Documentation of deceleration from completing a doctoral program, v.1.0

I decided recently that I have an issue to face: what to do with my post-doctoral time?

Participating in the doctoral program at Nova Southeastern University effectively consumed every moment of my waking (and in strange ways sleeping) consciousness. This process carried me through approximately 5 years. Somewhere and somehow in the course of that time period I transitioned back to full time clinical practice, grew our private practice to 15 employees, started this blog, and watched my two older children grow through their high school years.

I have a doctoral degree now. So now what?

My initial response to this extra time was to immerse myself in what was supposed to be mindless leisure pursuit of video games. It was an odd transition off of a distance learning program. I was accustomed to living my life in asynchronous debates via WebCT, researching and reading in the vast online resources of NSU, and writing writing writing writing papers. I was used to being ON THE COMPUTER, so my initial point of transition was to play computer video games.

While playing computer games I still found myself thinking about OT, as I started thinking about the use of virtual context to promote occupation. Then while playing these games I started thinking about the meaning of the occupation and the role of recapitulation in transitioning from childhood to adult occupations. This was all reinforced when I read an article about use of online virtual context to promote social skills for people who have Asperger's syndrome.

So anyway all of this is interesting, but I think the message is that I need to separate my work from my leisure.

I am now in the middle of Version 2.0 of the deceleration that will hopefully be a little more successful. Details to follow...

Comments

katie f said…
just wondering - why do you have a link that allows people to "ask a question" if you don't bother to respond to inquiries? i wrote to you weeks ago, yet never received a response. if you are unable/unwilling to repsond to reader's comments or questions, you should not have that link available.
katie
9:14 PM
Christopher J. Alterio said…
Hi Katie,

I am not sure if you are referring to some email you sent, or comment left on the blog. I receive many communications each week from parents, therapists, and sometimes just random people. I actually try to answer them all - sometimes even highlighting the question on the blog.

If you have not received a response, perhaps something was missed or deleted or just not delivered. Please ask again.

Thanks!

Chris
1:53 PM
Cayzle said…
Oh, and post more stories about actual people. Those are the best parts of your blog to us layfolk. And you're a good writer.
4:05 PM
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