North Shore OT is a paediatric occupational therapy service located on the Lower North Shore of Sydney. Our clinic is located in Artarmon and provides a fantastic therapy space complete with sensory gym. We are passionate about helping children to meet their full potential!

Janie Echt graduated from The University of Newcastle in 2003. From the very beginning she was passionate about working with children to help them to meet their fullest potential and has worked in Australia and the UK refining her skills over the last 18 years.

Janie has attended numerous post-graduate training courses to ensure she is providing the most effective treatment options to her clients. Janie is a DIR-Certified clinician.

Janie currently evaluates and treats children with sensory processing challenges, motor and coordination issues, autism spectrum disorder, visual-spatial issues and school readiness concerns.

Janie is a mum of three and truly understand that life gets busy and it can be challenging to balance everyday life stuff while trying to best meet your child/rens needs. She enjoys partnering with families to help them problem solve how to fit therapeutic strategies and interventions into their daily lives whilst minimising the overwhelm!

Cheryl is an Occupational Therapist who feels strongly about person-affirming therapy. She graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa, in 1996 with a BSC(OT) and has worked in the field of paediatrics ever since.

Cheryl has extensive training and years of experience with working with Autistic children, sensory processing and emotional dysregulation. She engages with her clients and their families using strengths-based strategies to support their sense of belonging and identity, to thrive as unique individuals.

Cheryl is a certified DIR/Floortime practitioner and values the importance of play and relationships. Cheryl is passionate about supporting her client’s family’s and carers/early childhood educators to have a deeper understanding about their child’s individual profile and behaviour used to communicate underlying challenges.

Cheryl provides external supervision to many OT’s supporting them to become confident and reflective OT’s providing neurodiversity-affirming therapy.

As a mother of three busy children, she also understands the constant challenge to find balance in life.

At North Shore OT our therapy is strongly guided by our belief in the strengths of a developmental approach to therapy. We support children to develop their skills in their everyday activities, school tasks and social and emotional development by identifying weaknesses and gaps in component areas lower down in the developmental pyramid and working with the children and families to strengthen these areas.

Parents, carers and other family members are an integral part of our therapy sessions. Through coaching and education we strive to support parents and carers to deepen their connection with their child. And it is within the context of these relationships that much progress can be made.

At North Shore Occupational Therapy play is an integral part of all our treatment approaches. Occupational Therapists are skilled at choosing activities that are a just-right fit for the optimal challenge to a child's skills, and the very best therapy sessions are those in which the child doesn't even realise that they are working hard!