Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists (OTs) understand the power of ‘doing’ and how engaging in valued activities (also known as “occupations”) can promote psychological, emotional, and physical wellbeing across the life course. Occupational Therapy is a holistic, client-centered therapy that assists with helping individuals engage in activities that they want or need to do in their daily lives. These activities can be related to leisure, work, learning, play, self-care, and more.
Occupational Therapy Can Help a Child with
Self-care activities (e.g., dressing, bathing, toileting)
Food aversions and feeding challenges
Sensory processing challenges (e.g., hyper- and hypo-reactivity)
Emotional regulation difficulties (e.g., difficulty regulating arousal, reactivity, and emotions)
Sleep/bedtime challenges
Fine motor activities (e.g., handwriting)
Gross motor activities (e.g., riding a bike, playing a sport)
If a child is having difficulty with any occupation they want or need to do
Who is Occupational Therapy for?
Occupational Therapy is for anyone experiencing a challenge with participating or engaging in valued or necessary occupations. Our occupations may adapt and evolve over time, whether from a developmental transition, a change in career or family roles, or a change in our physical, emotional, or cognitive functioning. Therefore, we may all benefit from Occupational Therapy at some point in our lives to help us get back to doing the things we need to do and love to do.
What Can an Occupational Therapist Do to Help?
We can perform various assessments to understand an individual’s strengths, motivations, values, and underlying barriers or factors that impact someone’s ability to engage in occupations (including person-, environmental-, and activity-related factors).
Based on assessment findings, an OT will collaborate with clients to set goals and develop intervention plans that can help them participate and engage in their valued occupations
Interventions can include collaborative consultation (e.g., with parents and educators) and/or direct treatment methods.
Interventions will be unique to everyone, but can include:
Equipping clients with strategies to problem solve challenges they face with doing the things they love or need to do
Providing suggestions to adapt the environment or an activity to better suit the needs of an individual
Delivering skills-specific training to address performance challenges
Providing education to help others (e.g., parents, educators, employers) better support an individual
How is Occupational Therapy Different from Counselling?
The focus of Occupational Therapy is enabling individuals to engage in occupations that they want or need to do. Hence, the Occupational Therapy services will be centered on an individual’s specific occupation-based goals established in collaboration with the OT. OTs provide therapeutic activities that align with the child or family’s goals, strengths, motivations, and needs. Occupational Therapy is an excellent compliment to Child and Family Therapy/Counselling and OTs may apply psychotherapy-based principles and strategies as part of their interventions with clients to help meet their goals.