So you use a strengths based approach in your OT work with children and families? That's great!- but have you ever properly taken a look at your OWN strength characteristics and thought about how they can help you in your work? By leaning-in to your strengths and considering how you can work on lesser strengths you can achieve great strides towards your work goals. I recently did a strengths assessment on myself using the VIA institute on character questionnaire (free, evidence-based and online- google it). This is to help me in my quest to work out how I can most effectively support as many OTs as possible to feel confident and energised in their work. (The "big picture" is that this will then flow on to our community of children who will benefit from access to amazing OTs right when they need them- Begone the endless wait lists!). This process was incredibly helpful to say the least and the ideas immediately started flowing once I decided to LEAN IN TO MY STRENGTHS. By the way- my top strength is "humility" and I've gotta say I wished it was something more "glamorous" such as "courage". But learning about "humility" has made me realise that it allows me to appreciate and champion the great achievements of others- which can only help when I am working with OTs.
