What is Occupational Therapy? Discover its Career Benefits

What is OT? Variety, compassion, and job satisfaction make a career in occupational therapy a good choice for those who want to help others thrive.

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Occupational therapy is a complex, compassionate field of healthcare that uses a holistic form of treatment to help everyone from toddlers to the elderly live a productive life.

If that seems rather all-encompassing, that’s because occupational therapists (known as OTs) work to solve a broad number of physical and mental problems using a wide range of techniques. 

Still, there’s quite a bit of confusion about what it means to be an occupational therapist. Are they doctors? How are they different from physical therapists? And what’s with the name: do they only work with people who have jobs?

So, what is occupational therapy? Let’s find out. 

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What is an Occupational Therapist?

OTs are licensed healthcare professionals who help people improve their ability to accomplish routine tasks in the home, workplace, or community (“occupation” in this case means “tasks for daily living”). 

Whether alone or alongside an occupational therapist assistant, OTs primarily treat chronic conditions and disabilities, adapting a person’s impacted skill set to accommodate everyday functions that may otherwise be difficult. 

Occupational Therapy vs Physical Therapy

While both forms of treatment aim to establish and improve common motor, sensory, and cognitive skills, they differ greatly in scope and scale.

In short, occupational therapists often provide a range of short- to long-term treatments for a wide range abilities, while physical therapists often provide care to aid in rehabilitation after injury. 

Regardless of the type of therapy, both occupational and physical therapists have a similar goal: helping those with reduced motor or cognitive function lead productive, fulfilled lives. 

Are Occupational Therapists Doctors?

OTs are not required to attend medical school. However, the licensure process for practicing occupational therapy does require graduation from an accredited occupational therapy program, like the OTD offered at Pacific, and often results in a doctoral degree.

While not considered medical doctors, OTs use an advanced knowledge of biological science, psychology, physics, and anatomy to provide a high level of care through physical activity and demonstration. 

OTs are also required to pass a rigorous national certification exam — which Pacific graduates pass at a rate above the national average — as well as continue their education to maintain licensure.

All together this makes OTs uniquely and highly qualified healthcare professionals.   

Who do Occupational Therapists Help?

Occupational therapy is a healthcare field rich with specializations and settings. OTs have the opportunity to work with:  

• Children. Pediatric OTs work with children as young as one year-old up through adolescence. Therapy in this setting resembles play and is used for children with ADHD, Down Syndrome, autism, or other sensory processing disorders.   

• The elderly. Whether at home or in an assisted living facility, geriatric OTs help people who have difficulty performing daily tasks and personal care due to a reduction of range of motion or conditions such as arthritis.  

• People with prosthetics. Occupational therapists are well-equipped to help ease the transition for people experiencing the loss or partial loss of a limb. OTs aid in helping people adapt to routine activities using their prosthetics and provide strategies for outpatient care.   

• People recovering from brain injuries. Recovering abilities lost or impaired due to a stroke, tumor, or other type of traumatic brain injury is a key responsibility of many OTs, allowing them to work with a wide array of patients in different settings. 

• Patients in hospitals. While generally suited to outpatient care, OTs can be found in hospitals, especially when treating patients who have sustained injuries that require prolonged hospital stays.

What Kinds of Treatment do Occupational Therapists Administer? 

Due to the breadth of the occupational therapy discipline, OTs care for patients in a number of different ways, depending on who they are working with.

When working with motor control difficulties (everything from hand-eye coordination to handwriting) OTs use small, low-impact movements and parallel demonstration to help hone life skills.

For improvement of executive function, OTs will often guide patients (especially children) through ways they can approach tasks to ensure a high-level of success. These can include time management, emotional regulation, and goal setting strategies attached to an activity. 

What all OT practices have in common is setting long-term goals for patients, and managing expectations that progress during occupational therapy is ongoing and gradual. 

How Do I Become an Occupational Therapist?

The path to get your OT doctorate degree can take as little as three years in an accredited occupational therapy program.

This means that you can pursue your passions quickly (as opposed to the much longer and intensive medical school pathway) and start making a meaningful impact on people’s lives.  

Explore OT program requirements and see how you can start your therapy journey towards a compassionate, rewarding, and high-paying (the average occupational therapist salary is $85,500) career in healthcare.

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