There’s a new face in town and his name is Richard! Richard officially started with us on Monday, January 27th, Richard will not only be our new Occupational Therapist, but also our new Clinical Manager. I sat down with Richard for a short one-on-one so the LE Community could meet our newest member.
Meeting in the San Ramon office, in one of the therapy rooms, Richard del Rosario, 39, just got out of a meeting with one of our other clinicians. He smiles warmly as we enter his new work space and we take our respective perches on the black plastic office chairs. Well lit from the overhead fluorescent lights and the large window behind him, the bright cool toned light of the overcast day fills the space. He sits down at the little desk, one found in each therapy room, and I mentally note we’re wearing similar colors — maroon tones. The room is a perfect setting for our conversation, a bit of a blank slate, a new beginning, a future waiting to be written. A future, like the room, Richard is excited to grab hold of and make his own.
A native of the Philippines originally, Richard established himself in the Midwest (by way of Chicago) before calling Dublin home. I begin our mini-interview by asking about his background. Richard has been working in the OT field since 2007 and received his Master’s Equivalency in OT in 2013 through the University of Arizona. With an emphasis on Sensory Integration and Fine Motor Skills training, he quickly transitioned into a leadership director role, overseeing and mentoring six clinics.
Diving right in, I asked Richard about his background, his new start at Language Essentials, and what he hopes to contribute to the community at large.
Here is our Q&A:
1. Eric: What brought you to Language Essentials, how are you liking it so far?
Richard: …The culture, I think, aligns with my personality. Everyone seems to be very upbeat and their heart is into helping kids. So those are my two like, requirements. I just need a very positive work atmosphere, and kiddos that I can work with, and people who love working with kids. And it seems like it's a good match. Renee is awesome, Flo is awesome, you're awesome. Everybody I have been meeting has been so accommodating. So, long and short, I'm very, very happy!
2. Eric: Touching on your leadership skills, you're not just going to be an OT for us. You are going to be our Clinical Manager. So what are some things you'd like to bring to the table, to Language Essentials as Clinical Manager?
Richard: I think the first thing is kind of like using my background in organizational communication and making sure that the team communicates well with each other, and that not just the providers, but the systems communicate well with each other. So that it all makes sense, it's all streamlined at the end of the day, and everything runs smoothly. I want to be a liaison to the clinicians, because I want to make sure it's a balance of clinical and an operational role. I think from a personality standpoint, I'm an empath, so I empathize really fast. So, I think that helped me with navigating tough conversations with between clinical and operational issues. And then I think, as cheesy as it may sound, it's kind of like the service leadership strategy that I'm used to, like, I am not someone who's like, "Here's a rule. You follow it ." I would want to be of service for somebody and model how to follow the rule before I could set up a policy that says, “do this, XYZ.” So, I would think I'm very collaborative and I will also be very open to suggestions, so I think that those are crucial things that I would love to add, to utilize and bring onto the table. I'm still thinking, but I think that's, yeah.
3. Eric: Pivoting a little, what misconceptions do people have about Occupational Therapy?
Richard: Haha, So many! First one, it's not a profession where people are gonna get a job, like, they [people] think that we help them get jobs, we're not vocational therapists, haha, like we don't help them find jobs.
Eric: They take the occupation part literally.
Richard: Yeah, haha. Another misconception is that OT's only work on the upper body, like the hands, fine motor skills, and that’s a total no-no, because we cannot just treat half of a person. So the same way that PT's are only supposed to work with everything hips down, it's not a thing. And I hope people stop thinking about OT that way. And, I think this one is pediatric OT's specific: we don't just put kids on a swing. There's a science behind it. There's a reason. There's a why, it seems like we're just playing in the gym. Like,” what are you doing?” So I think throughout my years of experience, that's the biggest misconception I've heard from parents, “you were working with my kids for 45 minutes, you were just on the swing the whole time,” haha.
Eric: You see that a lot with Speech Therapy as well. “Don’t ST's sit on the floor and play with toys? Where's the therapy come in?” Not recognizing the connection between the two, you are masking the therapy in play a lot of the time.
Richard: Yeah. Very well said, yeah. That's how I should have actually said it. Actually, I should write that down, haha.
4. Eric: What is something people can learn from OT clients?
Richard: That's a really good question... Well, one, one easy thing to say is that OT kiddos can write, doing better handwriting than any other kiddo, because we have to go through a curriculum for handwriting. So if they have a fine motor concern, we're going to nitpick every single letter and the formation of every single letter, haha. So if anybody wants to learn how to write their cursives and prints, look for somebody who did OT in the past. So that's an easy answer for that. There's probably, more, like deeper answers. Another thing I would say, on a more serious note, is self regulation. OT's, kids who have been doing OT for a while have a toolbox of sensory supports they have under their belt, be cause of the OT's intent to give them the most tools to succeed throughout their transitions in life...
Eric: Especially with some of the chaotic present we sometimes find ourselves in... I think having regulatory tools and understanding how our body is responding to those stressors is good advice for all. We can definitely all learn that from an OT kid!
5. Eric: What advice would you give to someone who’s considering a career in this field, being an OT?
Richard: Just do it! I think pediatric OT is a very fulfilling job because it is something where it's undeniable. You're going to see progress in these kiddos, because they're like sponges at this age, like every single session you have with them, especially if you're working on a fine motor piece or a self regulation piece, they will see progress and, you know, like working with adults, so it's probably more challenging with the learning curve. I always tell my OT students this, haha, not a lot of people can say "I make obstacle courses for a living. " And that's what we do almost every day. We build obstacle courses for a living. And it's again, going back to earlier. There's a science behind it, and you get to play. We do arts and crafts,[ the OT profession,] it's so creative. So if you're an empath and a creative just like me, and you want to add on a health science construct behind it. I think OT is the best fit because there's so many ways you can thrive as an OT if you have that training.
*This Q&A Interview was edited for length. I want to thank Richard for sitting with me and answering my questions. Welcome to the team!
