Greetings, everyone. Thank you for joining me once again for a new episode of the Meeting Mighty People Podcast. This month, I had the honor of interviewing Harrison Orpe, Is a Registered Psychologist with Cerebral Palsy who lives in Alberta.
In this podcast, Harrison shares his experiences in coming to terms with the reality of Cerebral Palsy and the joys of life. He also explains the insights that a Psychological Educational Assessment can provide and how it can support students throughout their schooling!
He is also a board member of the Pediatric Onset Neuromotor Impairment Lab. In this podcast, he shares research on the benefits of the newly studied assistive walking technology called the Trexo Robotic walker. He also volunteers with Dr. Elizabeth Conliffe to support her lab and research by adding his lived experience as a person with Cerebral Palsy. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Orpe for being willing to share his journey.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Meet a Mighty People podcast. I am excited to be joined by Harrison Orp who is a registered psychologist in Calgary, Alberta with cerebral palsy and he provides psychological education assessments for everyone in need. He’s here today to share his journey about living with Cerebral Palsy and possibly some of the benefits of using psychology when you live with Cerebral Palsy.
Hello, Harrison, and welcome to the show. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Yeah, thanks for having me. Um, so yeah, I have cerebral palsy. Um, personally, I was born very prematurely at 28 weeks. Um, I’m also a twin, so I have a twin brother. Um, he’s able bodied. And yeah, growing up, um, was obviously diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Um, I use a manual wheelchair, for day to day, to get myself around. Um, and then I, for I own my, uh, psychology practice called the Orp Psychology, where I provide counseling and, uh, assessment services to people in Calgary area. And then a little bit on the personal side, um, I actually, you know, I was quite the athlete.
And, uh, back in 2019, I was fortunate enough to, you know, Make it to Team Canada for shot put in para athletics and go to the para pan american games. Um, so that was a big accomplishment of mine as well. And then some other hobbies really for me include, you know, always learning about psychology and then obviously disability, disability advocacy, advocating for more accessible spaces and things like this in our world.
Um, and another huge hobby of mine is physical fitness. I’m often can be found in the gym lots, right? It’s a way I like to keep healthy and also enjoy You know, my time and enjoy working out and then I’m, I happen to be a huge Calgary Flames fan, so I’m always watching those games or, um, either doing that or hanging out with friends or, uh, my partner as well.
And, yeah, happy to be here. Thank you for that wonderful introduction. Same thing with me. I’m interested in hearing your story behind why you chose the career of psychology and what it means to you.
Yeah, and so from an early age, I actually wanted to be a doctor like I was always, you know fascinated with that as a kid um And thought that that would be something I definitely wanted to do But then once I got to kind of high school age, I realized it wasn’t really the most realistic for me Um number one because I have some impairment in my hands and then I I realized I didn’t like math And you need to do math in order to go to medical school, obviously.
You need to be really good at math. I was okay, but not obviously to the level to reach medical school. And then I kind of noticed, like, what else could I do?
And throughout my life, I’ve always been the type of person where people would describe and say, That I’m someone who’s easy to talk to, um, someone who people could share things with and share their story, and I, I noticed that as I got older, people would often come up to me and just kind of tell me vulnerable things, and these would be just complete strangers, and so I actually thought that, you know, psychology could be something I wanted to do, and I looked into that, and at the age of 16, kind of decided that I wanted to go all the way with it.
So I got my undergrad and then got my master’s and then went through the registration process to become registered in the province of Alberta. And then as I was kind of going through it more, um, blended in my own personal experience of helping people. Develop resilience and being very interested in resilience and how we Develop that as people and how some people are naturally just born with it.
I would consider myself to be one of those people Obviously being born with a disability you have to be able to adapt and overcome and that’s what we honestly describe resilience as it’s The ability to bounce back from difficult situations, um, and be able to move forward with it. I would also describe yourself, Alexis, as a person who has resilience as well, um, given in our little chat that you described before we started here, um, being able to advocate for yourself, um, with your town not being as accessible rather than just giving up, right?
We bounce back from that, so that was really what interested me was It’s helping people develop that resilience and just a general fascination with the human brain and knowing that I have the skills and abilities to talk to people easily, to listen well, and understand what people are going through.
Awesome. Was it hard for you to accept those compliments and accept that you are understanding to people when they’re going through stuff? No. I don’t think it was hard. I think it was more interesting when people would do it in public. But in my job, right, when people tell me that I’m very good and I can help them, um, it’s not necessarily hard.
