Samantha was first exposed to the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdT MoCA) during her undergraduate studies at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) where she obtained her BOccTher degree Cum Laude in 2014. After working in rural parts of South Africa for a year, she pursued her passion for neurological rehabilitation by joining an acute neurological rehabilitation team at Life Groenkloof Hospital in Pretoria. While working here Samantha realised the importance of acknowledging a patient’s level of motivation following an acquired brain injury. Unfortunately there was no standardised outcome measure available to facilitate this. Through discussions with colleagues and experts in the field, Samantha discovered that therapists were informally using the VdT MoCA as a guide in neurological rehabilitation and that it could form the foundation for the development of such an outcome measure.

Samantha pursued her masters degree through the University of Pretoria on “The Development of an Outcome Measure based on Motivation and Action for Occupational Therapists working in Neurological Rehabilitation”. She obtained her MOccTher degree in 2019. The outcome measure, namely the Motivation and Action in Neurological Rehabilitation Outcome Measure (MANROM), is still in the early stages of development and requires quantifying, however Samantha is passionate about using the measure in practice as well as educating other OT’s in the use of the measure.

Samantha moved to the UK in 2020, where she hopes to continue her career in neurological rehabilitation as well as train other OT’s in the use of the VdT MoCA in neurological rehabilitation.