Health work life occupational therapy ltd provides an holistic service to people of working age, whether currently in work or seeking a return to the workplace.
We are committed to enabling you to manage your health and wellbeing to make a successful and sustained return to your job/work/student role (if off sick), or to manage your wellbeing in order to maintain participation in activities and roles that are important to you.
What is occupational therapy?
Occupations are the activities we want and need to do in our lives. This may include your work but as our values suggest, as Occupational Therapists we are interested in all of your occupations and how you balance your job with your health and your life.
Occupational Therapy provides holistic, person-centred interventions to those whose health and/or well-being prevents them from doing the daily activities (occupations) that matter to them.
Occupational Therapists see beyond diagnoses and limitations to hopes and aspirations. They look at relationships between the activities you do everyday - your occupations - alongside the challenges you face and your environment.
Occupations are particularly important when we’re going through times of change. When we can’t do an occupation anymore or we need to adjust the way we do it, because of ill health or other barriers, our sense of self and purpose may change. This is where Occupational Therapy comes in.
WHO ARE WE?
Natalie Gadsby and Annelies Franklin are highly specialist Occupational Therapists with over 40 years combined NHS experience in mental health, long term conditions and staff wellbeing services. We excel at enabling individuals to achieve their goals in relation to managing their health, remaining well in work and/or regaining engagement in meaningful activities.
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Director & Occupational Therapist
Natalie qualified as an Ocupational Therapist in 2004. Her entire Occupational Therapy career has been within the NHS. Her career started in physical health before moving to adult mental health where she spent 8 years working in both in-patient and community adult mental health.
She has worked in a specialist ME/CFS service for the past 9 years. She has knowledge and experience of working with people living with complex long-term conditions, such as ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, long covid and FND. She is trained to undertake standardised sensory assessments and provide recommendations, which can be helpful to those who may be experiencing difficulty in the workplace because of sensory processing differences.
Natalie’s dual training and experience, working in both physical and mental health settings, means she is able to provide holistic assessments and recommendations.
In 2025, Natalie completed a postgraduate qualification in Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI, Post Graduate Certificate). This additional qualification means that she can assess a person’s sensory integration (SI) differences and provide SI-focused interventions, advice, and recommendations (for example, workplace/higher education recommendations). Occupational therapy is interested in a person’s meaningful occupations and participation strengths and challenges. The application of OT principles through an SI lens further enhances the holistic way in which Natalie can support a person to re-establish meaningful occupations and increase participation in meaningful roles and activities, including returning to work/higher education.
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Director & Occupational Therapist
Annelies qualified as an occupational therapist in New Zealand in 2003, where she first worked in head injury rehabilitation, enabling people to take part in occupations that are important to them, including returning to work. After moving to the UK in 2005, Annelies started work in a large acute hospital, supporting people to make a safe transition back home after a hospital admission. In 2006 she moved to inpatient mental health services, becoming the lead occupational therapist for adult inpatient mental health in Peterborough. She then moved into project management roles within NHS Trusts, before returning to mental health services as the lead occupational therapist for the community personality disorder service.
In 2019 Annelies led a staff wellbeing service in an NHS Trust before moving to establish a similar service for staff in NHS, council and charitable organisations across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Annelies's experience of working in physical and mental health services, as well as in leadership roles and across staff health and wellbeing services makes her well placed to provide holistic assessments and recommendations, acknowledging the links between work, health and home life.
Annelies has also undertaken additional training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Sensory Integration and holds an ILM Level 5 Certificate in Coaching to complement her occupational therapy "toolkit".
our Approach
We provide comprehensive, occupationally focussed assessment and intervention.
We use the Person-Occupation-Environment frame of reference to structure our assessment, ensuring that we hear about you (person), what tasks you do, or have difficulty doing (occupation) and where you do it (environment).
As occupational therapists, we understand that everyone is unique and we are highly skilled in delivering individualised support to meet those unique needs.
HOLIstic
We know that wellbeing and the impact of work affects your whole life, not just your work. We will seek to understand the interaction between your health, work and home life.
creative
We provide an alternative to traditionally, medically led workplace health services. We work with you to develop innovative solutions - enabling you to manage your health and wellbeing, at work and in life.
trauma informed
We understand how trauma impacts on a person’s life; their roles, interactions, activities and work and how this can continue to impact through the lifespan.
person centred
You, and your health and wellbeing are our number one priority. We demonstrate this through our holistic assessment, our commitment to confidentiality and our flexible service provision.
professional
We are qualified and experienced, HCPC registered and members of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists with an ongoing commitment to professional development so that we can bring you a quality service.