Yoga and Occupational Therapy with Robyn Emde

Yoga and Occupational Therapy traditions both address the space where mind and body meet. Robyn Emde combines her training in Occupational Therapy and yoga teaching.  An active senior with arthritis, a woman going through cancer treatment, and a child with spasticity in a wheelchair represent the breadth of people Robyn has worked with in helping people enhance their movement and comfort with their bodies.

Yogi and OT
A back injury at work was an early prompt as to the value of yoga in rehabilitation. Robyn's empathy with her clients was expanded as she struggled through a return to work program. She learned to use yoga as a tool in healing herself and wanted to use it in her practice as well.  Anatomical knowledge and awareness of practice environments (quiet studio leading followed by stressful rush hour traffic or calm in-home session) from Occupational Therapy provide a more holistic approach to Yoga.  Similarly yoga has been valuable even in busy acute hospital settings in increasing Robyn's mindfulness to Occupational Therapy practice. She is more aware of when she is reverting to autopilot in meeting the demands of discharging patients to keep the flow going. She is able to slow down and breath: focus more on the quality of service she provides to people rather than the quantity of how many people must be served.

The Journey
Robyn is a second generation Occupational Therapist. Her mom took a respite from formal Occupational Therapy practice when the family moved to Whistler, where Robyn grew up . Muffins and soup are common gifts for sick neighbours; a raised toilet seat and bath bench were regularly shared throughout the neighbourhood by Robyn's mum. It was not until she started OT training herself that Robyn realized that even at home, her mother's occupational therapy practice really was a way of life. (Robyn's mum re-certified and continues home visits and equipment prescription in community care).

Robyn now works in both private and public health. Her own Occupational Therapy career began in orthopaedic rehabilitation at Holy Family Hospital. She now works at Richmond Hospital and in private practice. Robyn's hospital experience includes multiple acute settings and she now runs an outpatient program helping people who are candidates for gastric bypass surgery with lifestyle management.

Initially Robyn taught a variety of yoga classes and slowly evolved her classes into "yoga therapy". More recently she realized the value of combining her passions in providing clients with Occupational Therapy and yoga training. She learned that  private practice insurance was less than she expected when she joined the Canadian Occupational Therapy Association and is branching out into the world of small business with Yogability. 

Assessments
Robyn uses the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure with her clients. She finds it valuable in directing therapy and identify patient goals. Also very sensitive to the effects of pain, Robyn uses a simple numeric pail scale pre and post therapy in assessing effectiveness of treatment.

Education and Training
Robyn has a degree in sociology from the University of British Columbia. She returned to school and completed a masters degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Toronto.  Following completion of her masters in 2008, Robyn was not quite ready to leave the structure of academics so she continued her learning by taking a 200 hour Yoga Teacher training at the Semperviva International Yoga College. She has also trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with Vancouver's Changeways. And has expanded yoga as therapy knowledge through training with Susi Hately and Functional Synergy in Alberta.