Mary Kostka, founder of Ohana Occupational Therapy in Wenatchee, WA, briefly recounts her 32-year career as an occupational therapist. She graduated in 1988 from Western Michigan University with a bachelor’s in occupational therapy, spent 17 years working in school districts (including travel therapy) and 12 years in her hometown of Leavenworth, WA, then moved into private practice after a local clinic closure. Her clinical passion is sensory processing disorder; she completed an additional 120 hours of sensory integration training and combines sensory integration with tools like SSP and the QRI laser in a practice built on an "aloha" culture. She emphasizes entrepreneurship challenges, plans to offer intensive week-long programs for out-of-area families, and supports pediatric therapists through training and community (several Facebook groups).
Questions this video answers
1988, bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from Western Michigan University.
About 32 years (entering her 32nd year).
17 years.
12 years.
120 hours.
Hey everyone. Hope you're having a fabulous day. I am Mary Koska, the creator of Ohana Occupational Therapy in Wenatchee, Washington. And also some fun Facebook groups. I have the Sensory Smart Parent group, the Sensory Smart Teacher group, the Friends of Ohana OT group, and also the Pediatric OT Private Practice group. And I just thought I'd tell you a little bit about my story if you don't mind listening for a minute. I'll make it kind of short. 30 years or I guess I'm going to my 32nd year of being an OT. I graduated in 1988 from Western Michigan University with my bachelor's in occupational therapy. Back then it was a bachelor's degree, entry level, and I did a little bit of everything, rehab and just lots of different things. But the bulk of my career was 17 years in the school district and then in different school districts. I did some travel therapy. Two, three years. I was driving like a thousand miles a week. It was pretty crazy way out in rural Washington. And 12 years was right in my hometown of Leavenworth, Washington. And then I did a little bit of birth to three and I really loved, I really, really loved working closely with the parents. That just was so different. I loved it so much. And I would have stayed doing that except that the, the clinic closed, which was really traumatic and sad for our community. And so myself and a couple other therapists, we all went into our own private practices so that we could keep serving children. And so now I'm 10 years or so into that phase of my life of having a private practice. So, you know, steep learning curve. I didn't know anything about running a business and I'm still learning. I'm a work in progress. I really learned this entrepreneurial path is kind of comes with a lot of speed bumps and just a lot of things to learn. I think most of all you learn that you have to make a lot of decisions and a lot of hard decisions. Sometimes you have to let go of good to get great. So it's just really challenging. But really entrepreneurship, I think is the best self growth program you could possibly have. Because if you don't keep evolving and growing and improving yourself, your business will not last. So I'm on that path. So through all of this, my passion, my drive was to help the kids that had sensory processing disorder because I really felt like they were falling through the cracks in the school districts. And everything that I would learn and apply, I'd get these amazing results. And then I got the really intensive training in sensory integration. It was an additional 120 hours. And it really connected all the dots for me. And once I was able to have the proper therapeutic environment to really apply that philosophy, that frame of reference, Holy cow. The results were just amazing. Amazing. And since then I've learned and added some really amazing high tech solutions as well. Some wellness things, the SSP and the QRI laser. And combined with our special way that we operate our facility, our culture is all the aloha spirit. And we just, our families always feel like they're like we're one big family. They really feel our love and our support. And it's very intentional because we feel that that is half the healing right there, half the growth is that when you feel loved and you feel understood and cared about. So for the combination of these four things, as far as I know, we're really trailblazers. We're best in the world at combining these four things together. And we are soon going to be adding intensives as well so people can come in for a week from out of state or out of country and really experience what we have to offer to help. I'm cheating a little looking at my notes here. Yeah. So basically myself, my staff, we are an absolute high everyday because of the results that we get and just how much we impact lives. And we just really, in addition to helping the kids, I'm really passionate about helping therapists that are in the schools feeling really burned out, wanting to be able to do what they were trained to do, truly serve families and treat at the highest level and get the absolute best results. But that can be really overwhelming how, you know, how do you strike out on your own? How do you do that? So I'm really passionate about helping pediatric therapists get to treat at their highest potential and just get amazing results and just transform lives. Because that just makes you excited to get up every day. It's such an amazing feeling to have that clinical freedom to just make a difference in this world. So that is my story in five minutes. Aloha.
