#motr critical

[house-of-mirrors]

Was talking about mask again today and got to the topic of how the monster romance routes were advertised and I was able to articulate how I took it. At times it felt like "all right since you weirdos really want to smooch the bats, I guess we'll throw you a bone"

If you're gonna write nonhuman romances or put steamy scenes in a horror setting, you gotta put your whole dick into it or don't even bother

And also one of the tenants of the horror genre is finding the attraction in the repulsive, passion and fear have always been intertwined, there is scholarship on this, sooooo the horny fans aren't weird or freaky they came to the genre for a reason :/

[irrigos]

sorry for being unable to stop posting. i have a disease called "caring too much" and its incurable etc. part of why i am so struck by motr and the things i didnt enjoy about it is because the problems it has are not ones that i had expected! i figured, yknow, fbg exclusively makes really wordy Interactive Fiction. a visual novel seems like a really natural fit! hell you dont even need to change all that much from FL, just add sprites of the characters on the screen with the text and make the dialogue explicit instead of implied

so like... howd this happen..... i was bracing for what i knew to be common problems i have in FBG's games (like that the only larger bodies you encounter are either on manual laborers like the clay men, or characters who are rich/greedy/evil, like milton, or the fact that they dont have much interest in historical accuracy, seeming to prefer just getting the vibe of "vaguely 19th century" with the occasional interesting historical tidbit, the fact that they always overstate how customizable your character is, so you can imagine whatever background for your character that you want, but the game will explicitly say you speak "the queen's english", etc) so the fact that it feels like they wrote a bunch of unconnected stories and didnt give me enough time to see any of them through to the end really came out of left field. thats not one of the ones i thought to watch out for!!!!

[awordbroken]

MotR impressions after 18 hours/3 playthroughs (pretty negative, ngl)

on my first playthrough i admittedly mostly faffed about with whatever seemed interesting. ended up getting the parliament ending, but since characters were still pushing me to investigate the murder before the trial i ended up wasting a bunch of time on that which turned out to be completely pointless.

i never really felt like there was a good time to put everything else on hold to pursue romance, but since i knew the game was supposed to go through three 'seasons', i figured i could put it off until after the trial. this was incorrect, the trial is the end of the game and the third 'season' is just the ending of the playthrough. technically i got AN ending on this playthrough, but it felt pretty hollow since i still had no real clues about the murder nor managed to squeeze in any romance or even close friendship. even despite spending a decent amount of time with Griz on achieving the parliament ending, as far as the game was concerned we seemed to be little more than strangers, presumably because stupid me didn't devote any of my limited time to spending time with her solely for relationship-building.

second playthrough, i thought ok, this time i'll have a romance in mind, i'll just pick up the parliament ending again and then devote the rest of my time to flirting with Mr Pages.

i didn't really want to have to express interest in it to Griz's face immediately after the first meeting where it barely says anything, but in my first playthrough i don't recall ever getting a second chance to express interest, so i guess that was obligatory. so that was already starting out feeling weird and like the game was demanding i express interest before giving me any reason for my character to have any.

spent a decent portion of the playthrough gathering censuses and turning them in in batches of 2-3, mostly ignoring sidequests and the murder mystery (since i knew doing the parliament quest would bypass it). none of my interactions with Pages felt like there was any natural building of closeness or an interest forming, so despite the constant insistent popping up of the generic menu for defining your exact kind of interest i was hesitant to assert that my character was already in love -

(and i also didn't fully understand that this was solely a menu for defining what options you want available for the character - i thought 'decide to kiss Mr Pages' meant, you know, that my character would try to kiss it right then and there? not that that would simply unlock a future option to try? i fucking hated this intrusive pseudo-ic menu to be honest, immensely disruptive to have Mr Pages tell my character that it was only indulging this romance as an experiment with love stories immediately followed by this FUCKING menu popping up and my eyes falling on the option 'decide to marry Mr Pages'. REALLY? as if the complete lack of internal narration or continuation of that scene didn't already make my character feel like an automaton with no interiority whatsoever, this gameplay menu with its utterly generic options inexplicably masquerading as an in-character prompt really was the final nail in any tension or immersion in this "romance" that i might have deluded myself into feeling)

- getting back to the point above, nothing in the generic "pursue your romance with Pages" scenes ever felt like a natural point to escalate the relationship, so possibly i was a bit slow in pushing the "romance" along, because i didn't even end up getting the Vake-at-your-window scene until the last day of the game, and the ending at the feast didn't even give me the option to talk to Pages, so. once again, ended up getting the exact same ending with no close character relationships.

