For Sarah Solomon, occupational therapy was never simply a career choice. It was a calling shaped by lived experience.
A calling shaped by lived experience
Growing up with a mother who had a disability, Sarah always knew she wanted to work in health. But it was the philosophy at the heart of occupational therapy that drew her in: the idea of looking at a whole person, not just what was wrong with them.
“OT kind of was more of what was important to me,” she reflects, and that instinct has guided everything since.
Her path deepened further when her mother was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Sarah cared for her throughout the illness until she passed away. It is an experience she describes as humbling and, at times, confronting.
“You think you know what people are going through when they’re diagnosed with MND, but you really have no idea until you’ve lived it.”
Sarah SolomonThe relentless pace of change—what Sarah calls an “ever-moving target”—gave her an intimate understanding of what patients and families face.
Supporting life, not just managing illness
That experience informs her work in what she describes as the neuropalliative rehabilitation model: supporting people with incurable conditions not toward recovery, but toward compensation, quality of life and agency.
It starts, she says, with sitting in someone’s space, getting to know them and discovering what truly matters to them.
Medicine adds days to life. OT adds life to days.
The goal is not simply to minimise risk or manage a diagnosis. It is to help each person preserve identity, choice, connection and the experiences that make life meaningful.
Dignity of risk
Central to Sarah’s practice is a concept she feels passionately about: dignity of risk. Too often, she argues, risk assessment and personal choice are treated as opposites. They should not be.
“If you are diagnosed with a condition that is going to maybe prematurely end your life, you don’t want to live by risk minimisation.”
Sarah SolomonWhether a client wants to smoke, have sex or jump out of a plane, Sarah’s role is to help make it possible—not to judge.
“It is not about what I think.”
Listen before solving
Her advice to fellow therapists is equally grounded: resist the urge to jump straight to solutions.
Instead, lean into investigative questioning, deep listening and reflective practice. Treat every person the way you would want your own loved ones to be treated.
It is an approach that has made this, in Sarah’s own words, “the most rewarding job of my entire career.”
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Explore the full conversation about lived experience, dignity of risk and supporting people to preserve choice, meaning and connection.
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