What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm

U of U Recreational Therapy

Home
United States
Salt Lake City, UT
U of U Recreational Therapy

Recreational Therapy education Recreational Therapy Education

09/25/2025

We are so proud of our RECTH 5350 Advancement of Recreational Therapy students! They crushed their marketing and advocacy presentations, creating dynamic in-service trainings for fictional agencies. Their goal? To show the value and impact of Recreational Therapy. Not only did they do a phenomenal job explaining the profession and its benefits, but their creativity and passion were truly on full display. Way to go! 👏👏

09/20/2025

✨SATURDAY STUDENT SPOTLIGHT✨

Congratulations to Recreational Therapy (RT) student, Eric Bonin, on wrapping up a fantastic internship at Primary Children's Hospital Taylorsville! Eric's work with pediatric behavioral health clients provided a unique opportunity to use creative methods to address complex emotions.

Working under the mentorship of the phenomenal Jill Comarell, Eric was able to fully immerse himself in the practice, collaborating with highly experienced professionals, and gaining new perspectives. One of the highlights was using these controllers pictured to help clients understand their feelings. As Eric put it, "We all need to learn what our buttons do and how to use them appropriately, instead of just button mashing."

Eric is now one of our MS RT students, gaining additional knowledge and expertise to advance his Recreational Therapy practice. We are excited to see what he will accomplish next!

09/17/2025

Dr. Melissa Zahl has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Committee on Accreditation for Recreational Therapy Education (CARTE) as an Educator Representative. Dr. Zahl will serve a 3-year term in this important leadership role.

CARTE is one of the committees on accreditation of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).

CAAHEP/CARTE accreditation ensures students receive a quality education that meets essential standards tied to RT professional practice.

We appreciate Dr. Zahl’s commitment to quality RT education!

09/09/2025

Faculty Member Ashley Bowen recently completed a Ph.D. in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management with a concentration in Recreational Therapy from Clemson University.

Ashley’s dissertation was titled “Investigating the Impact of Adaptive Sports and Recreation Involvement for Veterans”. Her multi-methods research aimed to (a) examine the impact of adaptive sports and recreation experiences for veterans, (b) explore the characteristics of these experiences for veterans, and (c) contribute to the ongoing validation and development of measures associated with the Experience Type Framework (ETF).

Quantitative findings revealed that adaptive sports and recreation experiences were overwhelmingly classified as “extraordinary” by veterans with over half of these experiences identified as “transformative”. Qualitative findings were similar and strengthened the results. Five categories with 11 embedded themes explored the many aspects of adaptive sports and recreation experiences for veterans that contribute to their impact and confirm the hierarchical structure of the ETF.

Great work! Congratulations on your graduation, Dr. Bowen!

09/03/2025

Please join us in congratulating this year’s Therapeutic Recreation Connections Corp. Endowed Scholarship recipients, Thobeka Talbot and Sky Rudd. Thobeka and Sky are both Honors students who excel academically and have a passion for recreational therapy and the creative arts. Thobeka is currently completing her Honors thesis on the use of creative writing interventions in RT and Sky has opted to study the therapeutic benefits music programming on mental health and well-being this year. We are grateful for our scholarship donors, especially Kristina Couron, MTRS, CTRS for making this opportunity possible to provide valuable support and recognition to our exceptional RT students. Congratulations, Thobeka & Sky!

08/29/2025

Congratulations to Chad Romoser, Ph.D., TRS, CTRS on his graduation from the PhD in Rehabilitation Science program. Chad’s dissertation, titled “Examining the use of Virtual Reality in a University Well-Being Program” summarizes findings from a three-phase research study.

In Phase 1, Chad surveyed undergraduate students on their interests and preferences regarding a potential virtual reality (VR) well-being program. In Phase 2, students trialed 5 different commercial VR apps to evaluate the impact of engagement on mood and stress. Participants were also asked about their perceptions of each application’s potential to contribute to their well-being. In Phase 3, a single application was used to pilot test a 3-week VR well-being program informed by findings in the earlier phases of the study.

Results suggest that commercial VR apps hold potential to benefit the well-being of undergraduate students and structured programming could add to existing well-being services for students.

Great work, Dr. Romoser. We wish you well as you begin your new faculty position in the Recreational Therapy program at Kean University in New Jersey. 🥳

08/27/2025

Lauren Bade, an August graduate of our MS RT program recently defended her master’s project titled “Evaluation of Online Educational Videos Focused on Recreational Therapy Assessment”.

Lauren developed a series of short educational videos and compiled them into a series called the RT Playbook. She then made the videos available on YouTube as a professional resource for recreational therapy professionals. Local clinicians were asked to view and evaluate the videos in the final step of the project.

Results indicated Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists agreed the videos were well designed, interesting, and easy to understand. Respondents also agreed that the videos deepened their understanding of the topic and enhanced their interest in the subject matter. The RT professionals who were surveyed shared they would use videos such as this to enhance their professional practice and identified several other assessments they had interest in learning more about.

We love the creative work our students are doing to advance the RT profession.
Great work, Lauren! 👏

08/25/2025

🚨 New Course Spotlight! 🚨

This semester the Recreational Therapy program launched Adventure & Experiential Recreational Therapy — a hands-on course where students learn by doing.

We kicked things off with a classic: Helium Hoop. The challenge? Work together to lower a hula hoop to the ground using only one finger per person. Simple? Not quite.

Through plenty of laughter (and a few hoop mishaps), students discovered the power of teamwork, communication, and role-finding within a group.

It was the perfect start to what promises to be a semester full of growth, collaboration, and adventure. 🌟

08/23/2025

The 2025-2026 academic year is underway, and we are thrilled to welcome a fantastic group of new MS RT students to the U. Go Utes!

08/21/2025

Welcome back, students! We're so excited to kick off another year of awesome Recreational Therapy learning.

We have had a great first week of classes so far! Pictured here are our first-year students with faculty and staff, ready to dive into the foundational knowledge that will prepare them for a rewarding career. Get ready for a semester of growth, discovery, and fun!

08/15/2025

We hope you all have had a great summer! We look forward to seeing all of our Recreational Therapy students in classes next week. 🍎🎒

08/12/2025

Senior Recreational Therapy (RT) student Bailey Palmer was a presenter at the summer Undergraduate Research Symposium sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). Bailey has been a participant in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for the past two semesters.

Bailey’s poster titled “Impact of a Robotic Pets Intervention on Mood and Engagement in Older Adults with Differing Cognitive Skills” generated lots of interest and positive response from symposium attendees.

We are grateful for OUR programs at the U that help RT students develop as researchers and scholars.

Thank you also to the Recreational Therapy Foundation who funded this research.

Great work, Bailey!

Address

520 Wakara Way
Salt Lake City, UT
84108

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Website

https://www.health.utah.edu/occupational-recreational-therapies/index.php

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when U of U Recreational Therapy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Salt Lake City?