Bringing Occupation Back to Therapy

Therapy for the kids who don’t like therapy.

Hi, I’m Joel - a career peadiatric Occupational Therapist and life-long adventure seeker.

I spent too many years trying to replicate the play and adventure-filled dreams of young people into traditional clinical environments and fortnightly time slots that don’t make sense.

I started Better Braver Bolder for the kids who might learn and grow more if their therapy looked like real life activities in real life settings and with real life family and friends.

How does it work?

The reasons:

From Day 1, our way of working with clients was designed differently. We said goodbye to six-tasks-on-a-visual-schedule per session and instead developed a therapy style that put play, recreation and adventure at the centre of every appointment.

The original OTs who first identified this type of therapy, many years ago, called this using occupation as a means for growth and development. No one turns adventure into therapy like we do, and we’re striving to be the best providers of therapy using activities in the world.

The process:

We combine our favourite features of mentoring (like longer sessions and a strong activity and recreation focus) with specialised assessment, interventions and evaluation to create an individual therapy model that suits your needs.

That model is then implemented using a range of modes and is linked to the areas our assessment highlight as needing some attention, and your own personal goals.

We spend time making sure we have understood you correctly, and we will never be satisfied with just a tick-box questionnaire and pre-filled reports with name and date changes.

Our three guiding characteristics:

Our work is flexible, systemic and relational because we believe participating in activities that are meaningful and challenging is therapeutic. We strive to be the best at turning activities into highly therapeutic experiences.

Therapy is effective when planned in a way that makes sense (flexible), when your team has leadership and a shared understanding of the barriers to progress (systemic), and when you trust your therapist and your therapist trusts you (relational).

Modes: Ways to be Better Braver and Bolder

Where we work

The core of our work involves outdoor activity, so we don’t lease an office or clinic space. Our clients live mostly in the northern suburbs and Barossa Valley, bordered by Regency, North East and South Roads.

Our therapy sessions take place state-wide, and we have run events in the Flinders Ranges, Riverland and southern end of the Fleurieu Peninsula.

When we do need to meet more formally, we rent consulting rooms in Salisbury, Burton and Para Hills.

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