Serving the Greater Kalamazoo Area

(269) 544-2901 - Our Location

The Therapy Place is Ready to Help

At The Therapy Place in Kalamazoo, MI, we care about your physical and mental health. It’s our mission to allow patients, throughout Southwest Michigan, to live life to the fullest by helping them better adapt to illness, injury, or disability.

Our Services

  • Physical Health Services: Fall Prevention/Balance/Vertigo, Cognitive Disorders, Pain Management , Chronic Conditions, Joint/Musculoskeletal Disorders.
  • Mental Health Services: Sensory Processing Disorders, Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia, Anxiety/Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, Depression, Developmental Disabilities, Brain Injuries/Concussion.
  • Other Services: Caregiver Training, Adaptive Equipment Assessment, and Home Evaluations.

Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

Dementia results from impaired cognition due to damage to nerve cells in the brain.

Signs of dementia generally include, but are not limited to:

  • Decreased short-term memory and problem-solving skills.
  • Decreased perceptual skills or problems with communication and language.
  • Personality changes.

The onset of dementia is gradual and the course of the disease may span several years.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

By focusing on the patient’s strengths, occupational therapists work to maximize quality of life and improve daily functioning.

Common intervention strategies include the following:

  • Health promotion to maintain the physical strength and health of the individual.
  • Remediation techniques to improve or maintain the performance of activities of daily living.
  • Maintenance activities to provide support for habits and routines that are beneficial.
  • Modifications to ensure a safe and supportive environment through adaptation and compensation, including verbal cueing, personal assistance and social support.

We are committed to improving the lives of those with dementia and their families.

Anxiety/Post Traumatic Stress Disorders

Most everyone experiences anxiety as a response to stress from time to time.

Mild anxiety can help us cope with accomplishing everyday activities by changing that anxiety into positive behaviors. However, when anxiety is constant it’s no longer a coping mechanism. It becomes a disabling condition.

Anxiety disorders can interfere significantly with the performance of everyday activities. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders identifies the following five types of anxiety disorders:

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder—Recurring persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses which become intrusive and unwanted and can cause anxiety or stress.
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—Exposure to an event which causes disturbances in or significant distress or impairment in life, work or other daily functions.
  • Social or Specific Phobias—Persistent fear which is excessive or unreasonable about a situation or object.
  • Panic Disorder—A disorder based primarily on the occurrence of panic attacks which may be recurrent and unexpected.
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder—Excessive anxiety and worry about any number of topics, events, or activities past, present, or future.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

Occupational therapists play an important role in addressing anxiety disorders. Interventions may focus on a number of areas to improve physical and mental health, including:

  • Establishment of routines and habits.
  • Activities that provide relaxation.
  • Strategies for managing symptoms to enhance occupational performance.

At The Therapy Place, we are committed to improving the lives of those with anxiety disorders. We care about you and your physical and mental health.

Brain Injury/Concussion

Brain injuries can affect motor, sensory, cognitive, and behavioral functioning.

Concussions are the most common type of traumatic brain injuries which typically are caused by falls, accidents or sports injuries.

A person who has sustained a brain injury may find it challenging to return to work or school, or engage in many of the other activities enjoyed prior to the injury. Patients with brain injuries also may have:

  • Decreased balance and coordination.
  • Memory impairments.
  • Difficulty organizing and sequencing activities.
  • Difficulty making decisions.

A brain injury also may affect visual and auditory functions. In addition, many patients experience a decrease in the ability to tolerate frustration and an increase in impulsive behaviors.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

Occupational therapy may help  improve quality of life and help patients regain a maximum level of independence. Occupational therapists play a key role in helping individuals with brain injuries regain their personal lives and reintegrate back into the community.

Therapists at The Therapy Place are experts in evaluating and analyzing a patient’s abilities. Our whole-person perspective considers all parts of an individual’s life including:

  • Activities of daily living such as self-care.
  • Instrumental activities of daily living like home management, work, leisure and social activities.

Our expertise allows us to help patients relearn skills and compensate for impairments.

Depression

People with depression typically do not have the energy or drive to participate in the things that are important to them.

They may find it hard to get out of bed, care for themselves, work, engage in activities they enjoy, or maintain relationships with friends or family.

The causes of depression vary:

  • For some, depression is rooted in a physiological cause like decreased neurotransmitters in the brain.
  • For others, the cause may be life events and the inability to achieve satisfaction from relationships, or experiences they are unable to manage.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

In general, occupational therapists help people suffering with depression to balance work, leisure, and relationship activities. They help the patient establish strategies to meet the responsibilities of the roles that are meaningful to them.

Occupational therapists at The Therapy Place will identify the life roles that are meaningful to each patient and help them adapt and have the opportunity to participate and gain a sense of accomplishment. Self-esteem and identity also play large roles in managing depression, so the occupational therapist also will work with the patient to successfully complete these activities.

Our therapists will determine what is interfering with a patient’s ability to meet those daily responsibilities and activities and our expertise allows us to help patients relearn skills and compensate for impairments.

Developmental Disabilities

Developmental disabilities are characterized by significant limitations in reasoning, learning and problem solving.

They may be diagnosed as:

  • Autism spectrum disorder.
  • Learning disorders.
  • Intellectual disabilities.

Limitations in these areas significantly impact a patient’s ability to complete critical self-care tasks or to interact socially.

Opportunities to participate in typical adult activities such as employment and independent living continue to be limited for those with developmental disabilities. There is an ignorance of the potential of adults with developmental disabilities that often acts as a barrier to employment or independent living.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

With its unique focus on helping people with the activities of daily living and employment, occupational therapy offers those with developmental disabilities the means to achieve a better life. Treatments and interventions are structured to:

  • Minimize distractions.
  • Ensure adequate sensory stimulation.
  • Provide the patient with appropriate challenges to increase focus and engagement.

Our expertise allows us to help patients learn adaptive behaviors to achieve everyday social and practical skills.

At The Therapy Place, we care about your physical and mental health. It’s our mission to allow patients live life to the fullest by helping them better adapt to illness, injury, or disability.

Sensory Processing Disorders

Sensory processing disorders may result from difficulties in how the nervous system receives, organizes and uses sensory information.

These disorders impact:

  • Self-concept.
  • Emotional regulation.
  • Attention.
  • Problem solving.
  • Behavior control.
  • The capacity to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships.
  • The ability to parent, work, or engage in home management, social or leisure activities.

How Occupational Therapy Can Help

At The Therapy Place, our therapists have the training and skills to identify and treat sensory processing disorders. Interventions to treat the disorder may include:

  • Remedial learning to provide awareness of touch, body position, and movement.
  • Accommodations and adaptations to manage hyper-sensitivity.
  • Sensory diet programs including increased physical activity.
  • Environmental modifications to increase or decrease the sensory stimulation.
  • Educating patients, family members, and caregivers on the influence of sensory input.

Occupational therapists play a vital role in identifying and treating sensory processing disorders and improving a patient’s ability to fully participate in life roles, routines, and daily activities.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please call and speak to one of our therapists at (269) 544-2901 or send us an email.

The American Occupational Therapy Association is a contributing source for this information.