Please note: This is the full recording of the live Lumina Springs training, now available to watch on demand.
Grief, shame, and anxiety are familiar companions in occupational therapy work. They appear in subtle ways, in abandoned routines, in occupations that no longer fit, in hesitation, withdrawal, or exhaustion. Often they sit in the room without being named, while we quietly wonder how long to stay, what is expected of us, or whether simply being there is actually enough.
This session invites occupational therapists to slow down and revisit sitting with emotional experience as skilled, ethical, and distinctly occupational practice.
Rather than treating grief, shame, and anxiety as problems to solve, this training approaches them as experiences that shape how people participate in everyday life. Through an occupational lens, we explore how these emotional states organise doing, not doing, avoiding, enduring, and surviving, and why a rush to fix, soothe, or regulate can sometimes interrupt something important.
Using occupational therapy models including the Kawa Model, PEOP and MOHO, the session offers ways to think about emotional experience without distancing ourselves from it. The models act as anchors, helping us stay present, grounded, and ethically contained rather than overwhelmed or lost.
This is not a techniques-based workshop, and it is not focused on emotional regulation tools or quick strategies. Instead, it is a re-orientation toward presence, containment, and therapeutic use of self, offering language and confidence for work many OTs are already doing but rarely feel able to name or defend.
Designed for occupational therapists working in mental health and emotionally complex settings, this training supports you to:
• Feel more confident staying with emotional intensity
• Let go of pressure to do more or fix
• Strengthen your identity as a relational, psychologically informed OT
• Recognise sitting with emotion as legitimate, evidence-informed occupational therapy
Thoughtful, psychologically informed learning designed specifically for occupational therapists
