Liz DeFinnis is Leading a New Conversation in Occupational Therapy
By: Alexandra Perez
When Liz DeFinnis took the spotlight with the Nevada Occupational Therapy Association, she was not just giving a presentation. She was lighting a path for the future. In front of a room full of Occupational Therapists, DeFinnis delivered an expertly blended professional insight with lived experience as she shifted from traditional therapy practice to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Her message was clear and timely: Occupational Therapists are uniquely positioned to lead the entrepreneurial revolution, but too many feel constrained by systems that no longer serve them. Her approach, rooted in both clinical credibility and entrepreneurial strategy, gave OTs something they rarely receive: permission to expand and the tools to begin.
This moment marked a new chapter in DeFinnis’s career. After years of working in acute rehab and home health, and later building a successful coaching business supporting high-achieving women, she is now becoming a go-to speaker for Occupational Therapists who want more than productivity quotas and an industry controlled by money rather than impact. The Nevada presentation is just the beginning, with more speaking engagements already in the works.
“We need to stop treating entrepreneurship as the exit strategy,” she says. “For OTs, it can be the expansion strategy.”
From Clinical Burnout to Entrepreneurial Clarity
Before stepping onto conference stages, DeFinnis was guiding Occupational Therapists and high-achieving moms through personal and professional transformation. Her programs focus on what she calls “repatterning and reparenting,” a practical yet powerful method that helps women rebuild the way they think, plan, and speak to themselves. It is not just mindset work. It is a blueprint for creating lives that feel aligned.
The turning point came after the birth of her third child, when a medical emergency reshaped her priorities. DeFinnis restructured everything about her life, leaving the rigid clinical grind to design a business that reflected her values as both a practitioner and a mother. That pivot did not just change her personal life. It became the foundation of a larger message: professional success does not have to come at the cost of presence, health, or identity.
Empowering OTs to Take the Lead
DeFinnis knows the OT field from the inside, and she speaks openly about both its potential and its pitfalls. Her talks invite therapists back to the profession’s roots, where healing was holistic and meaningful occupation was the true measure of progress. She challenges OTs to revisit the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, the profession’s own guide to domain and process, and use it as a springboard for innovation.
She also addresses that pain points practitioners cannot ignore: rising caseloads, shrinking reimbursement, and the creeping sense that their impact is being limited by systems outside their control. Her message offers a way forward, one that embraces entrepreneurial thinking, core value-based decision-making, and service models that benefit both clients and clinicians.
“The coaching space is growing. AI is evolving. And OTs have a competitive edge if they choose to claim it,” she says.
Speaking With Credibility and Compassion
What sets DeFinnis apart as a speaker is her ability to bridge strategy with compassion. She does not just talk about mindset or systems in isolation. She connects both and brings them down to earth with practical applications.
Her sessions deliver real-world tools that therapists can use, whether they are launching a side business, advocating for better working conditions, or simply trying to reconnect with their professional purpose. She is not positioning herself as someone who abandoned the field. She is positioning herself as someone shaping its future.
For DeFinnis, public speaking is not about inspiration alone. It is about activation.
“Therapists do not need more to-do lists,” she says. “They need aligned action and a renewed sense of why they got into this in the first place.”
A Voice the Field Has Been Waiting For
With more speaking opportunities on the horizon and a growing reputation as a thought leader, Liz DeFinnis is emerging as the voice many occupational therapists did not realize they were waiting for. Her work is creating space for real conversations, real change, and real leadership in a field that is overdue for all three.
By blending clinical insight with entrepreneurial courage, she is not just helping therapists imagine a different future. She is showing them how to build it.
