Applying the TIC TOC Technique

[Lab 6- April 26: Enabling occupation through thoughts and feelings: Cognitive approaches]

One of the cognitive strategies I learned about in today's lab was the TIC TOC technique. Let's see how it can be used to dissect a recent emotionally stressful situation of mine:

Letting Things Slide, While Not Letting the Present Slip Away...

[Lab 4- April 12: Enabling occupation through thoughts and feelings: Mindfulness and relaxation]

I found our Mindfulness and Relaxation lab very helpful because I have never taken the time to seriously give relaxation techniques or mindfulness a try. My one and only exposure to Mindfulness exercises from a Positive Psychology class had been a memorable one. I have never thought of myself as being patient enough to sit still and focus on something as subtle as my own breath. But since then, I have not tried it again. It was great to experience how relaxation techniques (both passive and progressive!) can feel and compare it to mindfulness exercises.

At One with Nature.

Lab 3- April 5: Psychoemotional health through activity

One of the readings for this lab, Vitamin Green: How viewing, being and “doing” in nature affects our health and well-being (Moll, Gewurtz & Saltmarche, 2013), reminded me of an experience in nature during my placement.

My preceptor enjoyed engaging in outdoor recreational activities with her clients, both in one-on-one and group settings. In fact, I went on a hike at Cataraqui Creek with 2 clients on my first day of placement. After telling my preceptor that winter wasn't exactly my favourite season, she said (jokingly?) that one of her goals for my placement was to convert me into a winter loving girl! Not sure if I am, but I do have a renewed appreciation for nature and the outdoors.

The JDA: More than just your job description.

[Lab 2- March 22: Cognitive-behavioural job demands analysis]

Coming out of this lab, and the role playing that was involved in our simulation of conducting the Job Demands Analysis (JDA), made me realize the complexities of the many occupations that we engage in throughout our everyday lives. The JDA brings out the implicit elements and skills that a typical job description would fail to include, bringing attention to some psycho-emotional determinants of occupation compared to a functional assessment or activity analysis. If I ever decide to use this in my future practice, I have to keep in mind that I need to be more resourceful to attain the full occupational profile of my clients. It's unfortunate that the JDA doesn't ask about how the client's different life roles impact her job performance and experience in the workplace. The stresses of her other occupations definitely plays a role in how she demanding she feels her job is at this point in her life. We're not super humans who perform each of our occupations in isolation from each other. As much as we try our best to put one hat away when we put on another, our stack of hats is usually in within our peripheral vision as we carry out certain occupations because we never know when we'll have to switch roles!

Learning how to See with Empathy

[Lab 1- March 15: Empathy and Stigma]

The theme of our First PE Lab was "Empathy" and to learn about how it can be a tool for overcoming stigma we did an activity where we made Spectacles Of and For Ourselves. As our prof pulled out the pipe cleaners, I knew what was afoot --we were going to make pipe cleaner glasses for ourselves!! And what fun we had!! =)

"PE" Lab?

I haven't taken any sort of "PE" course since high school... Nah! I mean "PE" as in Psychoemotional!

I mentioned in my last post that one of recent events that motivated me to start up this blog again was a lab course. It's the lab component of my Psychoemotional Determinants of Occupation course. We are required to make a lab portfolio that includes:

• journal-style reflections
• additional research and resources
• other material that demonstrates the application and consideration of lab content outside of lab time 
• and will be useful in future practice

The idea of a blog came up, and I knew that I had to Continue my blog!
So that's why I will be making posts in reference to my lab course. However, this blog is not turning into something that is strictly for my lab portfolio. I will continue to reflect on other ideas that are floating around in my mind and it will remain an outlet for me to think and share ideas about Life. This basically means that I should be doing More blogging. At least once a week. I night need to think about a way to organize this class based entries though...

Revisiting a Question to Myself

It's been a Long while since I last posted on this blog.
My lack of blogging doesn't mean I have stopped actively reflecting (during fieldwork placement, in life and about myself) to improve my OT lens. I've found that I've actually written a few unfinished posts throughout my placement and I just never got around to finishing my thoughts and posting them. I hope that I will find the time to do that later this weekend.

For now, I'd like to revisit the question that I had asked myself when I initially started this blog and add on other new ideas I have for the purposes of this virtual outlet of mine:
Why a Blog?

A place to think... That's what this blog should be for me.