starting my third playthrough i was, ngl, pretty frustrated. at this point i just went all in on Pages, turning in every new census i got to maximize my scenes with it. once again, i never felt like there was any point where i honestly believed that there were feelings developing between my character and Mr Pages, i just pushed those buttons in that behated relationship-defining menu and suddenly Mr Pages was calling my characters its pet or whatever. cute, but the lack of any emotional buildup or sense of progression just made it feel completely hollow. the kissing scene, the brief fetish gear bat sex quest and the Veils scene were literally the only glimmers of interest in this whole "romance", with the rest of the time spent with Mr Pages feeling like nothing so much as those parts in persona games where you spend time with a social link but don't have enough relationship built up to get the next real scene, so the game just briefly shows the characters chatting somewhere with some variation of "you spent some time with x."

bored. i spent most of this playthrough bored. i never at any point felt like either of these characters so much as liked each other. in fact they barely felt like more than strangers. ostensibly they ended the playthrough in a relationship. the epilogue made no mention of how things may turn out in the future. maybe Veils ate them both off screen and put them out of their misery.

speaking of Veils, was there supposed to be any followup after reporting its appearance at your window to Pages? it just seemed to be abruptly dropped, which was a shame since, again, it was about the only interesting thing to happen.

i also noticed that, by prioritizing spending romantic time with Pages (which you always do alone with it) i never got to see any of the scenes with Griz that actually show some insight into its personality or relationship with the other Masters, like confronting it about things like the drownies. is that really how it's supposed to be? having to choose BETWEEN romancing a character and actually getting to know it in any meaningful way? make it make sense.

at this point i feel like i haven't had a single playthrough that left me feeling satisfied and like my character got to experience a complete story, so i don't know. maybe Mr Pages' romance is just uniquely bad. maybe you're not actually supposed to want any romance in this ostensible romance game and i should just be pursuing the plot. maybe there is a way to have a fun and satisfying run of this game, but then how, why, is it that after three playthroughs, i still feel that i don't know how i'm supposed to achieve that?

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

I just can't understand MotR haters, because over and over again it feels like we've played it in alternate universes:

It’s one thing to dislike something (which is obviously fine, especially when it's an unusual experiment for the authors) but completely another to slander it. I always fervently advocate for letting other people try a game/book/whatever without prejudice and make their own opinion. Particularly when it has attempts of positive representation that the represented ones don't get to see often! You know, my mum couldn't even believe that there is a piece of foreign media with genuinely well-meaning mentions of her culture, and who wouldn't wish for more players to experience this joy (and maybe they will find something else that's relevant for them, and maybe even more) – of course there is a possibility that they won't like it, but they won't have a chance to see for themselves when others push them away with clearly ill-intentioned criticisms that are purposely taken absolutely out of context or as easily disproved as the above and could have been answered by simply willing to hear those who love the source.

(And also now I begin to understand why replies and reblogs are limited for some posts. As if the fandom doesn't want discussions with helpful sharing and comparing notes, asking sincere questions or embracing variety of interpretations and preferences; only verdicts and privileges to silence anyone else. Of course every fandom has this sometimes, but I’m upset because Failbetter community seemed so much more open-minded and friendly...)

...Sorry, this all is still too painful for me. Seems like it's impossible to find a safe place without having to defend it.

[kerriskatheotstudent]

Discuss “therapeutic use of self” giving examples from your practice.

Being a friend.

Scrubs - overflowing with pens, random pieces of paper, a deck of trusty cards and endless objects that could count as ‘therapeutic tools’. I rush along with my assessment file, bursting at the seams. Did I set up the activity according to my structuring principles in the write-up ? What was that example of a CBT technique on slide 23 of the AFR PowerPoint ? How did the textbook say to answer this question ? Being a student occupational therapist, I find myself constantly trying to draw on the knowledge I have been exposed to throughout my course. From new-age PowerPoints to dusty-old textbooks - I attempt to utilize every means of intervention theoretically approved. However, I have come to learn in the light of recent events (being my current block), that the most valuable therapeutic device is ✨personality✨! Whilst all the above surely is significant in this healthcare profession, the beauty of OT lies in its characteristic of a personal relationship with our clients (collaboration (MOTR/L, 2023)). 

Whether in a physical or mental healthcare setting, I am bombarded by the vulnerability of my client’s. Be it a disorder, injury or disease - i have been exposed to people who find themselves in an almost defenceless state. Upon this realization, I begin to think as to what it would be like to be in their place ? How would I want to be taken care of ? How would I want my therapist’s to treat me ? (empathy (MOTR/L), 2023) This was the initiation of my critical thinking and the application of using myself as a therapeutic tool. 

From the term ‘therapeutic use of self’, I have gathered the importance of capitalizing on my own “personality, perceptions, opinions, and judgments” in a manner which enables my therapy to be more effective. (MOTR/L, 2023). Being able to harness and utilise my innate characteristics, in a professional manner was a bit challenging at first. Would the recovering stroke-survivor find the wit in my humour ? What would my supervisor say ? Is it even allowed to spend half my session laughing and the other half talking about something completely unplanned for ? NO WAY. Put on that lab coat, let’s get to work - memorize that session write-up and stick to it ! If you had caught me at the onset of 2023, that most definitely would have been my answer, without any hesitation. 

