The Chronically Resilient OT

30/08/2025

I’ve been doing my to do list differently recently with 3 columns
- urgent tasks this week
- less urgent task this months
- projects, with tasks related to them

It seems to be helping to have smaller tasks and know what is more urgent. There’s still things staying on there but things do seem to be moving through a bit better.

What helps you keep track of tasks?

It's always hard for me when I have a lot of tasks floating around in my head. Writing them down and putting them in distinct categories and priorities helps a lot!

27/08/2025

With 2 more people signing up I now have enough people to go ahead with the training, hooray!

Learn-Do-Teach: A Values Exploration Workshop in 3 parts for health and helping professionals

This is powerful work and I truly believe in it's importance. Values work is not a one and done practice, it's an ongoing reflective process that we can do for ourselves and provide support to clients to engage in values practices to support decision-making and building a values-aligned life.

During the 3 online sessions of this workshop you will learn a framework and set of tools to support values exploration in practice. We will discuss what values are, go through the activities exploring your own values, participate in vision boarding and reflect on how you can use this process in your own practice.

When:
- Session 1 (5th September, 12-2pm NZST)- What are values, values conflicts, choice point, initial brainstorm on values, values word sort activity, setting valued action steps.
- Session 2 (12th September, 12-2pm, NZST)- Check in on action steps, vision boarding; practice application.
- Session 3 (17th October, 12-1:30pm NZDT) - Reflection, discussion and application to practice.

Cost: NZ$320 (reduced fee: NZ$250)

What's included:
- Attendees will have access to digital copies of all handouts and resources you will need to deliver your own values exploration sessions, one on one with clients or in a group setting.
- Three live online sessions, 2 going through the process and 1 for reflection and application to practice
- Session recordings to refer back to (content only, group discussion will not be recorded) - please make sure you can attend the sessions live

Bonuses (because I love additional resources!):
- Recording of introductory Values Exploration for Us and Our Work webinar from July 2025
- Values and Word of the Year worksheets (you can check out the previews of these here: https://www.chronicresilienceot.com/resources-shop)
- Bonus folder of additional resources to support you in your values work
- Discount code to my resources shop

There are still 2 spaces remaining if you would like to join us in learning a method of values exploration to use in practice.

27/08/2025

You are not lazy!

26/08/2025

It was so lovely to spend time with Wild of Brain - Anissa Ljanta, writer & ND coach in July

Love this photo of us in the wild. Literally in the wild lol!

I've been remiss in posting about the fabulous days of hosting Rebecca aka The Chronically Resilient OT. We'd met in a park back in the summer and could have kept talking for hours more on that picnic blanket, so when Rebecca suggested she stretch her Auckland layover to come stay with us in the feral highlands, I was all YES. Yes please!

It was such a treat to have days together with a friend who lives on the other island. There is something easeful about sharing space and time with fellow multiply neurodivergent folks who navigate life managing a wee pile up of the chronic health stuff so common in our communities. Extra bonus that Rebecca and I do similar work (there are not many of us here in Aotearoa NZ).

The sprinkles on top is that we're cooking up a collaborative project. Wahoo! I'm a big fan of Rebecca's mahi and collabs seeded and nurtured out of connection and reciprocal respect is the best.

❤🧠🌈🔥

Here we are at our local. Waterfall that is! ☄️

25/08/2025

Whew I did it and the google drive of resources for my upcoming Learn-Do-Teach: A Values Exploration Workshop in 3 parts for health and helping professionals is now live!

I’ve written out detailed instructions for each session and finalised all of the materials. It is looking great and I’m so excited that this is coming up next week!

Still space for a couple more health professionals to join in so please do get in touch if you have any questions or book here

Are you a health or helping professional wanting to implement values activities into your work but aren’t sure how? Learn and experience a...

24/08/2025

Learning about sensory trauma has been so important for my self-understanding of experiences and responses.

Love how Trauma Geek - Janae Elisabeth talks about this

23/08/2025

So why do I believe values are so important?

Values are our heart’s deepest desires for how we want to behave as a human being and how we want to show up in the world. Values can be like a roadmap, give our lives meaning, and give us something to move towards. Supporting people to explore their values can help with determining priorities, guiding choices and actions, and indicating areas of misalignment. I might ask questions like: what’s important to you? What makes you feel proud?

Values feel like a natural fit within occupational therapy as they are all about meaning and purpose, what is important to you and how you want to live your life, which are all things I focus on in my work with clients.

