I have been an occupational therapist for 21 years and am currently registered as an occupational therapist in NZ. I graduated in 2002 from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK and I received my Master’s in Health Sciences with a Rehabilitation Endorsement at Otago University in the Wellington Medical School in 2016. Throughout my career I have worked in so many settings in the UK for the NHS and in NZ for ACC and MOH. I have experience in acute hospital wards for neuro, medicine and orthopedics, short-term neurological rehabilitation wards, a slow-stream neurological rehabilitation centre, community and vocational rehabilitation, and wheelchair services. My clinical specialty is neurological conditions like traumatic brain injuries, stroke, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, spinal cord injury and dementias but I can also help people with chronic conditions like chronic fatigue, heart and lung problems, cancer, anxiety, depression, long covid and diabetes with its complications like visual impairment and amputations. In occupational therapy the focus is not actually on the disease/diagnosis but on problem-solving returning to the activities that are meaningful to you (please see the occupational therapy fundamentals page for more information). Furthermore, I don’t compartmentalize mental or physical health because the evidence suggests that people with mental health issues are more likely to get physical illnesses, and a physical medical condition can still be experienced as traumatic and affect mood. I have experience in housing modifications, wheelchair and equipment provision as adjuncts to my rehabilitation skills.