Qi Creative is excited to welcome Dana Eckl, Occupational Therapist and Coach, to the team!

About Dana

Dana has a BEd. with a minor in Special Education, and an MSc. in Occupational Therapy from the University of Alberta.

Dana’s passion for working with children and families comes from her personal experiences with trauma and adversity in childhood and into adulthood. Dana recognizes the distinct importance of how we engage with children at a young age; how we teach them, interact with them, support them, acknowledge them and most importantly celebrate them.

Dana feels her purpose in life is to do her part to redefine what “success” means and to shift the focus from what we can’t do, to what we can.

She believes there is so much missed beauty in things that are ‘different’. For these reasons, Dana loves to work in collaboration with families and children to foster their spectacular skills, talents and strengths that they can use to create a uniquely meaningful and enjoyable life.

Some of Dana’s spectacular interests include building clay charms, reading books, and making puzzles. She loves to decorate for Halloween and Christmas and participate in festive activities such as going to haunted houses, taking a sleigh ride or skating at an outdoor rink. She also loves playing board games and can frequently be spotted sipping a latte at a local board game cafe. Dana and her partner, John, love cooking together and are always up for exploring new cuisines, new flavours and new cooking techniques.

Starting with Qi

Starting with Qi has been both overwhelming and exciting.

It is always scary to start a new job, but coming into such a welcoming and supportive environment has made it less scary. They even gave me candy and goodies on my first day! The Qi Creative team is full of incredibly kind and welcoming people.

During my first few weeks I joined many shadow visits and no two were the same.

The creativity in supporting children and families and the connection the clinicians have made with their families was apparent. Working in this field can be hard - families are complicated, life is messy - but we are all doing our best.

Qi’s focus on creating your awesome and continually celebrating success and strengths along the way is a helpful and much needed reminder of that, especially on the hard days.

I am grateful to be a part of this awesome team and community.