What is Occupational Therapy?
It’s a great question - something I get asked often! I like to flip the question and ask whoever’s asking me to answer: “what do you think occupational therapy is?” The most common response is “you help people get back to their occupation (work)” or “you do something with rehabilitation” or “you help children learn how to handwrite.” The fact is, we can do all of these things but there’s much more to it!
The best way to explain it is by first gaining an understanding of how we, as occupational therapists, interpret the word ‘occupation.’ Occupation is anything we as human beings want, need or have to do that provides both meaning and purpose to our lives. This can be anything from socialising, going to work, surfing, dating, exercising, doing art, showering, going to school, learning, playing, gaming, swimming, going to church and more. Anything that you think you ‘do,’ is what we OT’s refer to, and understand as, your occupations.
We generally break them down into three categories: self-care, productivity and leisure and use this information to gain a better understanding of your occupational engagement (what you’re doing) and your occupational performance (how you’re doing it) and this impacts your everyday life. We then assess how the environments (cultural, physical, social and institutional) you're situated in and how personal components (i.e. affective, cognitive and physical) impact your ability to engage in your occupations.
With that in mind, we can work with anyone really because we, as people, are occupational beings - in other words, we ‘do’ a lot! Think about a time in your life you may have encountered a problem (from an environmental or personal perspective) and how it stopped you from doing something you wanted, needed or had to do. How did that affect your overall sense of wellbeing? Your sense of purpose and meaning? How did it impact your physical and mental health? How did it affect your ability to engage with others?
I’ll give you a personal example, at the end of grade 12 I got a weird type of glandular fever that morphed my immune system to the point where I was getting sick literally every two weeks throughout my first year of university. I couldn’t exercise, could hardly study (still passed anatomy - if you know you know!) and really struggled to do the things that gave me meaning and purpose because I was SO sick or tired ALL THE TIME. I didn’t see an OT at this time because I was overwhelmed with other specialists and medication. However, if I worked with myself back then, I would’ve helped with my mental health (how to deal with the sudden changes - because that was tough), energy conservation strategies, how to modify my current occupations and how to re-engage in previous occupations (exercise in particular) in a different way.
We OT’s are the jack of all trades, we seem to know a little bit about a lot to help you, your child, your friend and/or family member engage in what’s meaningful and purposeful. This can take the shape or form of many different types of interventions, assessments and recommendations but all of it is to assist you to simply and wonderfully succeed in life, regardless of what might currently stand in your way.
My husband likes to call us (I have a lot of friends who are OT’s), glorified problem solvers and to an extent, I guess that’s what we are! If you haven’t got an OT in your corner and now recognise the need for one, please don’t hesitate to contact Haven OT and if we can’t help you, we’ll help you find someone who can!