However, as my year draws to a close, I begin to reflect on the ever changing nature of my therapeutic approach. Every client that I have treated this year, each needed something different - however, something they seemed to have all needed, was a friend more than anything. This was the beginning of my therapeutic evolution. I started viewing my client’s in a more humanistic manner rather than just patients from a centre who needed fixing. If it mattered to them, it mattered to me (advocacy (MOTR/L, 2023)). Being a ‘multipurpose’ individual, I was able to adapt my many qualities to suit the nature of each client and session, tailoring it to the context of each individual. Somehow, through offering my 1000 jokes, a shoulder to cry on and preaching about my love of coffee, I was able to formulate a sincere relationship with my clients. This further encouraged engagement in each session and allowed for goals to be met, in an enjoyable and keen manner. I was able to almost instantly note the change in my clients and each session, as I began to expose who I really am - meeting them at their level of vulnerability. 

'They may forget what you said - but they will never forget how you made them feel' - Carl Beuhner

Upon research, I found that there are 4 techniques to maximize the effectiveness of using oneself as a therapeutic tool - attunement, unconditional positive regard (encouragement & cheerleading (MOTR/L, 2023)), self-disclosure and balancing the power differential (cheerleading (MOTR/L, 2023)). (Abson, 2019). These techniques have proved successful in that, through application of relating to the client (disclosing information about myself - mutual love for food) and providing them with unconditional positive regard (acknowledging that they are trying their best irrespective of the quality of the end product), I found my therapy to be more motivating and meaningful.

In conclusion, being able to utilize myself therapeutically requires a lot more than just being a book of knowledge. Sometimes half the therapy comes from simply being who I am - hanging up that lab coat and just being a friend. 

References

3 Ways Therapeutic Use of Self Can Improve Patient Outcomes. (2023, May 2). MedBridge Blog. https://www.medbridge.com/blog/2023/05/3-ways-therapeutic-use-of-self-can-improve-patient-outcomes/

Abson, D. (2019, March 3). Therapeutic Use of Self. The OT Hub. https://www.theothub.com/article/therapeutic-use-of-self

Chandler, M. (2018, April 18). Therapeutic Use of Self: What Does That Even Mean for OTs? | myotspot.com. Myotspot.com. https://www.myotspot.com/therapeutic-use-of-self/

Harkla. (n.d.). #106 - Improving your Therapeutic Use of Self and Why it’s Such an Important Part of Therapy. Harkla. Retrieved September 15, 2023, from https://harkla.co/blogs/podcast/106-improving-your-therapeutic-use-of-selfMOTR/L, M. C. (2023, April 27). How To Use Therapeutic Use Of Self In Occupational Therapy | OT Flourish. Otflourish.com. https://otflourish.com/therapeutic-use-of-self-occupational-therapy/

[buypuppiesforsale-blog]

How to Find a Good Labrador Retriever?

On this page, you will learn a few vital tips in effectively selecting the right Labrador retriever.

Plan Ahead Typically, the best breeder does not have any issue when he sells his puppies . Truth be told, there are regularly hanging tight records for quality little guys. On the off chance that you locate a litter of 8+ weeks old doggies, it may be an admonition indication of a poor raiser. As pet guardians, you should begin arranging 6 to a year ahead of time in case you're pondering getting a Lab home. Think about whether your family is prepared for the dedication and have an organized way to deal with bring home the best pooch for you.

Choose the Type of Dog You Want Ordinarily, Labradors are separated into two significant classifications, first is, show breeds or perhaps pet dogs and the other is the working breed, otherwise called gundogs. Both the breeds look very changed and consequently, it is smarter to know heretofore which hound you would want to invite home.

Finding Reputable Labrador Breeders Great quality breeder are an unquestionable requirement while scanning for your little puppy. Indications of a decent raiser are the point at which the canines are appropriately thought about, their wellbeing tests are done routinely and the breeders can offer all the data and follow up care to the purchasers. Likewise search for surveys and tributes to comprehend the experience of past purchasers with the breeder. Learn motre at https://chocolatelabradorretriever.ca/lab-retriever-michigan.

Locate a Litter Make a rundown of in any event about six litters with the goal that you have a decision to choose the ideal little guy. You probably won't locate the correct raiser in the primary case itself, however you can generally take references and visit some more breeders to discover extra litters. The best breeder will send you photos of their stud hound with the goal that you'll able to choose if ever you'd prefer to purchase his young doggies.

Check the Credentials You should by and by check and confirm the qualifications of the litter on 3 noteworthy criteria – personality, wellbeing and capacity. In spite of the fact that you will have an effect on your puppy's demeanor, their qualities will likewise assume a critical job. Get all duplicates of wellbeing accreditations from the raiser and furthermore check the ability of the dog in case you need it to partake in a specific activity. Find out more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador.

