Baking with Suzie
October 2023
Baking with Suzie
We don’t know why or how it happens, but something about the fall weather activates the baking gene inside all of us. Especially over the past few years, we have incorporated a rehab-wide baking day into every October activity calendar. If we could translate our reasoning into a logical math equation, it would be: (fall weather + clients + baking) x the holiday season = happiness.
One of the things we are most grateful for at Universal are the therapists and staff that make our Day Program run with such efficiency and creativity. Not only are our therapists the best at what they do, but everyone has hobbies and talents outside of the therapy field that we rely upon constantly. Take, for example, the Executive Director of Clinical Operations at our Livingston location, Suzie Organista – otherwise known as Sweet Tiramisuzie.
Suzie has her hands full overseeing the day to day operations of our Day Program including managing our many Day Program departments, following up with client incident reports, and overseeing the therapy programs, among many other responsibilities. But a few years ago Suzie decided to pursue one of her passions and open up her own baking business on the side – and word quickly spread about her delicious desserts and cake pops. So, who better to celebrate National Dessert Month than with special guest baker Tiramisuzie?
A bad day spent baking is better than a good day doing anything else.
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Don’t bite off more than you can chew – unless it’s chocolate.
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The dessert of choice for the day was the king of all cookies, chocolate chip cookies. Suzie led the clients through a baking lesson from beginning to end, with the help of the DSPs and therapists who were each in charge of their own group of clients. Aside from getting to eat plenty of warm cookies, baking is one of the greatest examples of a Fun Friday event that can easily incorporate therapy targets into the activity. Baking includes planning, recipe reading, measuring, stirring, mixing, and forming individual cookies before they bake in the oven – which means plenty of opportunities to focus on therapy goals.
Nicole and Melissa, two of our Cognitive Therapists, used the activity to hold their Cog sessions with clients, working on goals such as sequencing, memory, communication skills, patience, and working with other clients in a group setting. Everyone was rewarded with homemade, freshly baked treats. Overall, it was a very sweet day filled with chocolatey goodness, messy tables, and a lot of team work. Thank you to everyone for another baking lesson in the books!
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