A heron standing in a calm body of water with tall grasses on the bank, reflecting in the water during sunset or sunrise.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapist Lauren Kapolnek, a woman with short reddish hair, wearing a black top and grey jeans, sitting on metal stairs outdoors.

In June of 2026, Hope & Healing was pleased to introduce Lauren Kapolnek, Occupational Therapist. Lauren specializes in helping people starting at age 11 into adulthood.

What is Occupational Therapy?

If executive dysfunction, sensory issues, or chronic pain due to hypermobility keeps you from doing the activities you want or even need to do, Occupational Therapy can help. Occupational Therapy addresses the strengths and limitations of your unique brain and body as you experience the physical world. Occupational Therapy is designed to help you more effectively complete the routine tasks of daily life or, even, to do fun, playful activities that would make your life feel more meaningful and whole.

How Does Occupational Therapy Work?

Your Occupational Therapist will start by helping you identify specific task-related goals. Together you will analyze the tasks you need or simply want to do and detail your daily routines around those tasks. Your Occupational Therapist will use this information to create an individualized plan that will allow you to unlock your potential to more effectively study, work, and play.

Water lilies with green leaves floating on a pond, some with brown spots, and two white lilies with yellow centers in the water.

How does Occupational Therapy fit with Counseling/Therapy?

Occupational therapy will help you apply what you are learning in Counseling to the activities that make up your daily life. Some examples of things Occupational Therapy can help with are:

  • Help you identify your strengths, your sensory profile, and your communication patterns to help you plan your future career path and get and maintain your ideal job.

  • Help you organize your home, including where you work or study, to suit your overall executive functioning needs, taking into account your daily habits, identifying what is getting in your way, and using your strengths and capacities to move towards living in a home that is organized and functional for you.

  • Help you learn and strengthen the life skills you need for major life transitions (high school to work or college, learning to live on your own, college to work, parenting). Occupational therapy can help you find ways to make the transition smooth and less stressful by adding visual supports, scripts, and tailored systems.

  • Help you communicate more effectively and improve your social skills. This can be especially helpful if you identify as Autistic or Neurodivergent in ways that lead you to being routinely misunderstood or to misinterpret the actions and words of the people around you. Your Occupational Therapist can help you examine your communication patterns and determine which ones are effective and whether any new communication patterns could better help you be understood and to understand others. The purpose of this examination is to help you more effectively communicate with people as you pursue practical goals at home, school, work, and in the community.

  • Help you identify physical and environmental factors that impact your ability function to determine if you would benefit from additional supports in the environment, physical aids, and/or hands on nervous system regulation strategies so that you can better live your life.

  • Help you make practical adaptions to reduce the pain due to Hypermobility Disorders so that Hypermobility interferes less with your ability to work, learn, and play.

If you are interested in scheduling an Occupational Therapy appointment for yourself or your teen, contact Lauren Kapolnek via our website or by calling 847-754-3838, ext. 9.