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Role: Occupational Therapist

Job Type 

Part-Time or Full-Time.  Work days and hours flexible to meet the needs of the applicant and the team.

Highlights of working with us

1. Our values – compassion, respect, holism, development, adaptability individualised and teamwork. This means working as a team, being adaptable and recognizing that every client and person is different is at the core of everything we do.

2. A strong parent coaching model – it is all about supporting the parents after all.

3. Staff development of a $2000 professional development budget per year.

4. Unlimited internal professional development (this should be a given! But we know it isn’t always!!).

Our unique co-therapy model means you’re never left without a team of support staff to assist in service delivery.

About Us

We are a vibrant and forward-thinking paediatric clinic, committed to providing exceptional care through a play-based bottom-up developmental approach.  Our team is a mix of dedicated occupational therapists, allied health assistants and administration staff who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of the children we serve.  Our values are compassion, teamwork, holism, development, adaptability, individualised and respect. 

Our therapy approach is based on the Canadian Occupational Therapy Inter-relational Practice Process framework.  This framework emphasizes the collaborative and individualized approach to working with each client and their families based on their goals, context and needs.  The process highlights that each client’s occupational therapy journey is unique and that some clients will require a quick time limited intervention while others will need to be reviewed regularly with the therapy plan and end date adjusted based on their needs.

We implement this framework and play-based approach through our clinic spaces that have been designed to embed sensory integration and play as the foundation of all therapy sessions.  All therapy rooms can provide gross motor, fine motor, sensory processing and play approaches that can be adapted to how each child presents on the day.  We employ a strong parent coaching model based on Occupational Performance Coaching by the University of Otago.  This empowers parents to create their own strategies that are in line with their unique context, values, client’s needs, and whole family needs.

As a team we value development by hosting students each term and have strong links with the University of Canberra.  Staff development is supported via a $2000 professional development budget per year, internal professional development sessions, informal collaboration with team members, once a week formal supervision and engaging in external professional development through links the business has with other occupational therapy development avenues including The Kids OT Pod paediatric OT community that provide bi-monthly training webinars.

We implement a co-therapist model, meaning that each child has a primary therapist, however we’re a team that supports the client to have regular therapy by seeing each other’s clients when unplanned or planned leave occurs to the best of our ability. 

We support neurodiversity and are a neurodivergent workplace.  Applicants from neurotypical and neurodiverse occupational therapists are welcome.

The Role (We know - this is a standard description, but when you interview you’ll see how we’re different!)

We are seeking a dynamic and adaptable Occupational Therapist to join our team.  This role requires a professional who is ready to throw the therapy plan out the window and adapt on the fly depending on the needs of the child during the session.  You will be working closely with our team of therapists and the child’s support network to provide holistic care to our clients, valuing emotional regulation as the basis of therapy.

Key Responsibilities (This is more about YOU than us.)

1. You love fun! You know that play is the way children learn and to take the client and family through their unique journey. 

2. You are ready to adapt the session to meet the needs of the child as they are each session while still using strategies and principles from the child’s assessment results, best practice evidence and your knowledge of the individual child’s needs.

3. Build capacity of the parents, teachers and other important adults in the child’s life using an occupational coaching model, education and a holistic approach.

4. Participate in supporting your teammates through shared wins, challenges and progress – say a team member is away and you need to help by seeing a client or a team member asks for help working with a client.  You value helping the team and being helped in return.

5. Innovative in your practice, learning new skills and engaging in development.  Have a strong desire to learn, push your own comfort zones and are excited to build new skillsets. 

6. Value supporting your teammates by sharing your knowledge after attending any PD event funded by Together OT.

7. Value neurodiversity and all the rewards and challenges it brings to a workplace and clients’ journeys.  

8. Liaise with the Director to ensure you have a complete understanding of our systems and processes that are all designed to implement the COTIPP framework and the Together OT values.

9. A joy in upskilling and developing future OTs and Allied Health Assistants by supporting 1 student or more per year.

10. For full time therapists have 25 client contact hours per week on average (we’re human and we’re going to have busier weeks and quieter weeks.)  The 25 client contact hours include a mixture of face-to-face and non-face to face contact hours.

11. Work with a close team, characterized by mutual respect, professionalism and upholding the team values.

About The Team (Who are these people you would be working with?)

1. Teamwork: We are a team first and foremost.  We talk to each other about our day, share ideas & knowledge and are able to adapt our schedule to help out a teammate.

2. Adaptability: We are a team that is flexible and adjusts the therapy plan in real-time to meet the changing needs of the child.

3. Health: We understand that there are some days that you are just going to need a slow day or a day off.  Our co-therapist model allows for staff to take a day for R & R or to focus on reports while the children are still supported.

4. Fun: We bring a sense of fun and creativity to our work, engaging children in enjoyable and therapeutic activities.  There are no silly ideas when working with children.

5. Respect: We demonstrate respect for all individuals and all staff members, and uphold our commitment to providing inclusive and respectful care to clients and staff.

6. Holism: We understand the importance of holistic care and are committed to addressing the comprehensive needs of our clients.

7. Emotional Regulation: We value emotional regulation as the basis of therapy and incorporate this into our practice.

Please don’t apply if you:    

• Wish to come in, see your clients and go home without helping your teammates,

• Want to manage your own diary and times for outside work appointments without any thought to your teammates,

• Don’t want to engage in supervision,

• Are driven by billable hours rather than client outcomes,

• Prefer more school visits over clinic sessions,

• Spend more time sitting with the client at a desk than playing on the floor,

• Want a “one size fits all” approach with block therapy and/or for assessment & therapy models for every client,

• Want a white sterile “professional” therapy clinic setting,

If this is you, I’m afraid this is not the workplace for you. We wish you all the best with your career. 😊

Qualifications (the bit we know you have down pat…)

1. Occupational Therapy degree

2. AHPRA registered

3. Right to work in Australia

4. Experience in a paediatric setting is desirable but not essential – some of our most adaptable and supportive staff members came from rehabilitation, acute and mental health backgrounds.

5. Current Working with Children check or willingness to get one.

6. Current Working with Vulnerable People card or willingness to get one.

7. Driver’s licence is highly desirable – there will be school observation visits once a term to liaise with the teachers.