Identity
OT
Purpose
JOIN THE FREE CONVERSATION
Wednesday 14 May 9:00 AM AEST (Sydney)
Tuesday 13 May 7:00 PM EDT (New York / Toronto)
Tuesday 13 May 4:00 PM PDT (Los Angeles / Vancouver)
Wednesday 14 May 12:00 AM BST (London)
Wednesday 14 May 1:00 AM CEST (Paris / Berlin / Rome)
Wednesday 14 May 11:00 AM NZST (Auckland)
ONLINE - LIVE - FREE
We’re starting a conversation. Not a quick fix. Not a neat rebrand. A reckoning. A remembering.
This is for you if:
- If you’re constantly shrinking your OT language just to fit in.
- If you’re questioning your place in the profession you once loved.
- If you want to reconnect with the real heartbeat of occupational therapy.
- If you know there’s more to OT than what the system allows you to practice.
- If you’re still searching for where your true OT identity fits in today’s world.
FEATURING OT LEADERS:
This is a live, honest and deeply reflective conversation between two of the profession’s most respected voices: Emeritus Professor Gail Whiteford and Professor Elizabeth Townsend.
Welcome to:
The Identity We Weave
There’s a growing murmur across the OT world.
Whispers in direct messages, reflections in podcasts, vulnerable burnout posts across social media.
Occupational therapists are feeling the disconnection.
From their purpose.
From their professional identity.
From the version of OT they envisaged – and the one they’re now expected to practice.
Many are tired of explaining what we do. Over and over again.
Tired of shrinking our language just to make it more palatable.
Tired of trying to fit our work into systems that don’t value what we value.
So we’re starting a conversation.
One that dares to ask:
How do we stay true to the soul of OT?
How do we reclaim the language of occupation?
And how do we shape the future of our profession?
Certificate
A personalised certificate of attendance will be provided by The OT Lifestyle Movement following the live event.
We are not here to fit into a system.
We are here to weave meaning back into life.
JOIN THE FREE CONVERSATION
Wednesday 14 May 9:00 AM AEST (Sydney)
Tuesday 13 May 7:00 PM EDT (New York / Toronto)
Tuesday 13 May 4:00 PM PDT (Los Angeles / Vancouver)
Wednesday 14 May 12:00 AM BST (London)
Wednesday 14 May 1:00 AM CEST (Paris / Berlin / Rome)
Wednesday 14 May 11:00 AM NZST (Auckland)
Emeritus Professor Gail Whiteford
Emeritus Professor Whiteford has been an active contributor to occupational therapy and occupational science for three decades. She has served in clinical, managerial, research and consulting roles including for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia. Her contribution to the profession has been recognised through awards from international bodies including the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, the Moroccan Occupational Therapy Association and Occupational Therapy Australia. She has given keynote addresses in 13 countries, including the prestigious Zemke Lecture in the USA in 2022. She was made an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Occupational Therapy Research Academy in 2017 and has an extensive publication track record.
Professionally, Gail has held a number of senior academic, executive and conjoint appointments in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and served as Australia’s first Pro Vice Chancellor of Social Inclusion. She was the Strategic Professor and Conjoint Chair of Allied Health and Community Wellbeing and was appointed by the NSW Minister of Health to a regional health district board with oversight of 7 hospitals. She developed and lead the World Federation of Occupational Therapists Occupational Narratives Data Base project and the Doing Our Best: Individual and Community Responses to Challenging Times national book for OT Australia. Gail was honoured with the Order of Australia in 2023.
Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Townsend
Occupational therapy has given Liz a globally-minded career reaching across and beyond Canada. After starting in occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, she expanded her thinking through adult education at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish and Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. As one of four Founding Faculty, she became the 2nd Director for Dalhousie's School of Occupational Therapy. On ‘retirement’ from Dalhousie as Professor Emerita, she became Adjunct Professor and Graduate Coordinator for the Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island (PEI), enjoying rural life on a PEI farm now protected by Liz & her husband Harry/Harold Robertson with a legal covenant to restrict development. Innovative Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy publications on Enabling Occupation (1983-2013) prompted dialogues worldwide on core identity and the diversity of occupational therapy. Tremendous collaborations for her have been in early occupational science, occupational justice, and human rights with Drs. Ann Wilcock, Gail Whiteford, and Claire Hocking.
https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/faculty-health-professions/occupational-therapy/Townsend%20CV%20February%202017.pdf.
Where to go from here? Who knows and does not know about occupational therapy and occupational science and why does this matter? She is interested to discuss the future of occupational therapy and occupational science (see for instance her 2014 Ruth Zemke Lecture on Critical Occupational Literacy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2015.1071691)
We’re not here to neatly package what we do.
We’re here to do what matters.
Thread by thread.
Story by story.
Occupation by occupation.
It can feel hard to explain our work.
Language shrinks it.
Systems flatten it.
But occupational therapy has always been about the weaving – of meaning, identity, resilience and life itself.
Even when the words fall short.
Even when the systems pull at the threads.
Even when the weave feels messy.
Unfinished.
And unseen.
We keep weaving.
Something that holds.
Something that heals.
Something that matters.
Because underneath it all, there is a deep knowing.
A knowing of who we are.
Of why we’re here.
A knowing that no system, no misunderstanding, no fleeting definition can take away.
And maybe that’s enough to keep going.
To keep weaving a future that feels more true.
More seen.
More whole.
More alive.
More us.
