How “Goosebumps” Affirmed an Occupational Therapist's Career Calling Helping Immigrants & Refugees
“I remember feeling goosebumps and thinking, ‘This is what I’m meant to do.’”
Angela Fuentes is an occupational therapist who helps people with pain, injury, disability, or trauma adapt and perform any task at home, school, work, or in the community.
She specifically serves culturally and linguistically diverse clients and clients who have experienced forced migration. In other words: refugees and immigrants.
“I think of my grandmothers. They both experienced forced displacement around my age. One escaped domestic violence and fled across the country.
“The other left Puerto Rico for a new life, language, and culture in the U.S. They’ve taught me hard lessons. Anyone could lose life as they once knew it. But they taught me empowering lessons as well: we all have so much strength, laughter, and creativity inside us, even against all the odds.”
Angela works to meet her clients physically, emotionally, or cognitively to understand their past and present circumstances, values, and goals. She enables her refugee and immigrant clients to learn new physical or mental skills. She also recommends tools and workplace changes that help them live more meaningfully and fairly in their new country or culture.
Photo provided by Angela Fuentes. During a recent project, Angela’s co-led an activity for her clients to mix and use bright paint colors to personalize their planner books. Angela loves helping her clients get into a flow state and “lives for their resulting smiles.”
“I remember one client, a refugee from the Congo struggling to open a marker because she’d never used one before. And yet another client from Syria in the same group was a doctor in his previous country, now in a basic life skills group. Seeing them both in a space they’d never imagined they’d be was so poignant.”
As a daughter of a German immigrant, I reflected upon the similar stories of my family while writing this post. And I got a few goosebumps of my own knowing that professional brand photos will elevate Angela’s beautiful brand and her mission — that I’d be just one small part of her ripple effect as she reaches new immigrants and refugees.
To learn more about Angela’s mission, how she’s teaching others to do work like hers, and how occupational therapy can impact someone you know, visit:
Instagram: @responsive_ot
Website: responsiveot.com
