Neuro Recovery After Stroke

Are you fully using the critical window of opportunity after stroke to support neuro-recovery during your OT sessions—or are you unintentionally devoting valuable rehab time to compensation?

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Henry Hoffman to explore why prioritizing recovery—when possible—matters, and how occupational therapy professionals can more intentionally drive neuroplastic change after stroke.

Together, we break down core principles that support recovery-oriented practice, including:

➡️ Motor learning over compensation
➡️ High-repetition, task-specific practice
➡️ Sensory-rich feedback to shape movement

We also unpack emerging neuroscience from the past few years that supports this approach—and translate it into real-world practice. You’ll hear practical examples of what these principles can look like across education, assessment, and intervention, helping you reflect on how recovery-focused your current stroke practice truly is.

Whether you work in inpatient rehab, outpatient neuro, home health, or education, this episode will challenge and refine how you think about recovery, compensation, and the powerful role OT professionals play in post-stroke neuro-rehabilitation. 🧠✨

1. You will recognize occupation-based assessments OTs can use related to stroke recovery.

2. You will be able to identify evidence-based OT interventions for neuro recovery after stroke.

• Intro

• Discussion

  1. Tell me your OT story—and where your interest in neuro rehab has led you.

  2. Holistically prioritizing neuro-recovery is a passion of yours. Why is that?

  3. What new science has shaped your thinking about neuro-recovery over the past few years?

  4. For you, what are the core principles OT professionals need to follow to prioritize neuro-recovery?

  5. How can we set the tone for neuro-recovery through patient education?

  6. What assessments do you gravitate toward when neuro-recovery is the goal?

  7. What core interventions should OT professionals rely on to promote recovery?

  8. I’ve seen you share that skilled neuro therapists are very good at noticing micro-wins—“early signals of rewiring that are easy to miss if you’re not trained to look for them.” Tell me more about this. How can we encourage our patients along the way?

  9. I can’t help but ask one question about tech. If you were at a small rural hospital like me, with a limited budget, what tech tools would you use?

• Live Q&A

• Closing

• Effectiveness of a rehabilitation program involving functional proprioceptive stimulation for postural control and motor recovery among stroke patients: a double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial

• Higher Doses of Intensive Upper Limb Rehabilitation for Moderate to Severe Impairment in Acute, Subacute Stroke: Phase I Dose Escalation Study

• The Implications of Microglial Regulation in Neuroplasticity-Dependent Stroke Recovery

• Bridging Research and Practice: A Preliminary Detailed Analysis of Current Upper Limb Occupational Therapy Dose and Content in Publicly Funded Poststroke Rehabilitation

• High-dose high-intensity arm neurorehabilitation in chronic stroke improves general motor control

• Observation of amounts of movement practice provided during stroke rehabilitation

• What is current practice for upper limb rehabilitation in the acute hospital setting following stroke? A systematic review

• The volume and timing of upper limb movement in acute stroke rehabilitation: still room for improvement

• Time Post-Stroke and Upper Extremity Stroke Motor Recovery Rehabilitation: A Meta-Analysis

• EBRSR Upper Extremity Motor Rehabilitation Interventions

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no current financial stake in this topic and no business relationship with Saebo. Approximately a decade ago, OT Potential's founder did freelance writing work for Saebo. This is also disclosed in the episode.

Speaker interests: Henry Hoffman is a co-founder of Saebo, which manufactures and sells stroke rehabilitation products including the Saebo Flex and Saebo Glove, and he holds patents on stroke recovery devices. He also hosts the No Plateau Podcast and provides paid stroke certification courses to therapists. Saebo products are named during this course as examples of affordable options.