Teri L. Shackleton

I am celebrating my 36th year of occupational therapy practice this year, providing exceptional care to clients with hand and upper limb injuries/conditions in my private practice. I graduated with my four-year undergraduate bachelor's degree in occupational therapy from the University of Western Ontario (Western). I was immediately hired to work in a fee-for-service work capacity program offered at the Victoria Hospital in London. Looking back, I was so fortunate to work within an occupational therapy department where there was educational and emotional support for providing quality care to patients and family members with the expectation that you were involved in professional development and service. As a new graduate, I immediately became a member of OSOT and CAOT, and became the Editor of the new OSOT newsletter, The Link, published to share information with occupational therapists (OTs) across Ontario.  

While I was fortunate to practice in various physical health areas, (including ICU, ortho/trauma, stroke rehab, rheumatology, and plastics) at the Victoria Hospital, I believe I needed to upgrade my education to the master's level. After five years of clinical practice, I enrolled in the Masters’ of Science in Occupational Therapy program at Western. This, was such a rich professional experience. I had the opportunity to grow together with OTs while learning from internationally renowned academics. This foundation provided me with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to pursue many leadership roles/positions at Western, including new curriculum development. At the London Health Sciences Centre, I was a Professional Practice Leader, Clinical Lead, and Researcher. I continued to contribute to OSOT by reviewing research grant applications. 

After becoming a working mother of three amazing children, to strike a better balance of work and family, we moved to Stratford to be closer to my husband's work. I accepted a full-time OT position at Stratford General Hospital, with a clinical caseload of outpatient plastics and inpatient complex continuing care. I maintained my ties with Western as a Clinical Mentor and Fieldwork Educator while seizing leadership opportunities, including Senior Friendly Hospital Quality Improvement Projects, a Municipal Age-Friendly Community Needs Assessment Task Force, and Clinical Lead for standardizing inpatient rehabilitation care across the Southwestern Ontario hospital system. I was elected from the Southwest region to serve as OSOT’s Board of Directors and later on to COTO’s Board, taking the role of Chair of many of COTO’s committees. My desire to contribute to system-wide improvements in the quality of occupational therapy services across Ontario has come true over the past six years in the role of Director with COTO.  

I have been fortunate to have chosen occupational therapy as my profession.  Thank you for this opportunity to reflect back on my professional journey, and I am reminded of a quote from Steve Jobs, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you must trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future. You must trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma.”

I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone, to be the creator of your own possibilities, to exert continuous effort on your inner journey; to become more self-aware, to better manage and develop yourself. I will leave you with one of my favorite Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes, “What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”