial skill for any area of practice.

    The course includes:

    • Eight asynchronous video modules (approximately 4.5 hours of content with limitless access)
    • Optional live group calls twice a month to discuss clinical applications and nuance
    • Online community of OT peers learning and applying ACT
    • Resource library with tools you can use immediately in practice
    • Support for applying ACT across all OT settings

    More than 150 occupational therapists have taken this course, and it's designed to help you add ACT tools to your clinical toolkit without feeling overwhelmed.

    Learn more and register today for our February 1, 2026 cohort: www.balanceworks.online/act-for-ots
    If you're listening at a later time, please check the website to see if we're actively accepting registrations for an upcoming cohort.

    Connect With Carlyn

    All my links

    About The BRAVE OT Podcast

    The BRAVE OT Podcast features occupational therapists doing innovative work and navigating the challenges of building meaningful careers in OT. Host Carlyn Neek is an occupational therapist, educator, and coach who works with OTs through clinical education, business coaching, and community support.
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    14 min
  • Ep. 53: Deinstitutionalizing OT - Field Research, Folk Wisdom & Creating Your Own Path with Dr. Josie Jarvis

    Ep. 53: Deinstitutionalizing OT - Field Research, Folk Wisdom & Creating Your Own Path with Dr. Josie Jarvis
    Jan 12 2026
    Deinstitutionalizing OT: Field Research, Folk Wisdom & Creating Your Own Path with Dr. Josie Jarvis What does it mean to deinstitutionalize yourself as an occupational therapist? In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Josie Jarvis and I explore everything from the historical roots of healthcare systems to why OTs need to reclaim field research and folk wisdom. If you've ever felt stuck in traditional practice settings or wondered how to apply occupational science to your own life, this episode offers both validation and a path forward. We discuss burnout recovery for occupational therapists, the power of community-based folk arts, and why being brave sometimes means daring to ask the "dumb" question. This conversation is for OTs who are ready to experiment, create their own paths, and remember that innovation doesn't require permission. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - Why deinstitutionalization matters for practitioners, not just clients - How occupational science can help OTs recover from moral injury and burnout - The historical context of healthcare systems and women's contributions through folk wisdom - Understanding twice-exceptionality (gifted + learning differences) and how it shows up in OT practice - Why field research and observation are more valuable than we've been taught - The problems with the traditional evidence-based practice pyramid and the Tomlin & Borgetto alternative - How grades and academic metrics aren't real and why that matters - Building community through folk arts and crafts as a vehicle for policy change - The Being, Becoming, Belonging quilt project and its impact on systemic change - What it means to be brave: daring to be vulnerable, asking questions, and showing up in your fullness ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT DR. JOSIE JARVIS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Dr. Josie Jarvis is a twice-exceptional (ADHD/NVLD/Gifted) occupational therapist, critical implementation scientist, and host of the Evolved Living Podcast. She brings over a decade of clinical experience across home health, acute care, memory care, pediatrics, and K–12 education together with her neurodivergent lived experience to explore how systems shape human occupation, creativity, and identity. After collaborating with Carlyn Neek in the ACTivate Vitality program, Josie deepened her commitment to reviving a contemporary folk arts/crafts and critical implementation science movement that supports collective occupational wellbeing and recovery from systemic harm across borders and practice settings. Her work blends OT/OS scholarship, accessible education, and creative praxis to help practitioners and communities reclaim meaningful occupation and systemic integrity. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES MENTIONED ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Josie's OT and OS Work can all be found at https://engage.evolvedlivingnetwork.com/ Including: - OT/OS Substack & Evolved Living Podcast: https://josiejarvisot.substack.com - Professional Website: https://josiejarvis.com - OS 101 Course – Foundations of Occupational Science for U.S.-Based OT Practitioners - OS 101 Guide Josie's Creative & Intuitive Work can be found at https://josephinepatricia.substack.com including: - Josephine Patricia Creative Substack - Various products and courses related to rewilding, arts, circles and more Books & Resources: - Witches, Midwives & Nurses Book Club - Article on Witches, Midwives & Nurses - Beyond the Hierarchy (Tomlin & Borgetto Research Pyramid) Previous Episodes of the BRAVE OT Podcast Referenced: - Episode 13: With references to Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration - Episode 43: Overcoming Entrepreneurial Perfectionism with the Scientific Method ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WORK WITH CARLYN ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If today's conversation about deinstitutionalizing yourself and finding hope beyond burnout resonated with you, the ACTivate Vitality Program offers a community of OT practice owners who are navigating these same challenges. We focus on building sustainable, values-aligned practices through group coaching, ACT-based frameworks, and genuine support not hustle culture. Book a Clarity Call Learn more about ACTivate Vitality
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    1 h et 31 min
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