I’ve also found it helpful personally to know my values so I can get closer to living the life that I want (in ways that are possible with physical and mental health limitations) and prioritise where I spend my time and energy.

Values are defined by actions not feelings. We can take actions in line with our values even when we might not feel like doing something, e.g. we might not want to go to the dentist but value our health, so we make the appointment and go.

An additional complexity comes in when we are experiencing values conflicts, for example personal values vs funding system values. Sometime we have to make a compromise and work out, within difficult situations, how we can still be making towards moves and steps towards a value-driven life. Knowing our values can help us understand when to compromise and how much, and help us put boundaries in place.

So, if you'd like to understand more about your own values, experience and learn a values exploration method and be provided with all the materials needed to use the method in practice with clients, to support yourself and them to live more value-driven lives - then this is the training series for you!

Learn-Do-Teach: A Values Exploration Workshop in 3 parts for health and helping professionals

Picture of me living into my values of nature and connection by walking the dogs on the beach.

23/08/2025

I love delivering training but there are consequences and I am feeling them today.

My brain is so fried, but an edgy restless kind of fried that makes resting very difficult.

Have been wanting to do things but then not able to start and have given myself a lot of down time today. But there’s still lots of thoughts in my head today and all days

This speaks to my soul. Sometimes the simplest task becomes overwhelming.

Art by Kate Whyte

22/08/2025

First training done and it was amazing and well received. 20 mental health professionals working within our public health system now have a lot more knowledge.

We probably tried to fit too much in and fried people’s brains but it was all important. We mostly even ran to time!

Training is a values -aligned activity for me as it’s one way I can make a big difference in supporting other health professionals to upskill in supporting neurodivergent people.

Here’s a couple of photos of the set up and range of resources I brought for people to have a look at, image descriptions on individual pictures.

Excited to deliver this training 5 more times over the next few months!

20/08/2025

I’m excited and nervous about a training I am running tomorrow.

Over the next few months I will be running multiple sessions of my Neurodiversity Affirming Practice for Mental Health Training for the inpatient and community mental health teams for our public health system across the top of the South Island.

I have been working towards something like this for the past couple of years and it is happening! This feels huge!

There’s a few other exciting things happening too which I will post about when confirmed.

This is such an amazing opportunity and I am hoping it goes over well with the staff!

I’m very thankful for the support of another OT who works in the public system for helping me update and tailor the content and deliver the trainings with me.

We even made a training activities booklet! Picture is of me and Fiona, who is supporting me with this training.

Wish us luck!

19/08/2025

As I explored the values process I noticed that a lot of the existing resources were very abstract and Western-centric. Making the process and resources more concrete came naturally for me, but considering intersectionality and unpacking power and privilege was (and still is) a big reflective process.

As part of this reflective process I created a workshop for the OTNZ-WNA Clinical Workshops in 2024 titled: Exploring Power and Privilege in Occupational Therapy Practice Through The Example of a Personal Experience Adapting A Values Exercise – A Tangata Tiriti perspective on how we can do better to uphold Te Tiriti

In this workshop I outlined my process, took participants through a values exercise, encouraged reflection on intersectionality, implicit bias and our own power and privilege, and posed some questions around how the exercise did (or didn’t) uphold the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

I also shared my own reflections, including that by just adding in some Māori values words with a list of translations I was being tokenistic, without considering the broader application and deeper context of these words.

I had updated and adapted resources based on the need for practical activities, tactile learning, creating tangible action steps and having a visual representation of values (vision board) - so was considering some aspects of intersectionality but missed others.



What I would do differently
- Have picture options so people can describe their own values based on a blank picture or have pictures that have a word attached to give more context - this would support those who are less literate or those who are more visual

- Seek out resources by Māori related to values and use those where possible

- Consult and collaborate with Māori clients and local iwi about an appropriate way to integrate Māori values and world views into the exercise

- Be cautious of cultural appropriation or whitesplaining something that isn’t mine to explain

I shared a graphic of how I brought all the ideas together for what we need to consider in our practice: intersectionality, power and privilege, implicit bias, cultural and historical context, Pae Ora and other health strategies (see image).

As part of my upcoming series Learn-Do-Teach Values Exploration for Health Professionals we will discuss application to practice and adaptations for different client groups and consider intersectionality, power and privilege in this process.



Image description: a slide from a workshop titled 'Bringing it all together'. There is a green circle at the centre saying 'our practice' with arrows out to other circles that say intersectionality, power and privilege, implicit bias, cultural and historical context, Pae Ora and other health strategies.