Empowering Occupational Therapists through Reflective Education & Client Centred Practices

Abstract

Client-centred practice has been a key theme in Canadian occupational therapy literature since the early 1980s. Canadian occupational therapists are strongly encouraged by their national professional association and universities to continue in their attempts to engage in client-centred practice, despite concerns about challenges to implementation, because this practice embraces important concepts about partnership and justice (CAOT, 1997) . Therefore, it is important to understand how occupational therapists can engage in and continue to develop client-centred practice within the constraints of everyday practice and the organizational demands of their unique settings.

This thesis describes an action research study that was undertaken to discover insights generated from and perceived usefulness of a reflective learning experience undertaken by a group of four occupational therapists using a set of reflective exercises (Rochon & Baptiste, 1998) to reflect on professional identity as it relates to the principles of client-centred practice. This thesis describes the process and insights generated by the group and demonstrates how participation in reflective practice is one way to empower occupational therapists to develop their own client-centred practice.

The occupational therapists in this group felt that participation in this study was useful in promoting awareness and change to professional practice. Although actual change to daily practice and progress toward the personal goals set by group members was limited, reflective group discussion provided our group with a launch pad to start our journey toward a more client-centred practice. Ongoing support for reflective practice in occupational therapy is recommended, as this appears to be a useful method for empowering occupational therapists to begin to develop an increasingly client-centred practice.