[brandfutures]

NOTES FROM TALKS THAT INSPIRED MY PROJECT

SERVICE DESIGN  (SOCIAL DESIGN )move people from point A - B / STRATEGIST

FUTUREGOV 

METHODS/TOOLS/MINDSET/PRINCIPLES

SIMPLIFYING COMPLEXITY/ FOCUSING ON THE HUMAN/ STRATEGIC/ MULTI-DISCIPLINARY 

Human/User Centred Design - we don’t think design things on what they think they need more based on what we have learnt they need - learning there needs and motivations (what are they trying to achieve) - know your target audience personas 

STRATEGY - How we can create great impact (solutions for local authorities)

INDUSTRIAL (PRODUCT) > SERVICE (PRODUCT) > POLICY > SYSTEMS 

DESIGNERS WORKING EVERYWHERE IN SOCIETY  (RESPONSIBILITY)

“EVERYTHING IS DESIGNED FEW THINGS ARE DESIGNED WELL” - BRAIN REED

SOCIAL DESIGN - MINDFUL OF THE DESIGNERS ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY IN SOCIETY AND OF THE USE OF THE DESIGN PROCESS TO RING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE.

SOCIAL DESIGN IS A CRITICAL DISCIPLINE THAT CHALLENGES THE PURE MARKET ORIENTED NESS OF CONVENTIONAL DESIGN PRACTICE AND ATTEMPTS TO SEE PAST THIS INTO A MOTR INCLUSIVE CONCEPTION OF DESIGN, IN WHICH USER GROUPS WHO ARE MARGINALISED ARE ALSO GIVEN PRIORITY.

How do we design for social impact? Plymouth older people and refugees 

ASSET BASED APPROACH - PEOPLE AND PLACE

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION - HOW MIGHT WE INCREASE YOUNG PEOPLES ABILITY TO SHOWCASE THEIR SKILLS TO FUTURE EMPLOYERS? LIFE SCRIPTS AND NARRATIVES 

BLACK MEN 9 X MORE LIKELY TO HAVE MENATL HEALTH ISSUES THAN AN YOTHER MINORITY GROUP - MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR YOUNG BLACK MEN - How might we create  safe spaces for young black men to open up about there mental health 

Cognisant of the causes of inequalities and the power structures that keep things unequal / inward looking - learn unlearn 

Kenneth Noland 

More important to understand society 

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

AFRO TECH FEST

EQUALITY VS EQUITY -NOT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, SO GIVING EVERYONE THE SAME DOESN’T WORK 

DESIGNING MORE AND DESIGNING DIFFERENTLY

IMPROVE SERVICES FOR MARGINALISED COMMUNITIES

EQUITY CENTRED DESIGN PRACTICE  

HYPHEN LABS

HYPHEN - LABS

Developing a Design Language

Translation between Realities

Collaboration between Disciplines

Experimentation between mediums

Aesthetics 

COMMERCIAL WORK 

I MPOTYANCE OF DOCUMENTATION

NSAF

RUBY CAM EARRINGS RECH IN TO A WEARABLE RECORDING DANGEROUS COMMUNICATION

JUMBLE FACIAL RECOGNITION OCTAVIA

AFRO FEMINISM 

PRE VR EXPERIENCE 

[ch4nnel87-blog]

Reveal of the next hero on Dota 2 Origins!!

[mrjohntsnyder]

Resources to Start (and Grow) Your OT Business

The occupational therapy profession depends on entrepreneurs—not only to drive innovation and improve the quality of our care, but also to keep the profession itself moving forward.

The rapidly changing healthcare landscape means there are always new opportunities for us, and there is no shortage of niches we can fill to serve our clients.

There are even plenty of ways to leverage our experience to help other OT professionals thrive in their own careers.

Entrepreneurship is exciting and fulfilling, and it takes you on a journey that is unlike anything else you will ever experience.

But, taking that plunge can be downright scary—and justifiably so!

I’ve been blogging for over six years now, and in that time I’ve seen multiple OT businesses come and go. I’ve watched readers excitedly charge down the path of practice ownership, only to have life take them in another direction.

And that’s why many people stop short of diving into entrepreneurship: the unknown factors and risks can make even the bravest of souls think twice about whether it’s worth it.

Luckily, I’ve witnessed a major sea change over the past few years.

While we business owners used to be largely left to our own devices, we now enjoy access to countless resources and experts to help us get our business ideas off the ground in the first place—and then take them to the point of thriving.

There are countless facets to starting a business, and it’s unrealistic to imagine we can be experts in everything from day one.

So, why not leverage the expertise of those therapists who have done it already?

That’s why I rounded up resources for occupational therapists who are interested in starting and growing a business. I limited this list to resources that are produced by fellow therapists (OTs, PTs, and SLPs).

Nurturing your OT business idea

If your business idea is in incubation, there are great resources out there to get your creative juices flowing.

The therapy podcasts listed below all focus on the business of therapy, and feature interviews with therapists who have been in the trenches growing their own practices.

