On Episode 130, Sarah Zera, OTD, OTR/L, shares the story about how she discovered and fell in love with occupational therapy and discusses her work as a mobile- and community-based practitioner and insight about how to bring moxie to one's OT practice.

Growing up, two of Sarah’s primary caregivers were people with disabilities. Her background has provided her with first-hand knowledge of what is possible when living with a disability. These experiences also showed her the many barriers people with disabilities face on a daily basis. Sarah has been working as an occupational therapist since 2002. Throughout her career she has been proud to support her clients in their rehabilitation journey. As Sarah has grown as an occupational therapist she has realized that we can do better. Traditional rehabilitation services are vitally important. However, many people “graduate” from rehabilitation but do not return to doing the things in life that matter to them most. In 2013 she returned to school to study the most effective approaches to help her clients return to their most life-affirming activities. Her doctorate in occupational therapy propelled her to open Moxie OT.

Sarah can be reached via email at moxieot@moxieot.com, and you can find information about her work including her podcast at https://www.moxieot.com/

Read her article in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03080226211008713

Read her Blog Post for the ICANCOOP website: https://icancoop.org/blogs/first-hand-account/goal-plan-do-check-supporting-community-participation-through-adult-group-sessions

Other resources mentioned on this episode:
Chappell, I. et al. (2006). Enabling Occupation in Children: The Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) Approach. CAOT Publications ACE
Dawson, D. (2017). Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance in Occupational Therapy: Using the CO-OP Approach (TM) to Enable Participation Across the Lifespan. AOTA Press