As of June of 2026, Hope & Healing is 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 keep you from doing the activities you want or even need to do, Occupational Therapy can help. Occupational Therapy addresses the way your unique brain and the strengths and limitations of your body impact how you experience the physical world and whether or not you are able to do the activities you want or need to do on a daily basis.

At Hope & Healing, your Occupational Therapist will collaborate with you to create an individualized plan to help you be more effective at school and at work. This plan can help you complete the routine tasks of daily life or even to do fun, playful activities that would make your life feel more meaningful and whole.

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

Occupational therapy at Hope & Healing Therapy focuses primarily on the following issues:

  • Executive Functioning (working memory, planning/prioritizing, organization)

  • Life Skills Development and Routine Building

  • School and Work Management

  • Social Participation and Communication

  • Emotional Regulation

  • Community Engagement

  • Sensory Integration and Nervous System Regulation

  • Leisure and Play Participation

  • Functional Mobility and Pain Management

How does Occupational Therapy pair with mental health services?

Occupational therapy will help you apply what you are learning in Counseling to the activities that make up your daily life. Your Occupational Therapist will help you problem-solve about what exactly is getting in the way of your goals. They can work one-on-one with you to analyze tasks, examine roles and routines in order to develop an individualized plan that allows you to unlock your potential to better study, work, and play. 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 to suite 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 make that lead you to be routinely misunderstood or to accidentally misinterpret the actions and words of the Neurotypical people around you. Your Occupational Therapist can help you examine your communication patterns and determine which ones are effective and whether you have any communication patterns that are routinely misunderstood by people in your immediate environment. The purpose of this examination is to help you more effectively communicate with people 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.

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.