Jacqueline D’Aries, OTR/L, CBIS: OT with Individuals with Acquired Brain Injuries
In this post, we will learn from Jacki D’Aries, OTR/L, CBIS. Jacki is an occupational therapist who specializes in working with people recovering from brain injuries and strokes and their caregivers. She has her own private practice where she treats people in their homes or takes them out into their community for therapy. She created her own mighty network named, Holistic Life Skills, which is for people in recovery and their caregivers and does consulting work to create programs for a local brain injury organization in her community.
Q & A with Jacki:
Please tell us a little about yourself and some of your favorite occupations.
A few of my favorite occupations are brazilian jiu jitsu, playing the ukulele, learning french, hiking, and playing board games
What motivated you to contribute to this podcast series?
I believe OT's can do anything! I love the idea of the podcast and celebrating all the practice areas that OTs can be in. I want to contribute what I'm doing with my work in case other OTs get some ideas and become inspired to become their own entrepreneur.
Please describe the UncommonOT work that you do and the setting in which you work, the population you serve and the needs that you address.
I work with people recovering from brain injuries and strokes and their caregivers. I have my own private practice where I treat people in their home or take them out into their community for therapy. I have my own mighty network which is for people in recovery and their caregivers and I do consulting work to create programs for a local brain injury organization in my community.
What inspired you or drew you to this type of OT work?
I always had a passion for brain injury rehab and along my journey realized that so many people lose access to services when they still have the potential to recover. It made me really upset to hear some of my clients stories who left the hospital and stopped progressing. I knew I had the motivation to become an entrepreneur and help this underserved population.
How did you get there? Can you describe your path?
I started my OT journey working in inpatient settings (SNF, acute rehab, and acute care). I got my feet wet with all of the different inpatient settings and loved acute rehab the most. I began working at a specialized neuro acute rehab and was on the brain injury team there. We also did a lot of research on the community needs for the brain injury population which is why I started to create my online mighty network. Too many caregivers were reporting a lack of therapy services after the hospital and I wanted to help them. I transitioned to becoming per diem at the hospital and started my own private practice. This took a lot of learning on my part on how to run a business and the legal side of everything (which was not my forte!). My business started to grow because everyone wanted extra therapy! So I hired a colleague of mine and we currently have a combined caseload of about 15-20 clients.
Please describe a typical day or OT session in your uncommon setting. What OT skills do you utilize?
A typical day includes me treating about 3-4 clients per day. I drive to their home and do therapy at their house or I pick them up and take them out into the community. Some home sessions include ADLs for lower level clients or IADLs like cooking or laundry. I also do a lot of neuro re-ed treatments because even 7 years post stroke my clients are still making progress! For community treatments, we go to the food store, fly kites at the park, hike local trails, go to the hair salon or the bank. These treatments are so much fun for me to help people integrate back into the community. I use a combination of compensatory and remediative techniques during my treatments. I use remediative techniques to improve their function and gain movement back as well as compensatory techniques to improve participation.
Can you talk about some recent highs (successes) and lows (challenges) of your current role?
Some recent successes have been a growth in my caseload and online community. When I started out, I had no idea if the resources I was offering would be something people would want. It's been really nice to see people benefiting from them and it actually working! Some lows or challenges have definitely been more on the time management side for me. When you have your own business, there is always more you can be doing to grow it. So, I've had to use my OT skills for myself as well to manage my time and mental health. One of the big challenges for me is the business and legal aspect of the work and the marketing side of it. It's not something we learn in OT school!
How do you continue to learn in order to stay on top of things within your role?
I take courses consistently to stay up to date and read a lot of books/journals on brain injury. I also have guest speakers inside my community of other rehab professions who share their knowledge and I can learn from them as well!
Can you share a little bit about salary and compensation in this setting? How do OT or the services you provide get funded?
In my private practice, I don't take insurance just yet so all of my clients pay out of pocket. I hope to take insurance in the future! I understand that paying for private therapy can get expensive so my online community has a sliding scale ranging from $5-$20/month. This way everyone can afford it and still gain access to me and therapy resources.
Any career advice for our followers and listeners on how to get started on this path?
My advice would be to research a bit of what it would take to start your own business. There are a lot of fees associated with owning a small business and you pay more taxes. You also want to make sure there's a good market for what you're doing and have an idea of where you're going to be getting referrals from. However, my advice would be to just take the leap and go for it! You never know unless you try. I had no idea how successful my business was going to be until I took the leap. You can always go back to working in a traditional OT role.
What’s a common myth or misconception about your job/role you’d like to call out or demystify?
I can't think of anything that's a myth about my role. One big myth for this area of practice in general is that people recovering from brain injury or stroke can only recover within a year post injury. It's a total lie! That's why I'm so happy to be doing what I am and helping these people who have lost hope.
How do we find you , follow you, be in touch with you, and promote your unique work?
Anyone is welcome to join my might network to be part of the community and also learn if you're interested in brain injury and stroke rehab.
My community website: Empowered Neuro Community and the link is www.community.empoweredneuro.com
My private practice website: www.hlskills.com
Anyone is more than welcome to also email me for any questions or just to chat!
Email: jacki@hlskills.com
You can also find me on social media:
Instagram: holisticlifeskills
Facebook: Jacqueline D'Aries
LinkedIn: Jacqueline D'Aries
As always, I welcome any feedback & ideas from all of you or if you are interested in being a guest on future episodes, please do not hesitate to contact Patricia Motus at transitionsot@gmail.com or DM via Instagram @transitionsot
THANK YOU for LISTENING, FOLLOWING, DOWNLOADING, RATING, REVIEWING & SHARING “The Uncommon OT Series” Podcast with all your OTP friends and colleagues!
Full Episodes and Q & A only available at:
https://www.wholistic-transitions.com/the-uncommon-ot-series
Sign Up NOW for the Transitions OT Email List to Receive the FREE List of Uncommon OT Practice Settings
https://www.wholistic-transitions.com/transitionsot
For Non-Traditional OT Practice Mentorship w/ Patricia:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeC3vI5OnK3mLrCXACEex-5ReO8uUVPo1EUXIi8FKO-FCfoEg/viewform
BIG THANKS to our sponsors Picmonic & Truelearn. Follow the link below and USE DISCOUNT CODE “TransitionsOT” to Score 20% OFF Your PICMONIC Membership today! https://www.picmonic.com/viphookup/TRANSITIONSOTLBL23
Happy Listening Friends!
Big OT Love!
All views are mine and guests’ own.
Be a Patron to support The Uncommon OT Series Podcast project via Patreon.