I treat that as a, you know, welcome feedback. And I really see it as an honor to sit with people and help them through some of the worst times of their life and realize that there is the other side to it. Help them bring out the other side. Yeah, bring out the billions. Support them through bringing out the light of life.
Yeah, yeah. Do you particularly specialize in something particular like pain management? Or anything like that to support your cerebral palsy? Um, so it’s not necessarily about my cerebral palsy and what I specialize in work wise. That’s kind of a separate deal. Like, with my work, I specialize in kind of three pillars I identify in my practice that I work well with.
Um, number one would be specializing in So, uh, there’s an inherent stigma for men, um, to be able to access therapy. Um, there’s a stigma that if you speak up or talk about your emotions, you’re somehow perceived as weak or not enough of a man, for example. Um, and that’s an area that I really like to focus on for, The main reason, right, is that stigma.
And then another reason is, there’s not very many male psychologists anymore, right? There’s, it’s a heavily female dominated field, which is great, right? But it’s good to be able to have, um, the ability to improve the relationships for men and to help them become more comfortable. And granted, I don’t just see men.
It’s just an area of specialty. I see all genders and, uh, gender identities there. But Um, it’s just something I focus on, um, a little bit in terms of marketing and stuff like that. And then obviously we see all sorts of conditions like anxiety, depression, um, personality disorders, things like that. Another pillar of my specialization and my training is to work with people who have addictions.
Um, so whether it be to alcohol or various other drugs and helping them overcome those addictions and, and lead healthy, sober lives. And then the third pillar of my business is,
Focusing on psychoeducational assessments, and so what these are are specific assessments that can help provide a snapshot of a person’s learning style.
Primarily, they’re done with school age children, but I also do them for adults, um, and so it’s using those to diagnose things like learning disorders, other mental health disorders, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Or, um, anxiety, for example, um, and I assess that across, like I said, children and adults.
Across from what the, what does the assessment do for you once you get to university? Me, being a person with cerebral palsy, my doctor wanted me to have one, specifically so that if I was going to go to university, they’d have that piece of paper, so they had the notes to know they had to accommodate me, so it wasn’t a A huge deal when I went and asked for accommodations.
So what does, what does that help people do? Part of it, right? So, um, it gives you potentially a diagnosis. Right, and if you have that diagnosis, and it doesn’t always guarantee one, right, so you can either have a diagnosis or not, um, it gives you a legal right to be accommodated for it. Um, so in school, we call those.
Individualized program planning for university. You take that documentation and say, look, this is how my brain works. It works a little differently. These are some accommodations that helped me have a living level, uh, playing field. Um, and that you must provide that to me. So it just allows you for whatever university you choose to be able to go to the, um, accessibility department and be given those.
Um, accommodations without having to argue for them, right? It’s a legal right to them. So, legally, they have to give them to you whether they do it properly or not. Yeah, and it’s just a, uh, another piece of, like, ammunition or, um, something like that that can help, right?
Yes. I find they give the adaptations to you, but until you teach the teacher or whoever’s working with you, nurse, doctor, how to do it, how to suit you best, they’re not gonna understand your brain.
Good enough to help you. That’s a very important point.
It may become annoying to have to do that, but I think that’s just very important because nobody is going to understand you unless you gain the skills to advocate for yourself, or in younger cases, right, that’s a parent advocating. But as you get older, you know, university age, you have to be able to advocate, and the report can help you do that if necessary.
What was your first initial thought about having to go to, potentially going to university as a person with Cerebral Palsy? I honestly didn’t really think much of it. Um, I see my Cerebral Palsy not as a core piece of my identity. It’s just a part of my life. Um, it doesn’t make me any different than anyone else.
Just that I may have a different way of getting around or do things a little differently, but at my core I’m not a different or lesser person because I have cerebral palsy. I just thought I want to be a psychologist So what do I need to do that? I need to go get an undergraduate degree in psychology and get a master’s degree I guess the only thing that I did have to think about it was a little minor East was that I think it’s easier if I go to school at, you know, somewhere in Calgary instead of traveling to another city to do this.
Um, another thing I thought about as well is, so I went to Mount Royal University. So Calgary has two main big universities. Um, so University of Calgary, obviously, um, and then Mount Royal. So Mount Royal is a little smaller than you’ve seen. GC, given that like, it’s just lesser student enrollment, so that means you’re not sitting at the back of lecture theatres.
