What's the difference between an OT evaluation and OT sessions?

An evaluation is where we figure out what's actually happening - how your sensory system, attention, and daily routines are working together, and where they're getting stuck. Sessions are where we build from that: hands-on, practical work on the specific skills and regulation strategies that make your actual day easier to live in.

Is OT available by telehealth?

Yes - occupational therapy for teens and adults can be done through telehealth, not just in person. Sensory regulation strategies, executive-functioning support, and daily living skills work all translate well to a screen when it's set up right.

Can OT help alongside my therapy or medication?

Yes. OT works well alongside therapy and medication management - we coordinate with your counselor or prescriber here at KDH so your care fits together.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FOR SENSORY, EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING & DAILY LIVING SUPPORT

For teens and adults whose senses and systems run differently — real support for regulation, focus, and the skills daily life asks of us.

WHAT IS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY?

Occupational therapy (OT) looks at how your nervous system, your senses, and your daily routines work together - then helps you build the skills and strategies that make ordinary life easier to live in. For teens and adults, that might mean steadying a system that’s stuck in overdrive, building the executive-functioning scaffolding that lets a plan actually turn into action, or relearning how to move through a day without it costing everything you have left by 3pm.

OT at KDH Counseling includes:

Sensory processing & regulation - understanding how your body responds to sound, touch, movement, and overwhelm, and building tools that actually fit your system
Executive functioning support - planning, organizing, starting, and following through, without white-knuckling it every time
Daily living skills - the practical, in-the-body work of managing routines, transitions, and self-care so they stop draining you dry

It starts with a real look at how your system is actually wired, then builds forward from there - not a worksheet, a working plan.

Claire has spent more than twenty years in Louisiana doing the kind of work that doesn’t always get named out loud - helping people’s bodies and brains find a way back to working together. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from New York University, and she brings both halves of that training into every session: the mind that wants to understand why, and the hands-on skill to actually change how a day feels in your body.

Claire evaluates, treats, and consults with teens and adults to help them manage - and actually enjoy - daily life, work, and the social world around them, by getting underneath how their nervous system is regulating sensory input. If your senses run the show more than you’d like, Claire is who helps you take some of that back.

WHO WE SUPPORT

We provide occupational therapy for teens and adults, including:

Autistic and ADHD teens and adults navigating sensory overload or burnout
Anyone whose nervous system runs hot - sound, light, touch, or crowds that feel like too much, too fast
People stuck in executive-functioning quicksand, where the plan is clear but the follow-through isn’t
Teens and adults rebuilding daily routines after burnout, a new diagnosis, or a season that knocked the wheels off
Anyone who’s been told to “just try harder” and knows that was never the actual problem

We work with teens and adults only - this is not a pediatric program.

WHEN SENSORY & EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING CHALLENGES OVERLAP WITH ANXIETY, ADHD/AUTISM, OR TRAUMA

Sensory and executive-functioning struggles rarely show up alone. They tangle up with anxiety, with ADHD and autism, with old trauma the body never got to finish processing.

For example:

Sensory overload can look identical to a panic spiral - same racing heart, same need to run
Executive-functioning collapse gets mistaken for laziness, when it’s actually a nervous system that’s maxed out
Old trauma can live in the body as the same bracing and shutdown that sensory overwhelm does

Occupational therapy works alongside your therapist or prescriber here - not instead of them. When it makes sense, we coordinate care across the team so nobody’s treating one piece while missing the rest.

WHAT AN OT EVALUATION & OT SESSIONS LOOK LIKE

The first visit is an evaluation - a real look at how your sensory system, attention, and daily routines are actually functioning, not a checklist. From there, Claire builds a plan around what your specific system needs.

Ongoing OT sessions may include:

Sensory regulation strategies built around your actual triggers and thresholds, not a generic list
Executive-functioning scaffolding - tools for planning, starting, and following through that work with your brain instead of against it
Daily living skills practice - the real, practical work of routines, transitions, and self-care
Coordination with your therapist or prescriber when more than one kind of support is in the mix

This is slow, steady, in-the-body work. It builds week over week, not overnight - and most people start feeling the difference in daily life before they can fully explain why.

OT, THERAPY, OR AN EVALUATION - WHAT’S THE RIGHT FIT?

Some people come to us already knowing OT is what they need. Others aren’t sure yet whether this is an OT problem, a therapy problem, or a diagnostic one.

Occupational therapy focuses on the body - sensory regulation, executive functioning, and the practical skills of daily life
Therapy focuses on the mind and emotional regulation - coping, identity, and processing
Evaluations focus on diagnosis and formal documentation

If you’re not sure which door to walk through, start anywhere - we’ll help you find the right one from there.