Chelsea Elkind, MS, OTR/L, C/NDT is a licensed Occupational Therapist in New York and Connecticut. She earned a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Hampshire, and she completed the first American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) accredited residency program in acute care at the University of Chicago Medical Center. 

As an occupational therapist and coach for more than a decade, Chelsea specializes in working with neurodivergent community members, including those with autism, ADHD and OCD. She is passionate about helping her clients strengthen their executive functioning skills, flexibility, working memory, and independent living skills, and empowering them to more independently navigate all aspects of life, including relationship challenges, home and work life, and leisure pursuits.

Chelsea has advanced knowledge and expertise in a specific treatment modality called the Multicontext Approach. This approach provides a framework for promoting strategy use and online awareness of performance (e.g. self monitoring) across everyday activities. It’s designed to help people who experience executive functioning challenges that interfere with daily life learn to generate and use cognitive strategies more independently through guided learning methods. 

Throughout her career, Chelsea has worked in a variety of roles at a number of large New York City-based hospital institutions. She was previously the Occupational Therapy Assistant Unit Supervisor for the Inpatient Adult Rehabilitation Unit at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital/Rusk Rehabilitation, and prior to that she was the Outpatient Neurological Occupational Therapy Clinical Specialist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Chelsea is also an adjunct teaching associate of the Occupational Therapy graduate programs at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and New York University in New York, NY.

Chelsea has also collaborated on several cognitive research projects and has presented at several local and national lectures and workshops, including four national workshops at the Annual Conference for Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) and the AOTA Annual Conference. Her publications and research have focused on the application, feasibility, and treatment fidelity of the Multicontext Approach to cognitive rehabilitation.

In addition to her expertise in cognitive rehabilitation, Chelsea holds a certification in Neurodevelopmental Handling Techniques from the Neurodevelopmental Treatment Association (NDA) and is also certified in a variety of neurologic treatment modalities, including but not limited to vestibular rehabilitation, Lee Silverman Voice Training (LSVT-BIG) and International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) as per the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA).