F.A.Q
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What does an independent Occupational Therapist (OT) do?
Occupational therapists work across all areas and across the lifespan, so you may see them providing aids to the elderly, helping children with handwriting, teaching regulation skills in mental health, or supporting engagement in self-care within a prison setting. They support people to live meaningful and fulfilling lives by helping them overcome challenges that affect their ability to do everyday activities—also known as "occupations." Because their range of work is so broad, it can be difficult to imagine what an occupational therapist could do for you.
When considering mental health, neurodiversity, and sensory processing, OT's will often:
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Work with people experiencing mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, or stress. They help individuals develop coping strategies, build routines, manage emotions, and re-engage in daily life, whether that’s returning to work, socialising, or self-care tasks. Therapy is often strengths-based and focused on what matters most to the individual.
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Support neurodivergent individuals by providing assessments and reports, helping them navigate daily life in a way that works for their unique brain and body. This might include building executive functioning skills (like organisation or time management), supporting sensory needs, promoting self-advocacy, awareness and compassion. It may also involve adapting environments for comfort and success. This might include visiting workplaces, homes and universities to assess environmental suitability and the need for reasonable adjustments.
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OTs help identify how sensory input affects regulation, behaviour, and participation. Therapy may focus on understanding sensory preferences, creating supportive routines, and developing strategies for managing sensory overload or seeking needed input. The goal is to help people feel safe, regulated, and confident in their environments.
What are the benefits of an OT assessment?
Some of the many benefits of an OT assessment include:
Personalised Insight: It helps identify strengths and challenges in areas such as self-care, school, work, play, social participation, and sensory processing.
Holistic Understanding: OTs consider the whole person, including their routines, environment, goals, and how different factors (like mental health or sensory needs) impact day-to-day functioning. This can be useful for accessing reasonable adjustments and financial support.
Practical Recommendations: You’ll receive tailored strategies, tools, and environmental modifications to support well-being and participation.
Clear Next Steps: An assessment often guides therapy goals, referrals (if needed), and collaborative planning with families, schools, or other professionals, including demonstrating the need for reasonable adjustments.
Whether you're seeking support for yourself or someone else, an OT assessment can be a powerful first step toward greater independence, confidence, and quality of life.
Please note: These assessments are clinically robust, and you are welcome to use them for any purpose; however, they are not worded specifically* for provision within an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) or Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) tribunal in England. Nor Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), Individual Development Plan (IDP) or Educational Tribunal for Wales (ETW).
I do not offer tribunal representation or voluntary attendance as part of this service.
*Several other therapy organisations describe specialising in this area, such as Ace Children's Occupational Therapy*, Sensory foOTsteps, Achieve OT* or Sensational Kids*
*Please be aware that this information does not constitute an endorsement of their service and is merely a starting point for your own research.
What is the difference between sensory processing and sensory integration?
You might hear terms like Sensory Processing, Sensory Integration, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and Sensory Modulation.
Sensory processing refers to the way the nervous system receives, organises, and responds to sensory input from the environment and the body. This includes information from the five traditional senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) as well as from the vestibular (balance), proprioceptive (body awareness), and interoceptive (internal body cues) systems.
Sensory integration refers to the brain's ability to combine and make sense of this sensory information to produce appropriate responses. It's essential for everyday tasks like maintaining posture, focusing attention, coordinating movements, and interacting socially.
Occupational therapists can recommend sensory-informed strategies, but Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI) requires appropriately trained specialist practitioners and adherence to established fidelity principles. ASI is recognised by the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice as an evidence-based practice for autistic children and young people.
Sensory modulation is the brain’s ability to regulate and adjust responses to sensory input. It helps us stay calm, alert, and attentive. When modulation is working well, we can filter out irrelevant stimuli (like background noise) and respond appropriately to what's important. Challenges in modulation can lead to over-responsiveness (e.g., becoming overwhelmed by sound or touch) or under-responsiveness (e.g., not noticing pain or temperature).
Occupational therapists help individuals who may experience difficulties in any of these areas to build strategies for better participation in daily life. While a sensory approach can be considered by many, sensory integration requires a suitably trained, specialist occupational therapist. Look for the postgraduate CLASI or SIE logo.
What type of
services do you offer?
A price guide and services list are noted here.
The assessments noted can be used to:
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To demonstrate areas of strength and difficulty, likely neurodivergence, and suggest reasonable adjustments
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To demonstrate challenges for consideration by Personal Independence Payment ( PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) assessors
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To support a Neurodevelopmental assessment pathway referral
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To share with educational settings, such as the SENCO (England), ALNCO (Wales) and with inclusion teams in colleges or universities
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To provide accurate clinical diagnoses while remaining in line with the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 classification systems, adhering strictly to NICE Guideline NG87 protocols, and operating within my regulated professional scope of practice
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To contribute to Children's Mental Health Assessments, these can be shared with school, CAMHS, GP, Social workers or any other stakeholder
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To share with employers regarding Neurodivergent Occupational Profile and Needs Assessment, to identify support needs or introduce appropriate adjustments or prevent employee burnout and loss
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To improve your self-understanding or that of your loved one
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You may also wish to book training for your school or organisation, such as a 'lunch and learn' session.
What should I prepare for my initial consultation?
It is often useful to have an idea of what you hope to achieve through therapy.
You could try writing down a couple of ideas such as:
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The top three things you find difficult
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If you had a magic wand, what would your life look like?
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The amount of time and resources you can commit to this goal
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What you have tried previously
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You might like to keep a diary or journal for the week before your appointment
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If you have any relevant reports from other professionals, you may wish to gather and share these
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Consultations are held via G-Meet, which is similar to Zoom or Teams, and hosts video call meetings
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Information on how to join G-Meet can be accessed by viewing the following :
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Text link:
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https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9303069?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
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Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT9fhqX_IxI
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If you would like to contact us you can do so using the contact form on this site, or you email info@jbotuk.com.
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There is no facility for telephone calls.
How can you support Occupational Health teams, managers and HR?
I help HR and people teams understand how a person’s working environment and job demands affect their participation and wellbeing. This may include a workplace needs assessment, practical recommendations for reasonable adjustments, neurodivergent coaching for an employee, or consultation and training for managers.
My recommendations consider the individual, their role and the wider workplace. They can cover areas such as sensory demands, communication, executive functioning, workload and ways of working. I can work with an employee and employer together, with the employee’s agreement, to develop a clear plan for support.
If you are unsure which service would be most useful, please get in touch to discuss your needs.
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