So…what even is Occupational Therapy?
By Rachel
Me: “Hi, I’m Rachel and I’m an OT.”
Random other: “IT? Maybe you can help me with this problem on my computer!”
Me: “No no, I’m an Occupational Therapist.”
Random other: “Oh okay…so you do occupational health and safety?”
Me: “Not really. I work with young people to improve their mental health and wellbeing.”
Random other:
If you’re not really sure what Occupational Therapy (OT) is, I won’t be offended- you’re definitely not alone! I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people who had never heard of “OT”, or who didn’t understand how an OT may be working in youth mental health, when they met one who installed grab rails for their Grandma’s shower. It’s confusing!
So here’s our explainer.
Occupational Therapy is a helping profession centred on the relationship between our health and wellbeing, and how we occupy our time with the things that we need or want to do in life (“occupations”).
We use this word “occupation” to refer to all the things that you do that are meaningful or important to you. Every person’s occupations are different, depending on their life stage, their interests and the roles they may hold.
Occupational therapy is based on the belief that our participation and satisfaction in occupations influences our health and wellbeing, and vice versa.
Some of mine include going out with friends, reading stories with my kids, driving to work…even things like washing my hair and preparing dinner! Yours might be different. Occupations are any of the things that you do that are important to you. Things that would impact on your wellbeing if you couldn’t do them (hello, covid restrictions). But also, the things that can improve your wellbeing, that gives life its sparkle, and can give us a sense of purpose and identity.
The focus of an OT is to help people overcome any barriers to participating in their occupations, because we believe they are central to health and wellbeing.
So, OTs will also support you to get involved in meaningful occupations as part of the therapy itself…which is why we’re called Occupational Therapists!!
Occupational Therapists can work with people experiencing all kinds of barriers to their participation in all kinds of occupations. It’s a pretty broad profession, and OTs work in many settings (perhaps this is why it gets confusing!).
Some of us work with people who have been injured, focusing on ways to help people get home from hospital and to their daily activities. Other OTs may work with children to help them with occupations like play, handwriting, or self care activities. Some OTs specialise in working with people with particular disabilities, or with particular age groups or environments (e.g., schools, hospitals, and even prisons).
So what does an OT actually do?
With this focus on “Occupation”, OTs have unique skills in:
Helping people identify their occupations and discover new ones (what’s meaningful and important to you)
Assessing what specific parts of an activity may be challenging, and what barriers may be getting in the way (sometimes called “occupational analysis”)
Developing therapy, tools, strategies and supports to help
Here at the Social Confidence Collective, our team of Occupational Therapists specialise in supporting young people with their “social occupations”: all those activities you might do that involve social interaction. We help people who may be having difficulty in this area to identify what is important to them, and help them towards those goals.
For example, we might support you to develop new coping strategies for feelings of anxiety or panic that arise around others, or assist you to utilise skills in one of our groups (e.g., in self advocacy, or in managing difficult thoughts or feelings). We may recommend adaptations to make social settings more manageable (e.g., sensory strategies), or help you to develop a series of achievable steps towards an important social goal.
We also get that experiences of discrimination, bullying and exclusion can serve as very real threats to social connection, confidence and belonging. So, we are continuously seeking to listen, learn and use our circles of influence to fight discrimination, celebrate diversity and promote inclusion.
So, that’s a bit about us, and Occupational Therapy. How about you? Do you have to frequently correct misunderstandings about parts of your identity? Or are you an OT and have a different way of explaining your role? We’d love to know!