Atlanta supports a diverse occupational therapy market that spans pediatric sensory integration and developmental services, adult hand and upper extremity rehabilitation, work injury and ergonomics, neurological rehabilitation for stroke and traumatic brain injury patients, and geriatric daily living skills restoration, reflecting the full scope of occupational therapy’s mandate to help people across the lifespan engage in the meaningful activities they need or want to do. The city’s large pediatric population with relatively high rates of autism spectrum disorder, sensory processing disorder, and developmental delays drives substantial demand for pediatric occupational therapy through school-based services, outpatient clinics, and home-based programs. Atlanta’s robust trauma system at Grady Memorial Hospital and its rehabilitation infrastructure at Shepherd Center, one of the nation’s leading spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospitals, create a sophisticated upper end of the adult occupational therapy continuum for the most complex neurological and orthopedic rehabilitation cases. Georgia requires occupational therapists to hold a master’s or doctoral degree in occupational therapy from an ACOTE-accredited program and pass the NBCOT examination for state licensure.
When selecting an occupational therapist in Atlanta, confirm active licensure through the Georgia State Board of Occupational Therapy and look for therapists with specialty certification relevant to your condition: Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) designation for hand and upper extremity conditions, Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) certification for pediatric sensory processing, or Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) training for autism intervention. For pediatric occupational therapy, ask whether the practice uses a family-centered model that actively involves parents in goal setting and home program design, since carry-over of therapeutic skills to the home environment is essential for functional gains. For adult rehabilitation, clarify whether occupational therapy will address specific activities of daily living goals you care about, since occupational therapy focused on work hardening, driving rehabilitation, or home modification for a returning stroke patient requires specialized evaluation beyond standard exercise-based rehabilitation. Red flags include practices that provide occupational therapy without functional goal documentation connected to specific meaningful activities, and clinics that cannot clearly differentiate what occupational therapy addresses differently from physical therapy.
Top Occupational Therapist Companies in Atlanta
1. The Hand and Upper Extremity Center of Georgia
Address: 980 Johnson Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30342
Phone: (404) 255-1242 (Therapy Department)
Website: https://www.handcenterga.com
Licenses & Certifications: Certified Hand Therapists (CHT) on staff; affiliated with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, Northside Hospital Atlanta, Northside Hospital Gwinnett, Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital
Services:
- Hand therapy and upper extremity rehabilitation
- Post-surgical hand and wrist rehabilitation
- Tendon repair rehabilitation
- Fracture rehabilitation
- Splinting and orthotic fabrication
- Nerve injury rehabilitation
- Trigger finger and carpal tunnel post-op care
- Home exercise programs and home exercise video access
- On-site surgery center coordination
About: The Hand and Upper Extremity Center of Georgia is a specialty center focused exclusively on hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, and shoulder conditions, with a therapy department staffed by occupational therapists specializing in hand rehabilitation, including Certified Hand Therapists who hold the most advanced credential in the specialty. The practice’s on-site surgery center and therapy department under one roof provides integrated care where the treating surgeons and hand therapists communicate directly about surgical findings, post-operative protocols, and rehabilitation progression, reducing the communication gaps that occur when patients receive therapy elsewhere. Hospital affiliations across five major Atlanta systems including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Northside, and Emory provide the practice’s surgeons and therapists with access to inpatient rehabilitation coordination when needed for complex cases. The Alpharetta satellite at 3400 Old Milton Parkway extends access to the north Atlanta suburbs.
2. Thrive Therapy Atlanta
Phone: (404) 565-2266
Website: https://www.thrivetherapyga.com/occupational-speech-therapy
Services:
- Occupational therapy evaluation and goal setting
- Daily activities rehabilitation
- Home environment assessment and adaptive equipment recommendations
- Workplace evaluation and accommodation recommendations
- Sensory processing evaluation and intervention
- Speech therapy coordination
- Caregiver education and guidance
- Outcomes evaluation to measure goal achievement
About: Thrive Therapy provides occupational and speech therapy services across the Atlanta and Savannah Georgia markets, offering a comprehensive approach that begins with thorough evaluation to establish individualized goals, proceeds through customized intervention, and concludes with outcomes evaluation to confirm goals have been achieved rather than simply completing a predetermined session count. The practice’s occupational therapy model explicitly addresses the home environment and workplace, providing recommendations for adaptive equipment and guidance for family members and caregivers that extend the therapeutic impact beyond the clinic walls into the environments where patients actually live and work. This ecological approach reflects the occupational therapy profession’s foundational commitment to enabling participation in meaningful activities within real contexts rather than measuring outcomes only by clinical performance metrics. Caregiver education is integrated into the treatment model, recognizing that family support significantly influences rehabilitation outcomes for both pediatric and adult patients.
