What is Occupational Therapy? (OT)
Occupational Therapy, also known as ‘OT’ is many things. It’s a more difficult explanation than some other medical fields, so let’s explain.
Who Can Benefit from Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy (OT) can benefit a diverse range of individuals, including adults, children, and older adults. Anyone facing challenges related to their daily activities or meaningful engagements in life can find support through OT.
Populations Who Benefit from Occupational Therapy
- Children: OT helps children navigate challenges in play and leisure activities, as well as educational pursuits. For instance, children experiencing developmental issues, such as scoliosis or difficulties with motor skills, can greatly benefit from targeted interventions that enhance their posture and movement patterns.
- Adults: Adults may seek OT to address challenges related to their work and activities of daily living (ADLs). This includes assistance with essential tasks such as bathing, dressing, cooking, and shopping. OT aims to improve their overall functionality, enabling them to perform these activities with greater ease.
- Older Adults: As individuals age, they may encounter physical limitations that affect their ability to engage in daily routines. Occupational therapy can support older adults in overcoming these obstacles, whether they struggle with mobility issues, such as getting up in the morning, or have experienced injuries, like a shoulder or knee injury.
The Role of Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy takes a holistic approach to address these challenges, focusing on enhancing a person’s ability to engage in their daily activities. By working with individuals to improve their physical capabilities and overall well-being, OT practitioners empower clients to lead more fulfilling lives, regardless of age or ability.
What Are Common Goals of Occupational Therapy?
When working with clients, my primary goal is to improve their overall quality of life. This means helping them engage in the activities that matter most to them. Often, this involves enhancing their physical abilities—such as climbing stairs or participating in social activities they enjoy. It might also mean supporting them in tasks like shoveling snow, weeding, or gardening the way they want.
Goals can also focus on practical daily needs, such as cooking meals, managing energy levels, improving sleep, reducing pain, and increasing participation in meaningful activities. In many cases, I write goals specifically with insurance requirements in mind, which tend to include more basic needs—like getting where you need to go, dressing, toileting, and other daily tasks.
However, I don’t set arbitrary goals based on general challenges, like difficulty walking or running, unless those things are important to the client. For example, if working on a sewing project or spending time in the garden is meaningful, those activities become a focus. Similarly, I only work on stair mobility if a client needs to navigate stairs in their daily life.
Ultimately, I’m interested in understanding what you need to live your fullest life—whether that’s participating socially, engaging in leisure activities, or thriving professionally.
How Is Occupational Therapy Different from Physical Therapy?
Many people are familiar with physical therapy (PT), which focuses on improving biomechanics, strength, endurance, and flexibility to help individuals meet their physical needs. Occupational therapy (OT) developed alongside physical therapy but has distinct roots. OT centers around meaningful activity, or “occupation,” helping people engage in the activities that matter most to them. While there is some overlap between the two, each discipline has unique focuses.
Key Differences and Overlaps Between OT and PT
In most outpatient rehabilitation clinics, occupational therapy often concentrates on areas from the fingertips to the elbow, which is why hand therapists are frequently occupational therapists. The shoulder can sometimes fall into a shared space between OT and PT, partly to prevent duplication of services in clinics offering both. However, the scope of OT extends far beyond this. Occupational therapists can work with the entire body, including feet, knees, hips, the lower back, and the neck.
A Whole-Body Approach to Meaningful Activity
As an occupational therapist with a background in manual therapy and postural support, I view functionality as encompassing the whole body. My focus is not just on achieving range of motion or strength for their own sake, but on helping clients use their bodies to carry out meaningful daily activities. For example:
- Gaining Flexibility: Helping someone increase flexibility so they can teach a yoga class.
- Addressing Back Pain: Supporting a client in managing back pain so they can return to yard work.
OT’s Focus: Adapting and Empowering
The essence of occupational therapy lies in helping clients function the way they need or want to function. While PT emphasizes biomechanical improvement, such as full range of motion and strength, OT often takes an adaptive approach. This might involve working around physical limitations or creatively developing strategies to enhance function, all with the goal of enabling clients to engage in the activities that bring them fulfillment.
What Tools and Techniques Do Occupational Therapists Use?
Occupational therapists (OTs) use a wide range of tools and techniques to help clients reach their fullest level of function and engage in meaningful activities. The variety of interventions can include:
- Kinesiotaping: Supporting muscles and joints to reduce pain and improve mobility.
- Activity Pacing Coaching: Teaching clients how to manage their energy effectively throughout the day.
- Postural Recommendations and Exercises: Helping clients improve posture and physical alignment to reduce strain.
- Range of Motion Stretches: Encouraging flexibility and mobility through targeted stretches.
- Specific Tasks and Home Programs: Assigning exercises and activities with recommended frequencies to support recovery.
Manual Therapy and Sensory Integration
Manual therapy—techniques similar to massage—can be a useful tool, though not all occupational therapists use it. In my practice, I rely heavily on manual therapy, as it helps with relaxation and function. OT practitioners also work with sensory integration, ensuring the environment supports clients’ ability to perform meaningful activities. This may include recommending adaptive equipment to assist with specific tasks.
Tools and Techniques with a Personal Focus
While OTs have significant flexibility, the main limitation is avoiding medical devices beyond their qualifications. However, as long as the intervention supports meaningful activity, therapists are free to use creative solutions. Personally, I incorporate:
- Posture-focused interventions and kinesiotaping.
- Manual therapy and massage techniques.
- Pain neuroscience education, helping clients understand how the nervous system works and how setbacks don’t mean starting from scratch.
- Resistance bands, elastic tools, and weights for targeted strength training.
- Foot exercises and behavioral strategies to break old patterns and enhance participation in home exercise programs.
Education and Recovery Support
A key part of my practice involves helping clients understand the natural recovery process for their specific condition. I also emphasize the role of the brain in pain management—just learning about how the nervous system functions can improve both pain and function.
In occupational therapy, the focus is always on identifying the right tools to support individual recovery and meaningful participation. Whether it’s exercises, adaptive equipment, or behavioral education, the goal is to empower clients to engage fully in their daily lives.
How Can Occupational Therapy Improve Quality of Life?
Occupational therapy (OT) helps individuals participate in the activities that bring meaning to their lives. Quality of life is closely tied to being able to engage in meaningful activities—whether those involve hobbies, work, or essential daily tasks. Through OT, individuals can regain the ability to do what matters most to them, even when pain or physical challenges get in the way.
For example, I often work with clients who experience back pain or physical limitations that prevent them from enjoying activities such as:
- Pottery: Supporting individuals in working with clay on a wheel or at a sculpting table.
- Painting or Drawing: Helping them stand comfortably at an easel or use fine motor skills for detail work.
- Gardening: Addressing challenges with bending, kneeling, or lifting to make outdoor activities possible again.
- Cooking and Meal Preparation: Improving coordination and endurance so clients can chop, stir, and manage kitchen tasks comfortably.
- Dressing and Grooming: Developing strategies to put on clothing, button shirts, or manage personal hygiene independently.
- Typing, Writing, and Crafts: Enhancing hand strength and dexterity for tasks like knitting, journaling, or working on the computer.
- Walking and Mobility: Assisting with physical strength and endurance for grocery shopping, errands, or recreational walks.
The goal of occupational therapy isn’t just to reduce pain or increase function—it’s to restore participation in the activities that are meaningful to each individual. Every intervention is designed to help clients engage with their passions, maintain independence in daily routines, and enjoy a higher quality of life.