Quote of the Day

Today’s Quote of the day comes from an incredible woman, Maya Angelou.

It’s a famous quote that I’m sure is not new to you, but it is forever relevant and today came up in my reflection as I explore my new role as an Occupational therapist who just started her own private practice.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

Occupational therapy (OT) is a very broad career path, the general idea of OT is that you are helping your clients find strategies, accommodations and skills to engage in the things they need to do or want to do in their lives.

Each area of practice connects a therapist with different populations experiencing different challenges, and then each individual person has their own unique experiences that add to the therapy. One of my favourite parts of being an OT is the ability I have to meet my clients where they are at in the moment, each day, to help them navigate their worlds to find where they may need support and collaborate with me to figure out what we can do to build skills, strategies and resilience.

As an OT starting a new role in a different setting, you come across a whole new list of things to learn. Your brain has to shift in different ways, connect to different networks of people to learn from, read more books and take more courses. The first few months of intaking new clients has come with lots of anxiety and “what ifs” about me not being good enough, knowing enough or doing enough. Imposter syndrome of being a newly graduated OT has come back but after 6 years of practice!

I was reminded in the last two weeks the importance of Ms Angelou’s quote.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

On my new practice’s website I write about taking a neurodiverse affirming, relational approach to therapy, which I like to describe as focusing heavily on getting to know my client as they are, trying to make the space (whether in person or virtual) comfortable and safe to be who they are, and going along with each of them on their individual journey whatever that may look like. That might mean our sessions might not look like a “typical” structured session, I may shift around focus of goals based on how the person shows up that day or we may be working through things in a slower or faster way than expected. This different approach makes the idea of setting SMART goals and having a specific timeline nearly impossible, and sometimes that makes my imposter syndrome even higher.

But these last two weeks I have been reminded multiple times by multiple clients of this quote that Ms Angelou shares, because despite how different my approach looks and how I may not feel that I “did enough”, my clients have shared how much they appreciate me being part of their journey. I have been told how safe I make people feel, how much a mom appreciates the way I show up with her son and recognize his anxieties and know how to help, and how they feel like I get it. That’s not one of the things I studied in school, read in a book while brushing up on my skills, or downloaded from an OT website to help with with my sessions. While I relearned a bunch of stroke rehabilitation skills, intentionally packed a variety of craft supplies and home made Peppa pig colouring book social stories and matching cards, it was me being patient when clients were trying to find the words to say, sitting outside a door while a kid was upset so I could help him when he was ready, getting down to someone’s level, validating their anxiety… these were the things that stuck.

So whether you are an OT or other health care or child care professional reading this, a student in training to be one of those jobs, or just an average person that someone stumbled across my blog and stayed (thank you), I hope you remember that the way you make someone feel is the thing that stays. Whether you’re working with a client or just walking down the street or going to a coffee shop, the little smile you share or the kind word, will make someone’s day more than you know.

The world is ugly and hard more frequently than not these days, kindness and compassion goes a long way

xo