Janie Guimond

Who is Janie?

For as long as she can remember, Janie has loved being outdoors, enjoying time at the cottage with her chickens, riding her bike, running around the lake or simply being in nature with her partner and 15-month-old son. Coming from a large, close-knit family, Janie has finally been able to realize her very first dream, that of starting a small family of her own. In her spare time, she enjoys her own creative projects. Her family has always inspired her by sharing their passion for homemade gifts. This allows her to surpass herself and discover new talents (welding, woodworking, pottery, sculpture, concrete, string art, crochet, sewing, etc.). For her, the greatest gift comes from the heart: giving time and energy.

Although Janie graduated in 2007, she had another life before being an occupational therapist. She had the privilege of wearing the colors of the Maple Leaf on the Canadian indoor volleyball team as libero from 2008 to 2016. She was able to participate in 2 world championships and numerous other competitions, totalling 103 international matches in Mexico, Cuba, the United States, Peru, Belgium, Japan, Italy and many other countries. She was named best libero of the Olympic qualifying tournament in 2016, when the team lost its ticket to the Rio Olympics. Grieving the end of her career was difficult, but Janie is now at peace with that finality, as today she feels great pride in helping people recover, get back to what's most important to them and improve their quality of life.

Training and professional skills

Janie graduated from Université de Montréal in 2007 with a DESS in kinesiology. After her volleyball career, she chose to reconnect with her other passion, occupational therapy. Having suffered several injuries, including two concussions, she turned her attention in particular to the treatment of this sometimes mysterious and worrying injury. At the same time, as she watched her patients evolve, she became interested in their mental health, since the majority of people complained of experiencing anxiety, isolation and information and stimuli overload, due to the presence of symptoms. Janie is one of the few private occupational therapists offering services to this clientele. Given the complexity of the cases she is referred to, she has seen fit to take a number of training courses to learn more about mental health, persistent pain and the cognitive difficulties that undermine the daily lives of sufferers. Janie is now well equipped to meet the needs of patients living with these issues, whatever their diagnosis or the cause of the initial accident.

Here is an overview of my certifications:

• Assessing and facilitating the return to work of people absent due to common mental disorders: Explore the Outil d'Identification des Situations de Handicap au Travail (OISHT) and use it to help this clientele return to work by considering all the factors that can influence them.
• Cognitive remediation interventions for “common mental disorders”: Developing one's own tools to help patients regain their full cognitive potential.
• Certification in rehabilitation in the context of chronic pain: Learn about pain types, causes, circumstances surrounding persistent pain, evidence on the best interventions, the influence of personality type, important players in treatment, etc.
• Personality types, motivational psychology and pain: Understand the different personality types and how they see things in rehabilitation, enabling us to better intervene in a personalized way with unique individuals to achieve our ultimate goal, their recovery.
• Functional Neurological Disorders: Understanding to better intervene: Gain a better understanding of this little-known diagnosis, understand the role of the various players involved in treating this disorder, and equip ourselves to better help them recover.
• Post-COVID syndrome rehabilitation: Understand and intervene appropriately: Know the syndrome and its evidence, its typical and atypical symptoms, the variability of cases and the range of possible interventions. 

"Success is not final and failure is not fatal, but it is the courage to go on that counts" – Winston Churchill