From PA to Apprentice – What I’m learning at KMA

With my 3rd Christmas as an employee at KMA Occupational Therapy fast approaching, I thought it would be nice for me to share my experiences at the company. Like many when I started with the business at 19 years old, my understanding of occupational therapy was very limited, in fact, I don’t think I’d ever really heard of the term. It’s safe to say I started my job completely in the dark. 

Over time my role has evolved from PA, to Digital Marketing Apprentice and it’s safe to say my understanding of occupational therapy has expanded entirely!

Did you read our previous blog about Redundancies and retraining with us? Read it here.

With my first year working as Kate’s Personal Assistant, I spent a lot of time learning about the business, researching what we do and arranging calls and meetings with clients. My role further developed when Kate asked me to start writing blogs and social media posts. This was something I loved! I love writing and finding new topics to discuss.

After one year with the business, in 2019 I was offered an apprenticeship in Digital Marketing, this is when I really felt I started to thrive.

I’m near the end of my apprenticeship now, with only a few months to go before I’m a fully qualified level 4 CIM Digital Marketer and my knowledge and understanding of both marketing and occupational therapy has come a very long way.

I want to share what I’ve learned about occupational therapy…

I want to share what I’ve learned about occupational therapy as it’s such a diverse and quite frankly invaluable service. At first, I thought occupational therapy was simply a form of physical rehabilitation, in the form of an Occupational Therapist making adaptations to people’s homes and places of work. However, I quickly learned that we work with clients from many different backgrounds. Occupational Therapists take a whole-person approach, as they are dual trained in mental and physical health, we take into account all aspects of you. This includes home life, work-life, environments and goals. 

For more information about occupational therapy, have a read of our service page, you can find it here. 

I’ve learned that an Occupational Therapist can work with anyone, of any age to overcome barriers in their life that prevent them from achieving what they want to do. It sounds fairly broad, I know.

Let me break it down further. 

We often work with people who have experienced accident or injury, and we come in as part of their rehabilitation. We can help them to get back into work, find a new job or even completely retrain into a different sector. Should the individual not be suited to return to work, we can help them find an alternative form of meaningful productivity, such as volunteer work. The main point I’ve learned is that it’s vital for an individual to have a purpose.

It’s also good to note, you don’t require a diagnosis to work with an Occupational Therapist, we also work with individuals who are at risk of becoming ill. Early intervention is key to achieve success!

If you or one of your employees are experiencing symptoms like burnout, we can also work with you to ensure you remain well in work, and this may be down to making a few reasonable adjustments, or working together to set new work/home boundaries. We can also assist with increasing productivity, helping individuals to become more efficient with their time, both in-home and work life. 

I don’t think there’s anyone that occupational therapy can’t help in some shape or form. 

If you are interested in our services or would like to learn more, please do not hesitate to get into contact with us.