The Cash-Based Practice Podcast | Dr. Jarod Carter, PT

The Cash PT Lunch Hour | Aaron LeBauer, PT

Functional Freedom Podcast | Paul Potter, PT

Health, Wealthy and Smart | Karen Litzy, PT, DPT

Seniors Flourish Podcast | Mandy Chamberlain, MOTR/L

Speech Therapy Private Practice Start-up | J. Kyle Meades, CCC-SLP

Start at Therapy Practice Podcast | Scott Harmon, OT

Therapy Insiders Podcast | UpDoc Media

If you are looking for even more guidance in fleshing out your idea, Jen Gash has a fantastic ebook, Selling OT: From Random Idea to Unique Value Proposition.

This encouraging and inspiring book was written specifically for OTs, and it helps you think through critical initial questions like:

What is my unique value proposition?

Who will my customers be?

How can I create a minimal viable product?

I also highly recommend following the WebPT blog, which covers pretty much everything OTs would need to know about starting, running, and growing their practices.

Just a few of the topics covered include:

Billing and accounts receivable

Compliance

Healthcare reform

Leadership, communication, and company culture

Marketing

Revenue diversification.

Technology

Consultants and coaches that help you launching and grow your OT business

Once you are ready to launch or grow your business, you may desire more in-depth or one-on-one help.

Whether you are looking for an ebook, a mastermind, a coach, or a consultation, there is someone out there to help. Here a few therapists who can help you take your business to the next level!

Melissa LaPointe, OT

When you’re building a business, you need inspiration, guidance, and support, and Melissa provides all of these things.

She’s an OT-turned mindset coach and consultant that works specifically with therapists—and you will not regret working with her!

In addition to consulting and one-on-one coaching, some of her most popular offerings include:

WHOT Business Academy: A supportive and inspirational membership community to help you build your women's health practice while balancing your own healing journey. Members have access to a combination of masterclasses, group coaching, business resources, special guest interviews and a private Facebook group.

Visionaries on Fire: A 9-month mastermind group filled with thought-leaders and change-makers in the women's health industry.

Strong Beginnings - An OT's Journey in Perinatal Health: This is a self-paced online program designed to give you the tools and resources to confidently grow your practice in prenatal/postnatal health.

Iris Kimberg, MS PT, OTR

Iris is a 34-year veteran in the business end of the therapy world and grew her own practice from scratch to a $14M multi-branch therapy company that she sold to a Fortune 500 Company.

She now consults privately with therapists across the country and also offers affordable workbooks, live and on-demand webinars, and generic business related templates for contracts and forms on her two websites www.nytherapyguide.com and www.privatepracticeopportunitiesandguidance.com.

Iris’ goal is to help therapists set up fiscally and legally sound practices, as well as offer actionable ideas on how best to strategically grow and eventually sell private practices.

To date she has worked with over 470 therapists and helped bring over two dozen practice sales to fruition.

Tomeico Faison, OT

Here’s Tomeico’s story in her own words:

From as early as I can remember, I have been enthusiastic about entrepreneurial endeavors. Born to teenage parents, who later divorced, I saw entrepreneurship as a way to help out the family financially in middle school. My first business was a tutoring and babysitting business that became so lucrative that my family decided to take over it.

As an adult, my love for entrepreneurship continued to grow. In spite of the vocation I chose, I was always led back to entrepreneurship.  I have been an occupational therapist since 2001, helping others participate in meaningful daily occupations in spite of disability status. After working two years as an employee in a psychiatric hospital, I started Therapeutic Solutions, an occupational therapy business. My business was created for two reasons: I saw a need for occupational therapy consultative services for older persons with developmental disabilities and I needed a flexible schedule due to having a premature infant.

Therapeutic Solutions has now been in business for over 15 years offering innovative specialty services to include but not limited to, low vision rehab, mental health recovery services, home care services, domestic violence counseling and group home consultation. Therapeutic Solutions has grown the low vision division of the business from scratch with one referring provider in 2012 to currently over 90 referring eye doctors across the state, with six therapists providing in home low vision rehab services. The low vision division is still expanding with a mission to be  a globally recognized leader with a model that can be easily replicated to serve this underserved population.

Although Therapeutic Solutions has successfully developed work in niche specialized markets, navigating the business systems of these markets has not always been easy. Therefore, I am a dedicated educator and advocate for the success of current and aspiring entrepreneurs in health and human service fields who want to serve underserved populations. I understand the frustrations that many therapists have in some traditional settings that focus on productivity and profit more than service and improving quality of life which results in less than optimal practice. I also believe that God has gifted me in the area of entrepreneurship in order to help create businesses with higher ethical standards.

As a business consultant and coach, my goal is to partner, guide and support health and human service entrepreneurs so that they can freely provide quality services in their dream businesses while still making a profit—it is possible. It is my hope that more therapists and health care providers will start more businesses that focus on serving and meeting unmet needs and I am available to help make that happen!

