Meet Erin Clarelli

We recently connected with Erin Clarelli and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is something I used to think of as a “hustle culture” word. I used to think it meant you were “so tough” because you didn’t let yourself feel any emotions. Over the past 3 years of entrepreneurship, I’ve realized it’s not that. It’s about going through the hard stuff, feeling it deeply, and grabbing every lesson you can take from it to move forward stronger, more empowered, and more focused.

With that said, I’d say my resilience started in my teens through my upbringing and going through hard things within my family dynamic. From there, I carried myself through undergrad, & grad school financially and accountability wise. I was driven by my own desire to be better, to show up fully, and to make a positive change in the world. I feel my resilience has just continued to grow and evolve (it never gets easier, let me add that), through building a business and a team of incredible occupational therapists that I work alongside.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My work and life passion is as an occupational therapist. I’ve been interviewed on SD voyager both for my first business, yOTga (https://sdvoyager.com/interview/life-work-erin-clarelli/), & for my current business, SUNRISE Therapies (https://sdvoyager.com/interview/exploring-life-business-with-erin-clarelli-of-sunrise-therapies-inc/). So you can definitely dive deeper and learn about my past in those interviews.

My fuel is the community I serve, specifically the autistic community… the individuals themselves, their families, & friends. Their inclusion, acceptance, and recognition in this world is not something that should have to be advocated for, but it does. I’ve continued to provide neurodiversity affirming OT support through SUNRISE myself and have a team of incredibly kind, caring, and committed therapists alongside me that I am so grateful for. By building this team, I’m moving closer to my mission of providing excellent support that presumes competence, is strength based, and values the voices and input of those we serve.

I am also getting ready to launch an OT mentorship course to help work towards our vision of SUNRISE Therapies being a well-known and respected provider of high-quality neurodiversity affirming occupational therapy services, education, mentorship, and products that positively influences the way the world views, responds to, respects, and interacts with autistic individuals and their families. These offerings will be based on integrity, respect, and trust. As well as the knowledge and input from adults who are neurodivergent and living the experiences.

I am also very drawn to resiliency and empowerment within this community. I’d even say resilient isn’t a strong enough word to capture what this community works through and works against day to day. The importance of recognizing that and reminding the individuals and their families of how powerful and capable they truly are is a common thread I find myself discussing and implementing.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Consistency

Dedication to something bigger than yourself

Surrounding yourself with people who support, encourage, and lift you up. (Shun the non-believers ;))

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played an important role in your development?

Oh man, I LOVEEEE reading, I can make a whole long list here. If anyone ever wants more, reach out to me, I love sharing books. I solely read self-development or non-fiction books.

The Four Agreements
The Garden
Dare to Lead
The Alchemist

All of them have such intense learnings that I don’t think I can summarize in a response here so I 100% recommend picking them up and reading them. The four agreements is definitely one I live by and the “Don’t take anything personally.” agreement is SO SO important in the road to resiliency and overcoming hardship. Especially in this day and age where social media puts pressure on us as a society in so many different ways. Learning to TRULY let go of caring what others think of you and to accept that others actions almost always have everything to do with them, and nothing to do with you is so freeing. Do what you can. Make the positive impact that you are fueled by. Focus on that.

I’d also say the agreement “Be impeccable with your word.” is self-explanatory and very clear why we need this in our world today. So go grab the book and DO THE DAMN THING. No one’s going to come to you to read it to you. This is all part of resiliency. Take ownership and take action.  🙂

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