Relationships Matter - Love Transforms Us From The Inside Out Beginning With Me - A Conversation with Kim Barthel OT Reg. (BC) and Susan Cherian-Joseph OT Reg. (Ont.) Artwork

Battles and Blessings

Battles and Blessings is a Canadian Occupational Therapy Podcast hosted by Susan Cherian-Joseph OT Reg. Ont. who is an OT and an Autism mom. The podcast has been launched to expand conversations between professionals and parents who work and support Autistics and the Neurodivergent community. At OT4Kidz, the mission is knowledge translation to professionals such as Occupational Therapists, Speech-Language Pathologists, Educators, Child and Youth Workers, and Social workers as well as parents and the kiddos themselves. This is hoped to be achieved through discussions on the latest research, evidence-based frameworks, and trauma-informed practices to ensure that our kiddos are being equipped and transformed to their perceived best version of themselves with us as the professionals being their agents of change and coaches along this journey!!

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Battles and Blessings

Relationships Matter - Love Transforms Us From The Inside Out Beginning With Me - A Conversation with Kim Barthel OT Reg. (BC) and Susan Cherian-Joseph OT Reg. (Ont.)

July 28, 2022 • Susan Cherian-Joseph • Season 1 • Episode 3

“Love is the basis of everything." - Susan Cherian-Joseph OT Reg. (Ont.)

The pandemic has taught us a lot about trauma. It used to be just a concept that we throw around here and there, a buzzword that may or may not hold weight for some people. But recent global events have left the majority of the human population with at least some form of trauma, but there are others who have experienced it more adversely than others.

And as trauma-informed clinicians, we now have an even deeper understanding of trauma. It is no longer head knowledge for some, but a sensory knowledge embodied in our very own experiences.

Kim Barthel of Relationship Matters joins us this week and talks about the three principles of trauma-sensitive:

Principle #1 - A trauma-sensitive lens allows you to do the best you can with what you have to sense into the potential of another's experience, which is different from information.

Principle #2 - Being trauma-sensitive is about creating felt safety and developing a climate of comfort and safety that allows the child or the adult to be brave.

Principle #3 - Trauma-sensitive practice involves the intent and attempts to avoid retraumatizing.

Blessed Wisdom:

The intent of attachment is to provide this container of relationship that allows the developing brain of the child to feel, experience, and know themselves through the lens of safety. - Kim Barthel
The purpose of attachment that happens in the caregiving and clinical world does not mean that we have to be perfect. It means that we show up some of the time in that way. - Kim Barthel
The body is the home of regulation. Neurobiologically, it's very difficult to shift your autonomic nervous system with your mind. - Kim Barthel
Relationships matter. And really the primary relationship that’s at the core of it all is the relationship you have with yourself. - Kim Barthel

About the guest:

Kim Barthel is a speaker, instructor, author, mentor, consultant, facilitator, and clinician with a private practice since 1980. Kim is a registered occupational therapist in British Columbia, Ontario, and the United States.

Often when there is a complexity involved, she is an advanced neurodevelopmental treatment instructor, as well as a sensory integration instructor. The hot topics she wakes up thinking about are understanding complex behavior, neurobiology, sensory processing, movement, trauma-informed practice, attachment theory, mental health, and anything that will support people in being their best selves.

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