How can we use it in Occupational Therapy?

When something interrupts or prevents us carrying out meaningful occupations the loss of this activity can lead to dependency, lack of confidence and depression. Meaningful occupations affect our sense of wellbeing, self-worth and inclusion in our communities and enhance our mental and physical health as well as giving meaning to life.Most of us know intuitively that we experience the deepest satisfaction when we engage in meaningful activities and we feel fully alive, when we passionately pursue a worthy life goal.

Meaning is all we have, because we are a meaning-seeking, meaning-making species, shaped by a culture of socially constructed symbols and moral norms. Thus, our ability to understand clients’ meaning systems, from their self-concept to their cultural context is the key to helping them and therefore uncover the therapeutic gains that occupation may bring (Persson, 2011).

Since meaning is a holistic construct, including spiritual, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions it is important to makes use of both CBT skills and phenomenological methods, as demanded by the unfolding of the therapeutic process.


Here are some useful assessments that have been used:

• Life Orientation Scale (Wong, 2012) was designed to determine the extent to which individuals hold a meaning mindset or global belief that life has intrinsic meaning.
• Cultivation of intrinsic self-worth.  To help clients become aware of the intrinsic value of every life is a base of what we work on. 
• Mindfulness  is the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment. By using this technique it provides strategies to to manage health and began to engage more in meaningful occupations (Greeson, 2009).  
• Occupational Self Assessment (OSA) is a self report and planning form used to assist the client in establishing priorities for change and identifying goals for occupational therapy. I used this on my recent placement and saw how it provides a client with the opportunity to identify and address their participation in important and meaningful occupations.
• Occupation Mapping looks at the historical meaning or significance of carrying out the occupation for the individual. By using Occupational Mapping the Therapist is able to determine the demands of the occupational performance by means of the level of skill required, its complexity and its social or cultural value to the individual. The occupation is broken down into component parts focusing on the sequence of how the task is performed, the tools and equipment required. Paying attention to issues of safety and risk factors involved (Kielhofner and Forsyth 2009).

References: 

Greeson, J. M. (2009). Mindfulness research update: 2008. Complementary Health Practice Review, 14, 10-18. 

Kielhofner, G. and Forsyth, K., 2009. Activity Analysis. In: Duncan, E.A.S. Skills for Practice in Occupational Therapy. Edinburgh: Elsevier, 91 – 103.

Wong, P. T. P. (2012c). What is the Meaning Mindset? International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, 4(1), 1-3.