Learn more about Faison Consulting

Books by Tomeico

Daphne Scott, PT

I am a huge fan of Daphne’s weekly email. Daphne is a physical therapist and leadership coach. Her focus is on coaching and developing leadership skills, rather than walking you through the nitty gritty of setting up a business. While she tends to work with larger organizations anyone taking on a leadership role at any level is wise to pay attention to the “soft” leadership skills she teaches about.

Vist her website

Take her course, Waking up a Leader

Jena Casbon, SLP- The Independent Clinician

Since 2008, Jena has helped OTs, SLPs, and PTs who are looking for more flexibility, clinical freedom, and higher income start their own private practices, step-by-step.

For OTs who are looking to start their own private practice (either full-time or "on the side"), Jena offers free and paid resources to help walk clinicians through the entire process.

Jena's available resources:

The Private Practice Mini Course: This FREE course is great for those just starting to explore private practice

The Guide to Private Patients: This is ideal for beginners who need help with setting up their practice and getting their first clients

The Guide to Creating a Web Presence for Your Private Practice:  This is ideal for those looking to grow the online presence of an existing practice

The Guide to Setting Your Hourly Rate: We all struggle with setting rates, and this is so helpful––plus, it comes with a rate-setting calculator

Aaron LeBauer, PT

Aaron LeBauer runs his own successful cash-based practice and helps physical therapists and occupational therapists do the same. 

In addition to his podcast, mentioned above, he has a course to walk therapists step by step through the process. 

Here's what Aaron has to say about his course: The CashPT Blueprint is the premier online training program for passionate occupational therapists who want to achieve success in the cash-based therapy model.

(Disclaimer: I have an affiliate relationship with Aaron for this course.)

Paul Potter, PT

Paul helps therapists gain professional and personal freedom while doing the work they love. On his website, paulpotterpt.com you will find: 

Inspiration and practical guidance on creating a lifestyle practice through content, courses, and coaching.

Time-tested business wisdom combined with current trends to provide fresh perspective and resources to help therapists reinvent their professional careers.The Cash Therapy Success Course provides step by step guidance to launch a cash practice from scratch

The Cash Therapy Success Course provides step by step guidance to launch a cash practice from scratch

You can also find resources from Paul in the OT Potential Marketplace. 

Jamey Schrier, PT

Jamey teaches practice owners such as PT, OT, and Chiropractors how to automate their practices.  This allows them total freedom by having their team and the processes in place manage the day-to-day operations.  This includes an understanding of the 4 areas of business:

Marketing

Management

Money

Mindset

At his website, jameyschrier.com, you will find coaching resources, video series, and the chance to join a year-long mastermind group. 

Emmy Vadnais, OTR/L- Holistic OT

Emmy helps health care practitioners who would like to integrate holistic/integrative health care into their practices, or begin a private practice with a holistic/integrative, prevention, health and wellness approach.

She has been studying and practicing holistic/integrative health care for nearly 20 years. She has provided care in mainstream health care, holistic/integrative health care settings, and now blends the two.

Her mission is to bring holistic/integrative health care into mainstream health care. She provides coaching/mentoring, individual sessions, continuing education, and guides OTs and health care practitioners on how to integrate these approaches into their practices – whether in private practice, as coaches or consultants, or in employed positions. 

Emmy’s available resources:

Holistic Practice Group Coaching Class

Healing Connections Podcast

Coaching/Mentoring

Continuing Eduction Classes

Articles on How to Integrate Holistic/Integrative Health Care into OT Practice (free)

Scott Harmon, OT- Start a Therapy Practice

StartaTherapyPractice.com is a place for therapists already in private practice or interested in starting a practice. Scott offers a podcast, blog, ebooks, free forms, and tools. 

Social groups to for OT entrepreneurs to join

Support and camaraderie are key when you’re building a business, so here are some of the top social media groups for you to join to connect with other therapists.

Linked-In: Private Occupational Therapy Network

Facebook: Occupational Therapy Entrepreneurs (I manage this group!) and Entrepreneurship4OT

OTConnections: OTs in Private Practice

Books for OT entrepreneurs to read

Here are books that members of our OT Entrepreneurs FB group recommended as being critical to their own business journey.

Playing Big |Tara Mohr

Smartups (Street-Smart Start-ups) | Rob Ryan

Profit First | Mike Michalowicz

The E-Myth Revisited | Michael E. Gerber

The Small Patient Practice | Jeanine Gregoire Colburn, DPT

Building a StoryBrand | Donald Miller

The 4 Disciplines of Execution | McChesney, Covey and Huling

The 4 Hour Work Week | Timothy Ferriss

Eat That Frog |Brian Tracy

The Miracle Morning | Hal Elrod

Website building resources

Having a great website is a tremendous asset to your business. Building OT Potential has been life change for me and has become a business unto itself.

I’m very passionate about helping fellow OTs build their own websites either for their private practice or other entrepreneurial endeavor.

