Not that anyone asked but… let’s face it, everyone asked. Since this site is all about questions I get asked over and over again, I can confidently say that this question is number one on the list. It’s a tale as old as time, sometime in the history of occupational therapy someone, somewhere forgot about marketing. They forgot about money. They forgot that this is American healthcare. The OTs of old, smart and brave and right as they were, used their skills to help the people in front of them. How dare they?! They just went along helping the people that needed it instead of going to DC to lobby or do a bunch of research. Why waste their time right? They can see what they do works because it is happening right before their eyes, we don’t need to prove ourselves to anybody, right?! WRONG. I can pretty much say that unfortunately, in my short career so far (about 6-7 years), all I do is prove myself. I prove myself to clients, to doctors, to nurses, to other rehab professionals?! Seriously. There is so much misinformation, misunderstanding, and just plain ignorance surrounding occupational therapy that other healthcare providers just give up on trying to figure it out. Somehow our purpose, definition, scope, whatever, has become so misconstrued that the people working with us can’t waste their time trying to sift through the mess to get to the bottom of it.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of occupational therapy is: “therapy based on engagement in meaningful activities of daily life (such as self-care skills, education, work, or social interaction) especially to enable or encourage participation in such activities despite impairments or limitations in physical or mental functioning.”

I think this definition is pretty good. It is difficult to cover the depth of occupational therapy (OT) in one or two sentences, but that definition is the base. An explanation that a good friend of mine uses, which I have also adopted, is that you can think of OT as addressing the things that occupy your time throughout the day. This is the reason that the word “occupation” is used in our title. The field of OT describes daily tasks or activities as occupations, because they literally occupy your time. Occupations can cover anything from play, to brushing your teeth, to work (the most commonly understood version of the word), or even leisure activities. Literally, if there is something that is meaningful to you, it is considered an occupation and an OT can address it.

A related question I often hear about OT is: “What are your qualifications?” or “What kind of schooling did you get?”. OTs need to earn either a master’s degree or a professional doctorate (OTD) in order to practice. After graduating we then need to pass a national board exam and obtain a state license. Those are the basics for most healthcare practitioners like doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, mental health professionals, etc. So, what do we learn in school? OTs receive a holistic education covering physical and mental functions, along with environmental and activity analysis skills. Because we treat the whole person and consider all aspects of their environment, our education covers a wide range of subjects in as much detail as possible. The amount of information we are given in a relatively short amount of time is CRAZY. This is one of the reasons why I understand that it can be confusing for people to define OT. Our scope is so broad, and our knowledge is so deep that people see one OT doing one thing, and another OT doing something completely different, and start to think “what the heck even is this profession?”.

Well. It’s THE BEST. That’s what it is. OT is an incredible profession with never-ending potential.

I can’t wait to share more with you.

Keep an eye out for future posts to read more about how OTs work with kids and adults alike!