2020 OS&OT Alumni Achievement Award

We are delighted to announce that Isabel Fryszberg is the recipient of the 2020 Alumni Achievement Award in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.

Isabel Fryszberg is inspired by the creative spirit that shaped the early beginnings of our profession. Her life’s work is driven by the belief that arts based occupational therapy can achieve wellness for growing resilient communities today.

Isabel Fryszberg, OT Reg. (Ont.) is an interdisciplinary artist: a painter, musician and filmmaker known for her award winning work as an arts-based registered occupational therapist. Isabel founded and ran Creative Works Studio, the innovative community program for adults living with mental health conditions, through Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital for over twenty years. Most recently, Isabel has developed an educational initiative informed by evidence-based practice. Arts and Well Being is designed to integrate the principals of occupational enablement with the arts and wellness and is delivered nationally through online courses and workshops. Her clients includes the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists and health, corporate, non-profit and arts organizations.  As well, she mentors other professionals in arts based approaches and she has a private practice. With the support of an Ontario Arts Council grant, Isabel is creating a website to provide a toolkit for cultivating resilience through the arts.

Isabel is an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and is a consultant for the department’s student led initiative, The Art of Keeping Well, a creative hub for Graduate Students to promote mental health.

Listen to the title track Coming out of Darkness from the debut album by the Social Mystics—a band comprised of professional musicians and members of Creative Works Studio.

Congratulations to Dr. Sara Guilcher, recipient of the 2020 Alumni Achievement Award in Physical Therapy.