3. Grady Health Rehabilitation Services – Occupational Therapy
Phone: (404) 616-1000
Website: https://www.gradyhealth.org/services/rehabilitation-services
Services:
- Inpatient and outpatient occupational therapy
- Upper extremity rehabilitation including splinting
- Activities of daily living restoration
- Acute cognitive dysfunction treatment
- Post-trauma and post-surgical rehabilitation
- Stroke rehabilitation
- Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation
- Self-care skills restoration including dressing, bathing, feeding, and grooming
About: Grady Health’s rehabilitation services team, which includes occupational therapists caring for more than 100 patients per month, provides occupational therapy within one of the Southeast’s busiest Level I Trauma Centers, giving its therapists unmatched experience with the acute and subacute rehabilitation of patients who have experienced traumatic injuries, strokes, complex surgeries, and severe polytrauma conditions. The occupational therapy program’s focus on restoring upper extremity function and activities of daily living through splinting and skilled therapy directly addresses the functional independence goals that matter most for patients transitioning from acute hospital care to home or rehabilitation settings. Grady’s rehabilitation team emphasizes one-on-one attention that it notes is rarely available at storefront rehabilitation centers, reflecting the reality that high-acuity institutional patients receive more individualized therapist attention than the typical outpatient private practice patient. Grady’s scale also provides access to interdisciplinary team conferences where occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, nursing, and physicians coordinate discharge planning and rehabilitation goal setting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What conditions do occupational therapists treat in Atlanta?
A: Occupational therapists in Atlanta treat a wide spectrum of conditions across the lifespan. For children, common presentations include autism spectrum disorder and sensory processing differences affecting school participation and daily routines, developmental delays in fine motor skills, visual motor integration challenges affecting handwriting and self-care, and attention and executive function difficulties. For adults, occupational therapy addresses hand and upper extremity injuries requiring post-operative rehabilitation, stroke and traumatic brain injury causing functional deficits in self-care and work activities, repetitive strain injuries from occupational activities, and cognitive impairment affecting independent living skills. For older adults, occupational therapists evaluate home safety and recommend modifications, assess driving capacity after neurological events, and restore independence in daily living skills following surgery or acute illness. Pelvic health occupational therapy is also a growing subspecialty addressing bowel and bladder dysfunction that overlaps with physical therapy in some Atlanta clinics.
Q: What does occupational therapy cost in Atlanta?
A: An initial occupational therapy evaluation in Atlanta typically costs $200 to $400 without insurance, with follow-up treatment sessions running $100 to $200 per visit. With insurance, occupational therapy typically involves the same copay structure as physical therapy, usually $25 to $60 per visit, with an annual visit limit covering both physical and occupational therapy combined under many plans. Pediatric occupational therapy may be covered under the autism mandate in Georgia’s insurance law if the child has a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder, which requires insurers to cover applied behavior analysis and related therapies including occupational therapy when medically necessary. Splints and orthotic devices fabricated by hand therapists are usually billed separately as durable medical equipment and may have different cost-sharing than therapy visits under your specific insurance plan.
Q: How do I know if my child needs occupational therapy versus other types of therapy in Atlanta?
A: A child may benefit from occupational therapy evaluation when they have difficulty with self-care tasks like dressing, feeding, or grooming that peers of the same age manage independently, when handwriting or fine motor skills lag significantly behind age expectations, when sensory sensitivities or aversions significantly disrupt daily routines, school participation, or social engagement, or when attention and executive function difficulties affect their ability to complete multi-step tasks. An occupational therapist distinguishes their scope from speech therapy, which focuses on communication, and physical therapy, which focuses on gross motor function and mobility, by centering evaluation and treatment on participation in meaningful daily occupations from school tasks and play for children to work, self-care, and leisure for adults. If you are uncertain whether your child needs occupational therapy, speech therapy, or another intervention, requesting a comprehensive developmental evaluation through your pediatrician or directly from a practice that offers multi-disciplinary evaluation is typically the most efficient path to appropriate intervention.
Conclusion
Atlanta’s occupational therapy community provides specialized care for hand and upper extremity rehabilitation, pediatric developmental and sensory needs, neurological rehabilitation, and activities of daily living restoration across a range of clinical settings. The Hand and Upper Extremity Center of Georgia brings Certified Hand Therapist expertise with integrated on-site surgical coordination and multi-hospital affiliations from its Sandy Springs campus. Thrive Therapy offers ecologically grounded occupational and speech therapy with explicit home and workplace assessment and caregiver education integration. Grady Health’s rehabilitation services provide high-volume institutional occupational therapy with access to Atlanta’s leading Level I Trauma Center infrastructure for the most complex adult rehabilitation cases. Contact each practice to confirm insurance participation, therapist credentialing relevant to your specific condition, and current availability for new patient evaluation.