Spotlight: Laura O’Brien, OTR/L

Laura O’Brien is a private pediatric occupational therapist in Des Plaines, IL with over thirty years of experience and expertise in sensory integration, children’s yoga, ASD, and social/emotional needs. She identifies climate change as one of the most pressing threats to children’s occupational well-being, impacting how they play and what they feel. With a lifelong love of nature, habit of reducing waste, and creative mindset, Laura has seamlessly woven climate consciousness into her practice through innovative sourcing of equipment and the use of a local public park.

Since the early stages of her career, Laura has reused and made her own therapy equipment. In a school setting, she made fine motor supply kits out of unused items, including donated tennis balls from a local racquet club. She drew faces and cut lines for mouths to turn tennis balls into hand strengthening tools. Kids would squeeze the balls to open the mouths and feed them pretend cookies. At another setting, a clinic for children with cerebral palsy, Laura collaborated with the site’s physical therapist and a local woodworker to create positioning supports out of planks of wood, which had been left in a supply closet. Now, at her own clinic, Laura utilizes toys donated by her neighbors or from her own children’s upbringing in addition to her sustainably made equipment. She shares recommendations for parents to create their own equipment at home as well. One of her favorite examples is using a cardboard tube from aluminum foil and taping on a string with a heavy item attached, such as a shoe. This tool is used by rotating the tube to wrap the string, pulling the heavy item up, to strengthen the client’s fine motor abilities. Laura recognizes the high environmental cost of producing items, and does not only reduce emissions from production but prevents functional items from unnecessarily entering the waste stream.

Further exemplifying her creativity, Laura began conducting therapy sessions at local parks during the COVID-19 pandemic. She facilitated occupational therapy sessions standing outside while the client stayed inside a thermal pod tent. Seeing the benefit of outdoor therapy sessions, Laura continues to offer her services at the public park. Not only do these sessions offer a change of scenery, but they also reduce service-related emissions and encourage meaningful relationships with nature. Laura notes the benefit of engaging in occupations in their natural contexts, such as climbing on a playground or playing baseball with other kids at the park. Some kids blossom in these outdoor sessions, though Laura recognizes that the expansive, unstructured space is not best for all children and allows families to choose their therapy setting. This summer, outdoor sessions were often moved inside due to poor air quality from the Canadian wildfires. Laura shared how challenging it was to explain these climate-related threats to her clients without sparking fear or worry. At the same time, she knows the climate will continue to impact the occupations of her clients, many of whom already express eco-anxiety. She provides a space for them to acknowledge their emotions and concerns about the climate, demonstrating another crucial aspect of her climate-conscious practice.

Laura’s efforts to reduce emissions and promote care for the environment are essential for the occupational therapy profession as climate change continues to threaten the occupations, health, and well-being of children. For fellow practitioners interested in implementing their own climate consciousness into practice, she recommends exercising the creativity that is a hallmark of an OT to reuse or create their own equipment and conduct therapy outside. Lastly, she, like many other OTEA members, emphasizes the importance of civic engagement to promote the widespread change needed to protect children today and for generations to come. To learn more about Laura and her private practice, you can visit her website at https://www.otlaura.com/.

Spotlight written by Madelyn Yoo, OTS