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What Can Occupational Therapy Do For Me?

How can I help you? No, really. As an occupational therapist specializing in women’s health, what can I do for you? For starters, the “occupation” in occupational therapy refers to how a person occupies their time. This can include your job, but it also includes everything else you do from the time you wake up to being able to sleep through the night. All the things that you want and need to do are demanding in different ways. Occupational therapists are skilled at breaking down tasks and looking at what skills a person needs to complete the task. This includes the physical, cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial demands required. Once there is a good understanding of what it takes to get the job done, it’s easier to make adjustments when things are too challenging. If you’re having a hard time doing all the things you need and want to do, adjustments can be made to the activity itself, to the person, or the environment. Let me explain with an example that (I assume) everyone has done. ​

Hand washing dishes. The activity of doing the dishes demands that a person be able to stand at the sink for an extended amount of time requiring physical endurance and balance. They need gross and fine motor skills and strength to scrub the dishes and place them on the counter for drying. You need to be able to see or feel that the dishes are clean once you have scrubbed them. Cognitively, you need the endurance and ability to sequence all the steps from filling up the sink with soapy water, scrubbing until the dishes are clean, rinsing, and drying. Emotionally, you want to be able to do the dishes without being so angry at the people who dirtied the plates and just left them in the sink. For the environment, it’s easiest to do dishes when you have clean running water, soap and a scrubber, a big sink, clean counter space, good lighting. You get the idea. Now, let’s say you hurt your back and doing the dishes makes it hurt worse, but you still need to get the job done. First, you can adjust the activity. Everything is going in the dishwasher, no pre-scrubbing. You can change the environment. Does sitting on a stool or kneeling on a chair give you relief? And your physical aspect; if you warm up your back before doing the dishes and then take breaks to stretch and get off your feet, does your back feel better? Psychosocially, you may need to manage a new development of depression because your back pain is keeping you from doing basic things, like the dishes. I think you get the idea. Now, an occupational therapist can help you do this with EVERY activity you need to do during the day. We’re pretty cool like that. Occupational therapists look at the whole picture. What in your life is making things harder and what are your strengths and supports. The goal of occupational therapy is to help people participate in the lives they want to live. “Participation in meaningful activities and occupations enhances health, well-being, and life satisfaction.” (AOTA, 2014) I want you to live your best life. I want you to experience health, well-being, and life satisfaction. Whatever it is in your life that is keeping you from engaging - that’s what I want to work with you on. Today, it may be managing low back pain during pregnancy. It may be managing the overwhelm of being a student, a mother, partner, or work demands. It may be managing depression and anxiety. It’s going to be different for each person and will change over time. Whatever your challenge of today is, there are things that can be done to better support you in being able to do the things that you need and want to do. Occupational therapy takes the judgment out of why things are difficult. We go beyond the feeling that you “should” be able to do more and look at why it’s hard and what can be adjusted. It’s not all on you to just do more and do better. I look at your habits, roles, and routines to see what’s supporting you and what’s making things more difficult. I help you prioritize and pace what’s important to you. We explore your personal history and your viewpoints. I look at your environment, (physical, social, temporal) and whether it’s supporting or overwhelming you. This is why I care, and what I can do for you.