Hello All:
Recently, I experienced great tragedy in my personal life. Left with
feelings of complete overwhelm and helplessness, for much of the time I
did nothing but reflect on the situation. Slowly, however, I began to
engage in meaningful occupations such as kayaking, yard work and
woodworking. In the wake of my experience, I have made several personal
observations about occupation as a therapeutic medium.
1. Not all occupations are created equal when it comes to their
therapeutic effectiveness.
I love to kayak and fish - it's my new found hobby. However,
during this experience, I quickly learned that kayaking was not
therapeutic. For me, kayaking contributed to my depression and to my
negative feelings. Fishing was a setup for failure. Being unsuccessful
at catching fish (a very common experience) only contribute to my
negative feelings. As great as kayaking potential to be therapeutic, it
was a very negative experience.
2. Occupation's ability to divert one's attention is very powerful but
may not be therapeutic.
During my yard and wood working, I primarily focused attention
on the task at hand and not on the the problems in my life. While this
has certain therapeutic effectiveness, it may not have directly helped
solve the issues. However, as I write this I can see that directing my
attention away from the problems may have allowed me to be more clearly
focuses when I did return to addressing the problems.
Clinically, I have learned a great deal about the power (or lack of)
occupation.
Ron
(Writing this is part of my self-prescribed therapy. This list serve is
one of my occupations and writing today has been very therapeutic)
rC
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