DANIELLE FRIBERG portrait
  • Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Occupational & Recreational Therapies
801-585-9589

Current Courses

Fall 2024

  • OC TH 6010-001
    Foundations of OT
  • OC TH 6020-001
    Culture & Thera Relatng
  • OC TH 6213-001
    OT Process-Peds III

Summer 2024

Spring 2024

Professional Organizations

  • Utah Occupational Therapy Association. 11/20/2016 - present. Position : Member.
  • American Occupational Therapy Association. 05/01/2014 - present. Position : Member.

Practice History

  • Occupational Therapist, University Developmental Assessment Clinic. 06/08/2015 - present .
  • Occupational Therapist, University of Utah Life Skills Clinic. 06/02/2014 - present .
  • Occupational Therapist, DDI Vantage Early Intervention. 08/08/2011 - present .

Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy for teaching stems from the same passion that lead me to a career in occupational therapy-my desire to help others in achieving their goals and reaching their full potential through the use of occupation. Occupational therapy highly values learning through doing and emphasizes the use of a client-centered approach in which understanding the client’s goals and intrinsic motivation is the key to success. Similarly, I believe that my teaching is most effective when I apply these same principles by utilizing a student-centered approach with a strong emphasis on experiential learning. Through use of such an approach, I can better understand the goals of the students and help them connect class content to the world around them.

I see strong parallels between my role as an occupational therapist in relationship to my clients and my role as an instructor in relationship to my students. In both situations, I do not view myself as an expert whose only goal is to impart wisdom and knowledge onto students as if they are empty vessels waiting to be filled. Instead, I view myself as a facilitator, a coach, and a co-creator of meaning. I want to be supportive and approachable for my students both inside and outside of the classroom environment. My goal is not to weed out struggling students but rather to help shape them into excellent occupational therapists capable of solving problems and working collaboratively with others to determine the best solutions, as these are key aspects of clinical practice. I seek to facilitate the development of entry-level skills by presenting content through a variety of methodologies, just as I utilize multiple modalities and interventions within my occupational therapy practice. In order to help the content become more personally relevant, I frequently utilize examples from my own occupational therapy practice and invite guest lecturers into my class to share their experiences as well. Ultimately, I am educating my future colleagues so if I feel confident that students have gained the knowledge and clinical reasoning skills to treat someone I care about, then I believe I've succeeded in my role as an educator.

 

Courses I Teach

  • Foundations of Occupational Therapy - OCTH 6010
    This foundational course provides a broad and critical overview of occupational therapy practice through the context of time. The core concept of occupational therapy, occupation, will be presented against a backdrop of historical events, enabling the student to develop a basic understanding of the growth and development of occupational therapy as a health profession. Occupational science will be introduced as an academic discipline that examines occupational therapy's core idea: occupation, and its role in human life and current and future occupational therapy practice. Occupational Therapy and related theories and frameworks will be introduced that form the basis of practice for occupational therapists to establish, maintain, and restore occupational engagement, performance, participation, justice, and health. Clinical reasoning, standards of practice, values and ethics, and professional roles of OTR & COTA will be introduced. Various professional, leadership, advocacy, and supervisory roles will be introduced and self-evaluated, culminating in a leadership development plan that the student will reflect on and refine throughout the program.
  • OCTH 6213 - OT Process Pediatrics III
    This course builds on learning from OC TH 6211 and 6212 to go further in-depth into the occupational therapy process in pediatrics. More complex occupational performance problems will be addressed, requiring students to develop competence in the OT process for children experiencing difficulty in areas such as sensory processing, behavior, and cognition. Students will demonstrate skills in the OT process and clinical reasoning by appropriately selecting and applying theories, evaluations, and evidence-based practices with a variety of pediatric clients. By the end of this course, students are expected to demonstrate entry-level competence in the area of pediatrics.