Occupational Therapy Services on the Gold Coast

Specialising in persistent pain and fatigue management.

Our mission is to help you find joy in life, get back into doing the things that are important to you and decrease suffering associated with disease, pain and fatigue through evidence based practices.

About Us

Hi, I'm Tara.I am an Occupational Therapist with 10 years’ experience specialising in the field of persistent pain and fatigue management. I am also a qualified yoga teacher and have a background in nutrition for disease management. I am passionate about helping people improve their quality of life and decrease suffering associated with disease, pain and fatigue.You may be thinking what exactly is an Occupational Therapist and how can they help me with my pain?Well let’s start with what I mean when I say ‘occupation’ (I think what we should really be saying is 'meaningful activity'). Occupation is anything that you do that occupies your time, such as showering, looking after children, cooking, seeing friends, work or sleeping (the list is endless). An Occupational Therapist is an allied health professional who promotes health and well-being by supporting you to continue to participate in these meaningful occupations.We know that persistent pain can affect every aspect of a person’s life. To manage it therefore, we need to take a holistic approach and look at the whole person (not just a specific body part).
We also know that persistent pain is often an invisible disease and not well understood. This can make finding the right care exhausting and confusing. At Finding Joy OT our mission is to help improve quality of life and decrease suffering associated with pain and fatigue. We look holistically at the person we are working with, the occupations that are important to them and the environment in which they live and work to support them in achieving their life goals despite the pain.Essentially, we know that if you can do the things that are important to you, you will be happier and healthier. I am here to help you get there.

Services

No one person is the same (especially when it comes to pain) and what's important to you will most likely be different to what's important to your family, colleagues and even myself. At Finding Joy OT, our sessions are based around your goals and what you want to be able to do.Treatment approaches include:

  1. ・Education about the nature of persistent pain to empower you on your healthcare journey.
  1. ・Exploration of your values and where you are currently spending the majority of your time and energy.
  2. ・Goal setting to direct our therapy sessions.
  1. ・Education about commonly seen activity patterns with persistent pain and how to combat them.
  2. ・Pacing strategies to allow you to do more with your day/week without ‘booming and busting’.
  3. ・Development of a graded activity plan to gradually get you back into doing the things you want to do despite the pain (and without a flare-up).
  4. ・Education and recommendations for different assistive devices and equipment that can make life easier for you and increase your independence in daily activities.
  1. ・Energy conservation strategies to reduce fatigue and increase participation in life.
  1. ・Sensory processing assessment and interventions.
  2. ・Mindfulness strategies to improve ability to be present in the current moment.
  3. ・Targeted breath work exercises to change from 'fight/flight' response to 'rest/digest' (where we want to be most of the time).
  1. ・Education on sleep hygiene strategies to improve the quality of your sleep.
  2. ・Education to assist with increasing understanding of the link between lifestyle factors and pain/fatigue.
  1. ・Strategies to strengthen relationships with family and friends and increase intimacy with significant other.
  1. ・Development of a flare-up management plan so you know what you can do at those crisis times (often not during working hours...)

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By holistically addressing the many factors that impact pain and fatigue we are able to work towards regaining your ability to do the things that are most important to you, find joy and decrease suffering.We are primarily based in Varsity Lakes. We also offer home and community visits.

Contact Us

If you would like to know more about us or unsure if we can be of assistance;
please feel free to call, email, or fill in the contact form below.

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