John (Dezhong) Li, MOT’20
John (Dezhong) Li, MOT’20 has had a busy few years: completing his high school diploma, becoming a rehabilitation assistant, all the while taking care of his family and young children. Learn about how he hopes to improve the physical and psychological health in his future patients as a new Master of Occupational Therapy graduate.
What drew you to pursuing a Master of Occupational Therapy (OT) degree at UBC?
I had been working in developing and implementing mental health promotion programs to individuals, community groups, and organizations for over 5 years before I moved to Canada as a Federal Skilled Worker. I was really eager to help clients work toward maintenance and enhancement of psychological and social functioning. Pursuing a career as an occupational therapist was an important step for me to help individuals live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
The Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) Program is designed to meet or exceed provincial and national standards of practice; therefore, I believed it would help me understand the Canadian occupational therapy profession and achieve my career goals.
What is one thing that you are taking with you from your experience in the MOT program?
In an introductory workshop at the beginning of the MOT program, Dr. Susan Forwell, professor and head of UBC’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, shared her working experience with a client, who was a parachute jumper and sustained spinal cord injury. The client was so depressed that he declined to participate in almost all occupational therapy treatments. He stated the only thing he wanted to do was parachute jump. Dr. Forwell respected his goals and made an intervention plan to facilitate the realization of his dream. Through the discussion of this case along with the whole learning journey of MOT program, I was deeply impressed by the meaningfulness of occupations in human life and the therapeutic potential of occupations on mental and physical health.
What is one piece of advice you have for students entering the MOT program?
Trust yourself in the vision of possibilities you can create. You are on the journey of learning how to promote change and enable occupations. You are working with a team of OTs who aim to inspire confidence, hope, and belief in the potential for personal and social transformation.
As you look ahead, what (or who) inspires you?
There are so many people and things that inspire me to move forward. If I have to pick only one, it is the book, Enabling Occupation II: Advancing an Occupational Therapy Vision for Health, Well-being, and Justice through Occupation (Townsend & Polatajko, 2013). It helps me understand the core domain of concern, core competency, and the practice process of occupational therapy. It helps me think holistically about person, occupations, and environment; therefore, we, as occupational therapists, not only promote personal health through enabling occupations, but also promote social justice for fair and equitable opportunities in occupations.
What do you hope will change as a result of COVID-19?
COVID-19 has changed many aspects of people’s life. We started working at home, online learning platform, telemedicine, virtual graduation ceremony, window visit for long term care home, increased unemployment benefits and so forth. However, we still need to increase awareness of negative effects of social isolation and provide social and technological changes to mitigate these effects.
Name one thing on your bucket list. Have you completed it?
In the past few years, I completed my high school diploma, finished the rehabilitation assistant (RA) program, worked as an RA while I was taking the MOT program, and looked after my family and young children. I really want to have some time to play tennis again. I am pretty sure I will complete it soon after I start my desired career.
View more profiles of MOT alumni:
Tessa Goldberger, BKin’18, MOT’20
Listening to participants’ experiences at the Physical Activity Research Center inspired Tessa Goldberger, BKin’18, MOT’20 to pursue a career in occupational therapy. In her profile, Tessa shares how active listening continues to play a key role as she enters her new career and her advice for students entering the UBC Master of Occupational Therapy program.
What drew you to pursuing a Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) degree at UBC?
My initial drive to pursue a Master of Occupational Therapy (OT) degree at UBC stemmed from my role as a supervisor in the Physical Activity Research Center (PARC) which is located in the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD). Throughout my undergraduate degree in Kinesiology at UBC, I always knew that I would complete further education in a field which focuses on enhancing an individual’s physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. While working at PARC, many of the participants generously shared their experiences of working with an occupational therapist and how OT services had improved their ability to participate in daily occupations, increased their overall independence, and provided them with a sense of hope for the future. It became very evident that this career path encompasses a holistic and client-centered approach in order to enable individuals to engage in meaningful occupations and participate in their community. From this realization, I knew that OT was for me. I can confidentially state that I have gained a tremendous amount of invaluable knowledge and applicable skills over the past two years and I am proud to have developed these skills in a supportive learning environment at UBC.
What is one thing that you are taking with you from your experience in the MOT program?
One thing that I will take with me from my experience in the MOT program and throughout my fieldwork placements is the power of active listening. I know that this may sound like a simple skill that does not require a master’s degree to learn, however, practicing and developing this skill throughout this program has deeply enhanced my ability to be successful and effective in this role. To be able to actively listen to a client and their thoughts, beliefs, and concerns is the foundation for building a strong rapport and creating a positive and intentional impact on their life. It can often be as simple as a client wanting to be heard in a safe and supportive environment. Active listening and listening with intention have allowed myself to pick up on small nuances in conversation and fully understand the barriers and limitations at hand. It is easy to say that we are listening when we are working in a fast pace environment which involves many systemic and job-related demands, however, the difference of providing good treatment and exceptional treatment is the ability to actively listen in the moment and allow the client to feel heard.
What is one piece of advice you have for students entering the MOT program?
One piece of advice that I have for students who are entering the MOT program is to ensure to protect time for personal self-care and meaningful occupations. This program is fast paced and requires students to understand and absorb high volumes of information in a short amount of time. It can be easy to get consumed in the process and forget about your own needs. I would advise students who are entering the MOT program at UBC to ensure that they set aside time each week to complete their own leisure and self-care activities as well as to stay connected to their social supports. It is essential to take care of our own mental, physical, and emotional health and well-being in order to be able to fully show up for others and maintain a sense of balance.
