THE ALIGNED PROFESSIONAL EMPOWERMENT MODEL: What is it?

By: Debra Battistella, MS, OTR/L and Heidi MacAlpine, OTD, M.Ed.

Part 1: 2/19/25

In response to professional discontent and emotional well-being challenges, Heidi and Debra present The Aligned Professional Empowerment Model. This model guides The Aligned Professional (TAP) programs. It is born from our personal experiences and offers a strengths-based approach to foster growth, adaptability, and strong relationships. This blog series explores the seven different components of the model to help you understand and apply its principles.

What is An Aligned Professional? An Aligned Professional is someone who works with others in a flexible, open-minded way. They have a growth mindset, meaning they always learn and adapt to new challenges. They can manage when their beliefs or values clash with others, which helps prevent misunderstandings or conflicts. Instead of letting disagreements cause problems, an Aligned Professional stays aware, accepts differences,  and focuses on finding solutions. This approach helps them build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients, leading to better results for everyone.

Being An Aligned Professional Isn’t Always Easy: When we're overwhelmed or stressed, it can be so hard to stay in alignment with what we truly value, right? It's like the noise of everything going on drowns out what’s most important to us. But here's the thing—feeling overwhelmed is human, it happens to all of us at some point. What matters is how we handle it.

Heidi and I noticed that when we get anxious or stressed, we tend to react impulsively or, at times, shut down altogether. It’s easy to get caught in the moment, and harder to take a step back to consider what we want to be doing. It takes effort and focus to be intentional; to slow down and check in with ourselves: “Okay, what’s going on here? What’s most important to me right now?”

What about you? When you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, what do you notice about how you respond? Or, do you react?

Our Solution Aligned Professional Empowerment Model: The Aligned Professional Empowerment Model shows us different aspects of an Aligned Professional through a strengths-based lens.

The center of the model takes the professional on a journey of self-discovery to gain greater awareness of their wholeness for confidence and clarity. This guides them towards continued expansion and growth, fostering a deeper connection to themselves, their purpose, and their potential.

When you look at the model, what, if anything, resonates with you?

Stay with us as we continue our journey through the TAP Empowerment Model. In our next article, we’ll explore ‘Assets,’ the very foundation that fuels this transformative approach. There’s so much to uncover and we can’t wait to share it with you!

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” 

John Quincy Adams