When I started this journey, referring providers questioned my practicing within my scope as well as other disciplines such as psychology and dietary. The best way to prove our place in the mental health and cognitive behavioral therapy space is through education. AOTA has several posters on OT's role in mental health, healthy eating, etc. that can be useful to email for their reference. Scholarly articles or abstracts of these articles support this role as well and prove our scope.
Through education and persistence, I now recieve referrals from some of those same professionals who questioned my scope. It is also good practice to continue to prove to yourself as an OT your role in the mental health space. Sometimes I would think "is this in my scope?" when I was meeting resistance. Questioning and educating myself along with the public and providers strengthened my cause and improved my confidence.
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