If you are are beginning the website creation process, I encourage you to check out my yearly contest, The Best OT Website. This contest was created to spotlight some of the best OT websites out there so we can all learn from them!

Website builders

WordPress

Squarespace

Wix

Practice Promotions: If building your own website gives you the willies, this company will build and run your website, and will also manage your marketing and advertising

SEO Resources

SEO stand for search engine optimization, which essentially amounts to the best practices you can use to make sure that the people looking for your services/website actually find them.

Here are two of my most trusted SEO gurus:

Neil Patel’s Guide to Local SEO

Brian Dean’s Guide to SEO

Marketing your OT business

Ugh! I’m feeling like this is my weakest section of this post.

PLEASE if you have a marketing resource you have found helpful please share it with me the comments. I have a blog post on this topic that has some basics, but I would love to include some more advanced resources in the article for you.

Discounts for OT businesses

I love tracking down discounts for you all!

If you have 5 or more therapists working for your, please remember that you can get a group discount on MedBridge through the MedBridge Enterprise plan. (I am a MedBridge affiliate.)

If you are interested in doing a demo of WebPT, you can save $100 if you end up subscribing when you use my link. (I am also a WebPT affiliate.)

Conclusion

I’m incredibly passionate about seeing fellow OTs pursue entrepreneurship. I hope this article has been helpful to you as work toward making your dreams a reality.

If I am missing any resources that have helped you grow your occupational therapy business, please let me know in the comments. I hope to keep this post up to date as new resources come out!

from OT Blog - OT Potential http://bit.ly/2n7pj6a

[house-of-mirrors]

Writing a critique of mask as if it was something I was critiquing for grad school lol. Some plot spoilers under the cut

Strengths

Always start with the positives. What did I like? I think the setting and music were immersive. Since I've been playing skies lately I was so excited any time something from it was mentioned. In games I love to make auditory connections, and I was excited that the audio for the sunlight in the parliament ending matches the intro of The Forge Timespace track on the skies OST! And on the topic of audio, of course the curator cries from skies. Hello Veils

There were a few parts, especially in a certain ending, where the writing really shone through. There are genuinely funny and compelling moments which has always been a strength of the devs, that dark comedy tone. My most recent playthrough, I basically just hooked up with monsters and that was the most fun I've had in the game.

Buckle your seat belt. Now onto:

Weaknesses

We've already discussed pacing to hell and back so I'm gonna skip that. Besides pacing, the biggest flaw in MOTR is that the game has identity issues. It doesn't know what it is or what it's trying to be. Mask fails as a dating sim, as a mystery game, and as a visual novel because it's trying to be everything at once and thus failing to be anything. If I played it like a dating sim, well. Pressing flirt repeatedly and seeing some of the same scenes play out every time you seduce a character with little new text doesn't immerse the player. If I played it like a mystery game, the pacing is prohibitive when it comes to solving it. I haven't actually played other visual novels so don't have a reference for that but I don't think they are as rushed as this

Either you can go into a little bit of detail about a lot of things, you can go into a lot of detail about a few things, or you widen the parameters so you can go into more detail about more things. Within the framework mask exists in (and I don't thing slowing the pacing will fix this beyond making it easier to finish some quests), the scope is too small to do justice to the scale of content they're trying to convey. I'd tell the author they had too much going on at once and to narrow their focus. Decide which characters should be focused on and which aren't so necessary. Some of them definitely were included in a way that felt last minute just to get a reaction from fans, and not because they had something to offer the narrative. Those characters either needed a plot with more depth or weren't necessary.

Mechanics

Mechanically speaking, I... didn't see a point to most of the new features. I was never in a situation where I needed certain clothes to progress, which made collecting them kinda pointless. You can complete any number of different playthroughs without touching story crafting at all. I got the feeling from marketing that story crafting would be used to help matchmake with other characters, but it very much does not do that unless I'm completely missing a big chunk of the game, which is possible given how nigh impossible it is to progress.

The engine is innovative and stunning from the perspective of someone with experience in code. But then you can't DO anything in it. Sure it may be super responsive to different paths, but if the variables change, the dialogue/written consequences don't.

Diversity and Inclusion

Finally, these notes. It's seldom comfortable to bring it up but it's important. I almost called this nitpicking compared to everything else but no, it's not! These issues are just as important and deserve to take up space. I see fellow players sort of expressing "yeah I didn't expect them to improve these areas" but that still doesn't minimize the issue.

I'm just puzzled. They took effort to research writing Jewish and Sikh NPCs but then go and keep assuming the player is Anglican. (In an ending after failing in the trial, I got a random bit mentioning how they used to hang Catholic dissenters and I was like... was that really necessary.) Idk like, especially with all the research they did you figure something would have changed, that someone somewhere would have pointed it out

The line saying the player spoke the Queen's English REALLY bugged me. First of all I have a working class accent, and I'm American not British, but accent is still a touchy topic and was even more significant in the 1860s than it is now. Same point as above, there are a lot of characters that do not have high British accents. Phoebe, Archie, Ferret, Ivy. Why assume with the player? The thing is they already have a mechanic in place with the backstories! Sure, a society player would speak Queens English but a dockworker would not! Go by that!

