The Art of Occupational Therapy
July 11, 2007

The profession of occupational therapy came to me after my medium sized identity crisis re: the impossibility of becoming a physical therapist due to my inept ability to make chemistry (or logically reason chemistry) in the lab. Occupational therapy seemed even more fitting when my lovely little mom pointed out that a pottery or painting class was actually a pre-requisite for this profession. Forget the calculus and physics, this was more my style.

Now that I have been working as an OT for exactly a year, I believe pottery to be the foundation of OT thinking for three distinct reasons:
1. the unbelievable benefit of therapy through arts and crafts and
2. the ability to think outside of the box and think kinesthetically and
3. the ability to fabricate hand splints from scratch.

It is probably no surpise, however, that arts and crafts are more than often under-rated in a science dominated healthcare. So most days my practice consists of 75% neuro re-education on a large blue mat and 25% endurance/ strength building with me trying to keep rhythem with Al Green. Imagine my excitement, however, when a small, teenage girl recovering from incredibly difficult medical complications expressed her enthusiasm for. . . craft. ::insert choir here::


The next week we found therapy in Michael's craft store sifting through exacto knives and tracing paper to initiate what we now call the giant almost never ending craft project . To make the process therapuetic we complete sections of the craft in just about every standing position and on giant sweedish balance balls- as well as incorporating a ton of problem solving and creative thinking. The best part is, we are both having a blast. So now imagine my excitement when I began my next evaluation today on a tall, lovely gentleman who describes his memory loss as "having too many wrinkles in the brain". I ask him his lesiure interests and he sadly sighs and looks down. "I really would love to draw again." Did somebody say art?

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