Align Wellness OT

31/12/2025

Neurobiological differences have always existed.
What’s changed is the world around us.
Higher cognitive load, fewer opportunities for meaningful sensory and physical engagement.
When integration drops, differences become visible.

We tend to view ADHD as a modern invention, blamed on screens, sugar, or shortened attention spans. But what if it didn't suddenly explode onto the scene? What if, instead, it's been slowly revealed as the everyday scaff...

15/12/2025

Sometimes therapy doesn’t work better because you “talk harder.”
It works better because your nervous system feels safer.

Walking creates natural left–right rhythm in the body, supports regulation, and reduces the intensity of eye-to-eye pressure.
Add nature, and you’re giving your brain even more support to slow down, soften, and think clearly.

Walk & talk therapy isn’t EMDR — but movement, rhythm, and environment matter more than we were ever taught.

Not all healing happens sitting still.
Sometimes it happens one step at a time

14/12/2025

Look, I love a good chatbot. I’ve even used them to brainstorm, journal, unpack ideas.

But therapy?

Real therapy doesn’t just validate your story — it challenges it. It holds up a mirror, not a megaphone.
And that means sometimes it’s uncomfortable as hell.

Healing doesn’t happen in an echo chamber.
It happens when someone gently (or not so gently) calls you on your sh*t and helps you see the patterns you’ve been too close to spot.

AI is clever.
But it’s not human.
And it doesn’t know when you’re avoiding the truth.
(Or lying to yourself with big main character energy.)

Use tech to support your growth — sure.
But don’t confuse output with insight.
Or confirmation with clarity.

13/12/2025

What if the problem isn’t you…
but the lens you were filtered through?

The more I work across ADHD, autism, trauma, BPD, complex stress, and emotional dysregulation, the more obvious it becomes:

People are living the same emotional pain, but getting completely different labels.
And those labels don’t just shape understanding — they shape how clinicians treat you, what support you’re offered, and how much compassion you’re allowed to receive.

One person’s “RSD” is another person’s “trauma response.”
One person’s “sensory overwhelm” is another’s “emotional instability.”
One person’s “masking fatigue” is another’s “avoidant coping.”

Same human experience.
Different language.
Wildly different consequences.

This is why so many people avoid therapy or fear diagnosis:
They’re not scared of the help — they’re scared of being misunderstood, dismissed, or pathologised for something that is actually deeply human and deeply adaptive.

When we drop the labels just for a moment, we can finally see what’s underneath:

Shame.
Fear of rejection.
Sensitivity.
Overwhelm.
A nervous system that’s been working overtime to keep you safe.

None of that makes you “too much.”
None of that makes you broken.
It just makes you human.

You deserve support that sees you, not just your label.

11/12/2025

If you’ve ever said
“I don’t know what I’m feeling”
“I just feel off”
or “I shut down when people ask me about emotions” — this is for you 👇

For a lot of people, emotional awareness wasn’t taught. It was managed.

• Emotions were dismissed, punished, or ignored – so no one helped put words to them.
• Survival took priority. When your nervous system learned that safety mattered more than expression, nuance disappeared.
• Masking became protection. Especially for neurodivergent or high-control humans, hiding emotions kept the peace.
• Emotions weren’t safe. When feelings led to shame, conflict or rejection, disconnecting made sense.
• Alexithymia is real. Difficulty naming emotions isn’t a flaw – it’s an accessibility issue in the interoceptive system.
• You were taught some emotions were “bad”. Anger, jealousy, sadness = overreacting, dramatic, unacceptable.
• Your body learned first. Tight chest, headaches, nausea showed up long before words did.
• Feelings layered fast. Anger + fear + shame can arrive all at once and vanish just as quickly.
• Burnout steals language. Exhaustion narrows access to emotional clarity.
• Culture rewarded composure. “Be strong.” “Hold it together.” “Don’t be too much.”

So if emotions feel blurry, distant, or inaccessible — that doesn’t mean you’re disconnected, broken, or avoiding.

It means your system adapted.

And those adaptations can be gently rewired — with safety, curiosity, and the right support.

No forcing.
No “just feel your feelings.”
No shame.

Just learning a new language your nervous system was never taught

09/12/2025

If the traditional therapy model has never really worked for you…
it's not YOU, it's the SYSTEM.

The model is limited.

The 50-minute therapy hour is outdated and wasn’t built for the people who need the most support.

It was built to manage admin, not humans.

For those navigating dysregulation, trauma histories, neurodivergence, or practical barriers, weekly 50-minute sessions can feel rushed, inaccessible, or impossible to integrate.

You deserve support that meets you where you actually are — not just where the system expects you to be.

There are so many other ways to heal, learn, and grow.
You’re not the problem.
The container is.

Tell me: what would a more supportive, spacious model look like for you?

08/12/2025

The Myth: “OTs Don’t Do Therapy.”

This idea is outdated by a few decades.

Mental Health OTs in Australia:

Are AHPRA-registered allied health clinicians.

Complete postgraduate training, supervision, and assessment to achieve Endorsed Mental Health OT (EMHOT) status.

Deliver psychological strategies under Medicare.

Manny are trained across models including CBT, ACT, DBT, RO-DBT, EMDR, mindfulness, sensory modulation, trauma-informed care, behavioural interventions, and systems approaches.

We understand how environment, sensory load, relationships, history, identity, roles, cognition, nervous system patterns, and daily routines shape a person’s wellbeing.

This is not “basic coping skills.”

This is evidence-based psychological practice delivered through a functional, trauma-aware, neuro-affirming lens.

This is "REAL" Therapy, just done differently

02/12/2025

OTs have been doing “therapy” since before therapy was a protected title.

We’ve always:

Assessed the impact of trauma on functioning

Facilitated emotional regulation and distress tolerance

Worked with cognition, executive functioning, and behaviour

Used occupation (the way you do your life) as a treatment

Coached, modelled, graded, and shaped new skills

Supported identity development and role reconstruction

Understood sensory and interoceptive foundations long before they became trendy

In fact, many of the tools now common in psychology—mindfulness, behavioural activation, skills-based interventions, sensory strategies, environmental modification—came from or have been deeply shaped by occupational therapy and its theory base.

In 2025, psychology is more functional, more embodied, more skills-focused, and more systems-aware than ever.
Which is wonderful.

But let’s be clear:
OT never “expanded” into psychology. Psychology expanded into OT.

28/11/2025

28/11/2025

Healing rarely begins with big action. It begins with small, repeatable, nervous system friendly moments of connection.

In therapy, people often expect change to look big. Dramatic. Transformational. But after nearly two decades in mental health and occupational therapy, I’ve learned something different:

26/11/2025

Discover how Mental health OT blends psychological therapy with practical, real life strategies- ideal for people who haven't found talk therapy enough on it's own

Unveiling the Impact of Occupational Therapy on Mental Health

25/11/2025

What does “neuro-affirming” really mean? This article explains why true neuro-affirming practice must include neurodivergent and neurotypical people, drawing on current research. Learn how to support all brain types without stereotypes, over-pathologising or creating new labels.

A whole-person OT perspective on inclusion, complexity, and the danger of new boxes.