As you look ahead, what (or who) inspires you?
I am consistently inspired by the clients that I have the privilege to work with each week. These individuals are incredibly resilient aside from the challenges and barriers that they face on a daily basis. Witnessing their resilience and desire to continue to move forward in life motivates myself to become a better occupational therapist and enhance my professional skills.
What do you hope will change as a result of COVID-19?
I hope that understanding the importance of connection and engaging in meaningful occupations will have a lasting impact as a result of COVID-19. This pandemic has allowed many of us to rely on both internal and external resources in order to cope in this difficult time. Many of these resources include our social supports as well as meaningful occupations which provide us with a sense of ease and combat feelings of loneliness and isolation. Engaging in meaningful occupations whether that includes cooking, going outside, or learning a new skill, are powerful protective mechanisms which allow us to maintain a sense equilibrium in our daily lives. I hope that these meaningful occupations will continue to be practiced and prioritized.
Name one thing on your bucket list. Have you completed it?
One thing on my bucket list that I hope to complete in the future is to create an adapted fitness class. Having been a spin instructor throughout my undergraduate and master’s degree at UBC, I became aware of the multiple social and environmental barriers which limit accessibility and inclusion throughout the fitness industry. I want to bridge this gap by creating a fitness class which can be accessible in any environment for any and all levels of abilities. Stay tuned!
View more profiles of MOT alumni:
Kasia Anza-Burgess, MPT’20
At the age of 34, Kasia Anza-Burgess, MPT’20 felt unfulfilled in her career in archaeology and sought a big change to fix her longing to help people. Read about her story on overcoming self-doubt and the unexpected connection between archaeology and physical therapy.
What drew you to pursuing a Master of Physical Therapy (MPT) degree at UBC?
I think that many of us in the healthcare field are driven by a common desire to help people. For me, I always felt the most fulfilled when I was able to contribute to the improvement of people’s lives. However, at the age of 34, I found myself frustrated by how little I was contributing towards my goal of helping people. I knew that in order to find fulfillment, I had to gamble and make a “late in life” career change. That was the point at which I decided to take some additional courses and apply for the MPT program at UBC. Although I had always wanted to be a physiotherapist, I didn’t believe that I had what it takes to get in to the highly competitive MPT program when I was younger. I chose to apply to UBC not only because of the exceptional program, but also because I believed that UBC would value both my life experience and my diverse academic background.
What is one thing that you are taking with you from your experience in the MPT program?
Go for it, whatever it is. Life is short and there is no challenge that you can’t tackle. This program taught me to dive in, try your best, don’t be afraid of hard work, make mistakes, and most importantly, learn from all of it. Before even coming into the program I had made so many excuses for myself as to why I might fail: I came from a different academic background than everyone else, I’m too old to be a student, I have too many responsibilities, etc. I learned quickly that none of these things mattered. These obstacles that I had imagined were not insurmountable and were sometimes even an advantage!
What is one piece of advice you have for students entering the MPT program?
When I was first applying to the MPT program, someone gave me a piece of advice that really stuck with me. They told me not to worry about what everyone else is doing. You will see people staying at school until all hours studying, your classmates will tell you how they didn’t sleep for days before exams, everyone will be stressed – don’t let that get to you. Trust that you are doing your best, and that you know yourself well enough to know which strategies work for you. You will make it through the program in your own way, as we all do.
Having previously studied and received a Masters in Archaeology, do you feel that there is a connection between your two degrees? Did your previous education affect your decision in pursuing your MPT?
It’s funny, whenever I tell someone that my previous degree was in archaeology it never fails to take them by surprise. To be honest, I really enjoy seeing people’s reactions! The two degrees are more connected than you might think, they just look at different aspects of us as humans. My interests in archaeology were physical anthropology and ancient DNA research. Quite a bit of my time was spent learning about human osteology and genetics. Having a strong foundation in skeletal anatomy and human biology was certainly advantageous coming in to the MPT program. My previous education did impact my decision to pursue an MPT in that I wanted to make a shift from studying people’s past to people in the present!
As you look ahead, what (or who) inspires you?
There are so many people and things to be inspired by, especially right now. I’m inspired by every person dealing with the unique challenges presented to them by the COVID-19 pandemic in the best way they can. I’m especially inspired by all the healthcare workers that are going into increasingly high risk, high stress environments every day to care for patients. On a personal level, I would be remiss not to also mention my family, most of all my wife, who are my greatest inspiration and the driving force in my life.
What do you hope will change as a result of COVID-19?
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to re-examine ourselves in every sense. For me, some of the biggest eye-openers from the pandemic have been just how important healthcare and essential services are, and the disproportionate way in which vulnerable populations have been affected. What I take from this, and what I hope we can all remember going forward, is that unity is critical. Over the course of the pandemic, we have all, as members of a society, learned to work together towards a common goal more than we have ever had to before in order to protect those most vulnerable, and to prevent the healthcare system from being overloaded. I hope that this collective experience fosters a shift in our attitude toward improved collaboration and cooperation in the future.
Name one thing on your bucket list. Have you completed it?
Bucket lists are a tricky thing, I tend to find that the items on my bucket list are continually changing! That being said, getting an MPT degree/becoming a physiotherapist has been a dream of mine for a long, long time. One that I previously didn’t think I’d ever be capable of achieving. If anything, I think what I have ticked off my bucket list is “find the confidence to try something (seemingly) impossible.”