Why Occupational Therapy is actually so effective and why the heck it’s so hard to explain to somebody what OT is?
I love Occupational Therapy. You will see it. You will read it. And it doesn´t matter if you haven’t never heard about OT before. Now you have and you are more than welcome to explore more!
1. Everything starts with defining occupation — OT defines that EVERYTHING is some kind of occupation — it is doing and thinking. First thing in the morning, last thing in the evening and everything in between. Simple. And it effects your daily living and HOW are you doing in your life.
2.Your daily living is mixture of routines, motivation, volition, participation.. And guess what are the key interest of OT Theories? The whole academic studies. All of it — but with a mixture of perspectives.
3. Is OT so complex that it’s hard to understand? No, ’cause all what OT is doing is helping the daily things — which aren’t going too well and matter to you. You probably won’t even notice, that there are so many things which influence your doing — your quality and satisfaction towards life (not a small thing!). OT knows. You will have a hint if you try to live a day without one hand, bright eye-sight or brains which are over focusing.. Try it?
4. You can think of it this way. OT helps you to manage the struggles and it keeps you going. OT understands. Actually what OT is working on, it’s only peak of an iceberg to compare all the beauty of life. But if you touch the top, the whole iceberg feels it, and the water around it. The small things make a big difference.
5. OT’s main interest is on human. How does the person feel gravity, how he touches, sees, hears or smells. And I’m not talking about is your vision good — I’m talking about how your nervous system works and how does your body take all the information and how you are processing it. Like computer, yeah? Humans ARE like computers. But I don’t understand computers (my husband does). OT´s understands humans. I love humans.
6. When you are there with your unique nervous system, does the environment matter on how you are doing? ENORMOUSLY. Huge, sis and bros, huge. And that OT is also all about. Knowing what kind of environment would be the most calming, interesting and supports YOU to be who you are and perform the way you do (or want to do).
7. How OT can help young fellow with anxiety, mom with depression, middle age man to help loose his weight, paralysed lady after head injury, restless ADHD kid, autistic daughter, granny after hip surgeon..?? Aren’t these all different struggles/impairments? What do they have in common? You see the system: Motivation, volition, routines, performance, nervous system, environment’s influence.. Computer.
8. After the interview and observation, the evaluation is on pretty good start. Evaluating is like opening the computer or looking for the JAVA, Android, C-code. It matters, if it was a spider in it or what language the software was made of. (Oh yeah, and please, please give us health professionals good softwares to work with! I’m actually planning on to be self-employed ’cause the middle-age-software is killing my creativity and occupational interest to work on the public field.)
9. Evaluating. Now I mentioned the ultimate turn-off. Evaluating? Who wants to be evaluated? Ouch. Me neither. Unless you understand the point: OT can actually help YOU to make the difference. And OT´s are damn good at it. Give it an opportunity and nourish the process. OT’s are extremely enthusiastic when you make their job easy — but most importantly — You are capable of DOING what your heart desires to do. So don’t be afraid. Be curious.
10. Forgive us sometimes when we are talking blaa-blaa-jargon. We are still learning how to express the complexity and the beauty of Occupational Therapy.
11. Occupational Therapy could be one of the resource solutions to many problems that humans have in their lives. Okay, I would say that OT´s could help in many situations. The rest is in your hands.
12. Nationally, I’m sad to say that people in power cant see the opportunities to save money when it comes to preventive work that OTs do. People do need rehabilitation in many stages. More people can participate in their lives in a way, that they can feel satisfaction and meaning. So OTs saves big money in a long run — all you need is a wisdom to see it.
This was my contribute to this and to the field I absolutely love. Hope you do as well.
Thanks for reading this article. This was my first article ever — I did it! Clap your hands folks, or ask OT to find way to do it. Have a beautiful day!
Yours Sincerely,
Linda Heimonen from Finland
Occupational Therapist, mother of 3 kids, wife and wanna-be entrepreneur
