Rebecca Cain

In 2003, I had the good fortune to team up with a group of very talented women to create Birth to Three and Beyond Pediatric Therapies. We met while providing home health services though the Lake County Early Intervention Program. Our business grew quickly, and we expanded twice into the offices next to our original space. But even with our expansions, we felt that our plans and dreams for the services that we wanted to offer were much bigger than our space could accommodate. So, in 2010 we bought a beautiful old building next to Cedar Lake in downtown Lake Villa, which is our current home. We created a wellness center on the upper level, opened a therapy clinic on the lower level, and rebranded ourselves as The Therapy Tree.

Working at The Therapy Tree is not just a job for me; I consider it an ongoing journey of discovery, with endless possibilities. Each day brings new challenges and triumphs that I am privileged to share with the families that come to me in search of guidance, support, and healing. I look at each client as a unique individual, not a diagnosis or label that fits them into a box with a pre-determined destiny. I am a life-long student, and am always searching for the best approach to help my clients and their families reach their highest potential.

The field of Occupational Therapy is a perfect fit for me, as it allows me to treat clients with a truly holistic approach. OTs consider all aspects of a person’s successes and struggles, across all of the environments and activities that are meaningful to them. This means considering the complete person from a physical, emotional, and psychological standpoint. It also means considering the influence of all of the people who are an important part of that person’s life. When I formulate a care plan, I emphasize the whole person, and the interdependence of all of the parts that contribute to the health, happiness, success, and well-being of each individual.

I am always searching for innovative ways to expand my knowledge and skills, which has fueled my drive to search for the most effective and efficient methods of helping my clients and their families. This has led me to seek solutions and expand my skills beyond the traditional training of my profession, and to add approaches that are just now being validated and recognized by western medicine through research methods only made possible by the incredible advances in technology that have occurred over the last decade.

Methods such as mindfulness training, meditation, yoga, manual bodywork techniques, dietary changes, and aromatherapy were once considered to be on the fringe of health care in this country. There is a rapidly growing and reputable body of research providing scientific evidence of the efficacy of complimentary treatment techniques, where previously this evidence was purely anecdotal.

I proudly consider myself a science nerd, and am continuously re-energized by the changing philosophy in our health care system, from separating the human organism into a collection of separate parts, to considering the interdependence and inter-relatedness of all aspects of our physical and emotional selves into a complete, ever-evolving entity.

The Therapy Tree is committed to be a part of this change, and we welcome you to join us on our journey to health and wellness.