My name is Cath Cleveland, I am the owner and principal consultant of Occupational Focus. I graduated as an Occupational Therapist from La Trobe University in 2000 and have worked in a variety of settings during my career, both in Australia and the United Kingdom. I am an AHPRA registered Occupational Therapist and member of Occupational Therapy Australia.

I currently live in Melbourne’s outer west with my husband and two young children. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I love those rare moments of peace (which are few and far between when you are a busy parent), to escape into the pages of a book!

The story of how Occupational Focus came to be and how I started working for myself came about after going through what was undoubtedly the most difficult period of my life, after the birth of my second child in January 2011. Unfortunately, my son had a lot of sleeping difficulties and for the first 8.5 months of his life we went through hell. Fortunately, now I can look back on the situation and am able to see all of the good that came out of it.

It was when my son was 4.5 months old, that I sought out help from a sleep school and it was here I met another Occupational Therapist who was going through a very similar experience to my own. I remember being in a room learning to settle my son, when I overhead my mother-in-law talking to another one of the mums. When I heard her say she was an Occupational Therapist, I recall thinking, it doesn’t matter where you go (even to sleep school) you always end up meeting another Occupational Therapist!

As it turns out, this Occupational Therapist and I shared a lot in common including our professional background and experience, as well as an understanding of each other’s “hell”. This Occupational Therapist told me how she was working for herself and if when I was interested in getting back to work I should give her a call. Coincidently, I had been made my redundant from my job and was going to be new opportunities. I pondered long and hard over the decision to be self-employed, it was something I had never even thought about. But when I nutted it out, it made me realise what a good fit it was for me and my priorities as a parent and in life. So, in October 2011 I took the plunge.

And now almost 3 years on, here I am. I am running a business which allows me to do the work that I want to do - work which I am passionate about. And most importantly, my work allows me to make a difference in the lives of my clients.