Heidi Woolley – MSOT, OTD, OTR/L – OT Faculty Profiles, USAHS
Heidi Woolley, MSOT, OTD, OTR/L, teaches occupational therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) campus in St. Augustine, Florida. Heidi specializes in school-based pediatrics, especially children on the autism spectrum, and, like many occupational therapists, has worked in a variety of settings.
Heidi enjoys watching students design interventions around everyday occupations, adapting an activity so it’s therapeutic while still motivating for the client, and having fun doing it. For Heidi, every client helped, and every graduate sent out is part of being a force for good.
Heidi values the small community and a faculty with both breadth and depth, so students can always find a specialist to learn from, whatever area of practice interests them.
Transcript
Heidi Woolley – MSOT, OTD, OTR_L – OT Faculty Profiles, USAHS
[00:00:00] Heidi Woolley (OT Faculty): So I specialized in pediatrics especially in the schools and working with kids that have… are on the autism spectrum disorder. But as with many occupational therapists, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings. [00:00:13] They bring a lot of enthusiasm, and I can bring my experience and knowledge, and that coming together and being able to impart some information to them and seeing where they take it and knowing that they will go out and influence other people, that I had a small part in that, it’s really rewarding. [00:00:34] So when they have to think of interventions that are meaningful to their clients that are everyday occupations, using those therapeutically, I love to see how they adapt an activity or how they change it so that it can be therapeutic but as well as motivating for that client to participate in. And they get the opportunity to have fun with it and not just be grueling work, but it’s actually enjoyable. [00:01:03] We are out there to enhance people’s lives so that they can live the life that they want to live, give them the skills for living. And I feel like every student that we send out or every client that I see, we are a force for good because we’re making a change in in the world and in the communities that we live in. [00:01:23] I really love that we have that that relationship with the students, that we are a small community, that we have the facilities and the access to do all kinds of creative therapy, and that they can specialize in so many different areas, and that we have a wonderful faculty that not only has breadth but depth. So if there’s any specialization, we can always go to somebody else, and we collaborate. So that coming together of the minds is a great place to come.
