About Us

Berdy Occupational Therapy is a unique service which is available for all girls and women. We take a life course perspective, meaning that we focus on supporting positive growth, healing, and development for girls and women of any age and life stage. The physical, emotional, relational, identity, social, and life role changes associated with evolving from a girl to woman, mother, or older person can be disruptive, unsettling, and overwhelming at times. We recognise that that every girl and woman experiences challenges at different points of their lives which impact on their wellbeing and capacity to enjoy life and get through daily routines.

As a person-centred practice, we keep the client's unique needs at the forefront of everything we do. From a matricentric feminist perspective, Berdy Occupational Therapy's core value is to bring the focus back to the women or girls, including during perinatal or motherhood stages. We recognise that girls and women can feel poorly understood, embarrassed, ashamed, disempowered, or overlooked, which can lead to suffering in silence. Our services aim to support clients to feel heard, seen, and respected, so that healing, growth, and empowerment can develop and continue.

Our core values and goal-focused services aim to facilitate: 

Restoring Function and Returning to Usual Occupations and Routine: 

• Developing graded and goal-focused plans to help women regain independence and restore functional abilities after difficult life events, injury, or illness.
• Facilitating transitions back into daily routines, including work, school, and leisure activities, with a focus on women's and girl's unique needs.
• Teaching adaptive strategies to manage daily tasks independently, empowering women to regain choice and control over their lives.

Strengthening Women's Sense of Identity, Empowerment, and Self-Belief Through Occupational Choices:

• Promoting women's independence and self-esteem through goal-focused lifestyle redesign, and engagement in meaningful roles, occupations, and careers.
• Offering values-based career and workplace counselling and support, tailored to women's aspirations and challenges.
• Addressing gender-specific challenges and cultural factors that influence women's occupational choices, helping them make informed decisions.

Co-Occupations - Working with Mother-Infant and Mother-Child Dyads:  

• Supporting the bonding and attachment between mothers and their infants through therapeutic activities that consider the unique needs and experiences of women.
• Addressing maternal and infant sensory, motor, and developmental needs within the context of caregiving, nurturing the mother's wellbeing and personal growth as an individual and mother.
• Offering guidance on creating a nurturing and stimulating home environment that empowers women as caregivers and individuals, which supports feeling calm, purposeful, and safe at home.

Why do we only work with girls and women aged from 11 years-old?

While all OTs are guided by the occupation-centred paradigm, we all have unique skills and interests to work effectively with different clients, address health and wellbeing issues, and consider lifestyle needs. At Berdy Occupational Therapy, our special interest is matrescence. From an occupation-centered perspective, the developmental process of matrescence can be addressed from the time girls transition into adolescence, which is typically around Grade 5. Please get in touch if you have any questions about this or would like to know more!