My Why

        Occupational therapy is a hard thing to understand as well as explain. If I were to explain occupational therapy to a six year old child who was just referred for OT services I would say,

"Occupations are the activities that we participate in everyday that allow us to live a self dependent life. Occupations can be getting dressed, learning at school, coloring, playing a game, or even going to the bathroom. Occupational therapists can work with any age in many different places. We can work in schools, hospitals, or in private practices. We are also client centered which means I am going to help you with the occupations you do and would like to be able to do better."

         To me, occupational therapy is teaching people how to live. I wanted to be an occupational therapist because I wanted to help improve people's lives, especially children. I think that early intervention in children can give them more access to the tools and research the child needs to be successful in all the occupations they do. After being in occupational therapy school for a couple of months now I see the value that occupational therapy practitioners have. Occupational therapists are client centered which means they use the occupations the client wants to do as well as work on goals the client's think are important. Occupational therapists are also evidence based which means they use the latest factual research to back up their intervention methods. I am happy that I can serve and help people in my chosen profession in a way that the client wants me to. I appreciate that we (occupational therapy practitioners) are their for them, not that they are their for us. 

Sources

American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). (n.d.). About AOTA: Mission and Vision. Aota.org. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://www.aota.org/about/mission-vision

Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process—Fourth edition. (2020). The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Supplement_2). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74s2001

Philosophical base of occupational therapy. (2017). The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71(Supplement_2). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.716s06