Walk it OuT

For this assignment I chose to listen to the "Leisure exploration and creativity with veterans and service members" podcast by Glass Half Full OT. I was excited to see this episode as an option because I have been researching the work that OT's do with the military and the VA. My grandfather served for 22 years and always said the joining the Air Force was one of his best decisions. I have so much respect for servicemen and women and I am very interested in possibly working with them one day! Rusty Noesner started the War Paints non-profit to encourage veterans to engage in the creative process. Noesner, former Navy Seal, has endured two traumatic brain injuries and suffers from general anxiety disorder. He explained that during military training the brain is "rewired" to function within a unit. This deactivates the creative process and strips away the individuals' identity. He described brain function as a black and white modality that is operational and ...

As a new MOT student I have had several opportunities to explain what OT is to friends, family and many strangers. In fact, one of my PDE goals is to become more confident in my elevator speech. While I believe that I know exactly what OT means to me it can be difficult to summarize. I really enjoy how Cynthia Cooper explains the "mystique" in occupational therapy. It is hard to convey to someone who has never seen OT in action what it can actually be effecting. The tasks we may have a client perform as a means might seem frivolous to some. An example of this could be having a client play candy land. This is where the holistic nature of the OT profession comes in to play. With OT we are looking at the whole person and forming our goals based on their priorities as well as their previous/current social, educational, and vocational performance. The client playing candy land may be a grandparent working towards a goal of restoring an aspect of communication with their grandchild...