And body diversity. Can we please get more characters that aren't the same thin body type. It being the Age of Malnutrition isn't an excuse. (To get specific. You Know Who was from Mesopotamia where the culture had beards. The one option in late railway uses the silhouette from the cheery man which has a beard so I had misplaced hope but alas)

Summary

While the game posed tidbits of interesting horror lore, the classic dark comedy tone, and spicy monsters (before the encounters became repetitive, that is), Mask fell flat in so many ways. I had an ending after seducing Milton where he remarked that the player rarely talks about themself and I laughed because yeah, that's how the game was designed. The player has no opportunity to gain a personality through flashbacks or dialogue choices. The NPCs are stiff and very rarely have unique reactions to your character. Conversation changes topic with no clear thread or motivation.

I'm honestly flummoxed how this got through development with these glaring problems. Everyone in the playerbase noticed them right away. Ugh. Little is more frustrating than things that had so much potential that isn't realized.

It felt like a long ES, with all the pros and cons of an ES lol. Certain paths blow your mind and you might walk into hot moments with ur favs. But then no time to realize why you should care about characters, story that abruptly ends, new mechanic that is shiny and interesting but can only carry it so far, yada yada yada

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Don't compete with the king of nightmares. He is powerful and immortal, he will come at midnight and... and will criticize your tea. The first meeting in MotR would probably be something like: Horatia: (in her usual motherly tone) "Young man..." The not-yet-Manager: (holding back laughter) "Please go on"

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

about your last post: i think alot of the players of the fl community just have a very strong stereotype of what people of certain ethnicities might look like, and when a character of that race, ethnicity, or religion doesn't look like their idea of what they envisioned, they ignore it or claim it as a form of racism (see also: discussions surrounding may from motr)

This is a little different, because almost none of the hate that I've seen was towards the character design – except for May, YES, and for some reason Griz (whose more modern not-Victorian-lady style is directly relevant to her story and personality, not developers’ oversight of anachronisms! Just why there is this unexplicable malicious urge to make them look careless or ill-intentioned when they’re one of so very few game studios who are honestly striving to be the opposite?..)

It’s usually about the plot and worldbuilding, and it’s repeatedly getting twisted out of context. For example, FL's and MotR's wonderful cultural and spiritual diversity is completely ignored in arguments regarding it. Evil writers had the audacity to acknowledge the existence of just one more religion, and suddenly nothing else matters, now it's bad by default (exactly just like other games’ players always get mad at extra romance options because "how dare you imply that my character may be queer", hello BG3). Such intolerance to any mention of a particular group/identity definitely isn't what I expected from the fanbase of a setting that is known for its inclusivity, that’s why it really baffled and saddened me.

So I’m not surprised anymore that so much more gets deliberately skewed or ignored too. As always, people don't want to give evidence-based criticism and fair analysis; they simply want to justify their spite.

I wish just for once fandoms would be dedicated to actually loving and enjoying something together instead of endless hostility towards each other and the authors and even the canon itself...

[irrigos]

Anyone who reads something opinionated about something relatively minor and gets in a massive huff about it and desperately tries to change your opinion on it is a bit strange. Honestly, I might personally disagree with you about some points about motr but you're more than entitled to have those opinions.

yeahhh it is always funny when someone is mad about what is essentially a question of taste and personal preference. a while ago i left a review for Sunless Skies saying that i liked it better than Sunless Sea (because i do!! i like to be a humble merchant going from port to port, and i like the mechanics in SSkies where you can buy goods for cheap and sell them for a lot) and someone tried to argue with me that no, SSea is better for that. like.... okay? damn, you've convinced me, i guess i actually prefer sunless sea now...

silly behavior

tbh i know there IS a large contingent of players who really liked motr, and who either disagree with my criticisms or at least disagree that theyre that big of a deal, and thats fine. i wish i didnt have the criticisms i have!!! i wish i liked the game!!!! but ah well. so it goes

[awordbroken]

MotR spoilers for parliament ENDING

it was actually girlboss when Mr Fires broke through the roof of the Neath, bathing London in lethal sunlight. it was ok that it did that and it shouldn't be criticized for it. god forbid women do anything.

[irrigos]

ive managed to spin my fallen london hyperfixation into reading two books.... let's see if i can do a third!! im thinking Invisible Cities is next, although im open to suggestions, especially since some of the books on the MotR bibliography looked pretty neat 👀

i didn't think me using possible influences to do literary criticism on fl would be of interest to anyone other than me and maybe my friends, but to my surprise, a lot of people seemed to like the golems post!!! idk is there anything in particular yall are interested in?