Dri­ving 35 hours over four days from the Sun­shine Coast to Kather­ine for my ten-week place­ment was a big adven­ture and one I’ll nev­er for­get. While the stun­ning land­scapes, water­falls and hik­ing spots made Kather­ine a beau­ti­ful place to explore, it was the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn and con­nect with the peo­ple and their cul­ture that made this expe­ri­ence even more meaningful. 

I was placed in a remote pri­ma­ry school, where I quick­ly saw how deeply cul­ture shapes learn­ing, rela­tion­ships and every­day life.

From the begin­ning, I felt wel­comed by both the staff and espe­cial­ly the stu­dents. The stu­dents were open and eager to con­nect, and I quick­ly built strong rela­tion­ships with many of them. It was espe­cial­ly mean­ing­ful to see them wave to us around town, show­ing how much they val­ued us and how they val­ue a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and connection. 

One of the most valu­able parts of the place­ment was tak­ing part in cul­tur­al class­es at the school. I made an effort to immerse myself, know­ing that under­stand­ing cul­ture was essen­tial to pro­vid­ing mean­ing­ful sup­port. These class­es gave me insight into lan­guage, tra­di­tions, music, and com­mu­ni­ty per­spec­tives, which influ­enced how I approached ther­a­py, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and class­room involvement. 

There were def­i­nite­ly some chal­lenges along the way. Nav­i­gat­ing ther­a­py in a remote set­ting with lim­it­ed access to resources, con­sis­ten­cy, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion was not always easy.

It took time to adjust my expec­ta­tions and find cre­ative ways to sup­port stu­dents with­in the school’s rou­tines. Learn­ing how to deliv­er ther­a­py that was not only prac­ti­cal but also cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate required con­tin­u­ous reflec­tion and flex­i­bil­i­ty. How­ev­er, these dif­fi­cult moments were some of the most impor­tant learn­ing expe­ri­ences, help­ing me grow my con­fi­dence and adaptability. 

Dur­ing the place­ment, I sup­port­ed teach­ers in the class­room and observed grad­ual improve­ments in stu­dents’ emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion, con­fi­dence and hand­writ­ing skills. Although ther­a­py is a long jour­ney, these small changes reflect­ed a pos­i­tive impact of con­sis­tent sup­port and engage­ment over time. Teach­ers also shared their obser­va­tions and appre­ci­a­tion, which was very reward­ing to hear. Through ongo­ing reflec­tion and obser­va­tion, I was able to iden­ti­fy areas where stu­dents need­ed extra sup­port and devel­oped rec­om­men­da­tions for future therapy. 

Out­side of the school, the Kather­ine com­mu­ni­ty was also wel­com­ing. The locals were friend­ly and always up for a chat at the pub. This sense of com­mu­ni­ty made an impres­sion on me.

Explor­ing the area with my peers from dif­fer­ent uni­ver­si­ties across Aus­tralia through vis­it­ing water­falls, hik­ing, and shar­ing our place­ment expe­ri­ences also helped strength­en our friend­ships and cre­at­ed space for mean­ing­ful reflec­tion. Liv­ing and work­ing togeth­er gave us the chance to share our jour­neys, with each of us learn­ing some­thing dif­fer­ent from the same envi­ron­ments. These shared reflec­tions helped us grow pro­fes­sion­al­ly and personally. 

Over­all, my remote place­ment in Kather­ine was an amaz­ing and reward­ing expe­ri­ence. It strength­ened my pas­sion for occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py, espe­cial­ly in remote con­texts, and high­light­ed the impor­tance of cul­tur­al under­stand­ing and holis­tic care. I feel incred­i­bly grate­ful to have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute, learn and grow in such a unique and mean­ing­ful envi­ron­ment. This expe­ri­ence has giv­en me a stronger sense of pur­pose as I con­tin­ue my jour­ney in occu­pa­tion­al therapy.