If you’re in a wheelchair, or forced to sit at the front, um, you can get to classes much easier because it’s a smaller campus. So I did think about that. I applied to both schools and got into Mount Royal, so, and I thought it would be easier, just, just simple things like that. So I was a little bit of lost like, and aw, maybe I don’t get to travel away.
Um, but it wasn’t really that big of a deal for me, um, because I, I knew I would do it and, and my parents kind of had that expectation of myself and my brother, my brother’s able bodied, but just both of us to go to university, right? Um, so it wasn’t really something I thought too much about, um, being affected by CP.
All right, so I hear you. I hear that there’s some planning that has to go on in order to accommodate your accessibility needs, depending on what you need. Can you describe some of those feelings of how much energy it takes to plan, how far you’ve got to plan ahead, and Yeah, um, I think any disability, whether it’s CP or something else, right, it all Involves some level of planning because the fact of the matter is that we’re living in a world that is not made for us.
And I don’t think it ever will be. So you always need to make sure. Do I have an accessible space? Where am I going to? Do I need to call places to make sure I can get in? But not too much energy, um, and things like that goes into it on a daily basis, because I kind of, I have a setup where I live alone in a condo I own that I’ve set up for myself, and I have this office here that’s a short commute.
Um, I’m very fortunate to have the ability to drive. using hand controls. Um, so it really is just based on planning of if I’ve never been somewhere before, it would just simply be a phone call to make sure a place is accessible or something like that. And then if I get there and it’s not, it’s about making a adjustment.
Um, for example, I was out, um, with my girlfriend, um, A couple weeks ago, we decided to go to a restaurant, um, in University District here in Calgary. Um, and it turns out we go in there and they go, Oh, we all, all we have are high tables. Um, and they said, well, we can make a low table for you, but it wouldn’t be the best.
And at that point I decided, you know what, I’m not going to give a business, um, that can’t have low tables my, my money, right? So it just was a simple pivot. Of let’s find somewhere else that was thankfully like across the street and had lower tables, right? So it’s just these things and in the very beginning when you’re kind of adjusting to disability It can be very tiring and very frustrating and very annoying but I think over time It’s important to have the resiliency and just get the attitude of this just kind of is what it is Right.
I don’t want to consume energy and being upset or mad about it I just need to know that I have to plan and do this, and it’s just the way my life is, right, and I kind of personally developed that attitude, um, just over, yeah, like I said, 20, 29 years now, I’m 29, of dealing with this. It’s just something that you pick up and that I’ve learned over, over time.
Yes. Um, Yeah, that was an interesting answer. I always, for myself, I find it kind of frustrating, but at the same time, when I’m looking at menus online, like last night, I looked at a menu online because we ordered the Chicken, and I was like, this isn’t very accessible, but I really like this place, so you either make it accessible, or you don’t give me money to that person.
Yeah, you have to understand that, um, one of my, one of my, actually my favorite quotes, um, it’s from, um,
L. A. Wiesel. It’s a Holocaust survivor, right?
So he says that forces beyond your control can take away almost everything you possess except for one thing, right? Your ability to choose how you respond to any given situation.
So lots of, you know, stuff about being disabled is outside of your control. I don’t think any of us would choose this. Um, but it is what it is, right? But we have the ability of how to respond to it and make life what we need to make, which is those advocacy skills and having the positive mindset of being able to go forward and, you know, Turns out we went to a really nice restaurant that night that was actually much better, um, than the place we originally wanted to go.
So sometimes things work out. Sometimes a disability can be a blessing and sometimes it can be an absolute. Well, I don’t know what to do with it, so, uh, let’s call it a disguise. Some days it can be a talent and some days it can be a downfall. Yeah, and I think it’s around what we choose to make it and I just see it as part of my life, not something I would change.
If you gave me the choice, would you like to change it? I would say no, because it would take away so many of those opportunities that I had because of my disability. For example, with sports, right? Um, becoming to the, getting to rather the level that I, uh, you know, did with Team Canada, you actually have to be disabled to do that sport.
So who knows if I would have been a good enough athlete at AbleLot maybe, but I got that huge opportunity to go and represent Canada because of my disability. gave me access to this career, um, who knows what I would be doing if I wasn’t. So I just think we all have the cards we’re dealt, and we have to have the attitude of yeah, you know what, some days it sucks, we can acknowledge that for about, you know, maybe 15 minutes, but then how is that helpful if we continue to be stuck in the mindset of, you know, this isn’t fair, the world sucks.
Right, it’s reasonable to experience, but then moving forward, we actually want to say, okay, what can I do to move past this and what can I do to advocate for myself and create a meaningful life? Awesome. That was an awesome answer. I was hoping you’d go there because it’s just the way it is. And sometimes it’s easier to say it to someone else than it’s easier to say it to yourself.
And sometimes if someone else says it, it’s easier for them to understand what you said. Yeah, and I think, um, as you said and yourself, sometimes you get quite frustrated. And I think the frustration is there and we all have moments of it. Like I had it, I can remember being your and having those frustrations.
But I think It gets easier the older you get, because the more you get used to it, the more you learn things, the more you learn how to advocate and how to set things up for yourself. Um, I think it comes with time, right? Because it’s experience. If you had a positive message you could share with the world, what would you want to say about being a person with diverse needs?
I’d just say that, um, we’re people like anybody else. Um, what I would like people to see, Is that, you know, I am good person who, who has a successful business, who does a lot of things, um, who happens to use a wheelchair. But unfortunately what society sees now is they see the wheelchair first and then all of that other stuff.
Right? You need to see that we’re just people like anyone else who contribute to society, become educated, and work through things. It just so happens that we get around a little differently or do things differently. It doesn’t drastically change anything about us. And I’ve worked very hard on myself, um, that cerebral palsy is just something I have, right?
It’s not, My whole identity, um, and so that would be the message is try to see the person first and the ability second, right? Um, the ability does not define a person. That was a great answer and I agree with that answer because people in society nowadays tend to see your disability first before they can see you as an actual person.
Yeah, and I don’t know, I don’t know if that will ever change, but we need to keep advocating for it. I hear that you work at the Children’s Hospital in the Pediatric Neuromotor Onset Lab. Can you tell me a little bit about that and how you maybe make a difference in people’s lives as you’re there, as I’m sure you do.
You do? Yeah, so it’s a volunteer position. I just sit on a patient engagement board group, um, where this is, consists of individuals who are impacted by cerebral palsy, whether it be directly, like myself, or, um, their parents of children with cerebral palsy. And we just, um, advise. Um, on various research projects that the lab is doing and provide our lived experience and personal input into these, um, projects because it gives a personal touch to it and actually directly can inform the research and what needs to be done and what is being done.
So it’s just providing that voice of people who live with cerebral palsy, whether it be directly or, um, as a parent. And for me it would make me feel good hearing someone else’s story and how their life has changed over time and using the different technology like the Trexel robotic and how that’s so hard to get used to, but eventually it changes your life.
Like, when you have a walker, and you’re getting used to it, walking your first steps, but it, and you may hate it, but it might change your life. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and there’s so much more advances, like, than when I was a kid, none of this existed, right? So. Yes. Now with AI nowadays, you can punch in your resume, and it will have it done in ten seconds.
Yeah, it’s important to be careful with AI, though, because it’s not always accurate. In career education, my teacher showed me one as an example, because I couldn’t put the resume into a certain format he wanted, so he used AI to show me an example, and I just went through it and looked at it and changed what I needed to change.
Last question of the interview. What do you think makes a mighty person?
So I think it goes back to what I was saying in the beginning, right, which is somebody who is resilient. Um, so you don’t have to be disabled to be mighty. Um, you just have to be a person who is willing to bounce back whenever adversity comes your way, um, willing to advocate for change in whatever it may be, um, willing to, you know, work towards.
That change and not just sit silently.
Yes,
yes. Well, that was, it was great to have you on my podcast today. Thank you for joining me. It was a wonderful conversation. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was, uh, great to chat about, um, my perspectives on disability and a little bit of, uh, psychology there. Yes, I, I, I enjoy using psychology as part of my maintenance routine for cerebral palsy.
Yeah, it can be helpful for anyone. I would encourage, um, anyone who’s considering getting services that there’s nothing to be ashamed of, right? I think it should be treated just as Like we go to a doctor if we have any sort of physical ailment, there’s nothing wrong with going to a trained mental health professional, um, like a psychologist to help, um, determine what’s going on and create some coping strategies and help you develop skills, uh, to manage and, and find, um, some joy back into your life.
Yes. Well, thanks for that. That helped me out a lot. Yeah, my pleasure.
Meeting Mighty People by Alexis Folk 