Common Threads - reflections

Reflections on ...

Arts and Crafts Movement 5-2023

Before beginning our OTA program, I spent time researching more about the field of OT and came across a video about the history of OT. When we began our semester, one of our first lectures in Foundations of Occupational Therapy shared this same video that centered on the origins of our field and its roots in the Arts and Crafts Movement. I think back on this coincidence and remember in more recent weeks when our professor said, "OT finds you." I believe little moments like that remind us that we're all on the right path and moving forward in a good way.

When I learned about the intertwined roots of Arts and Healing in OT, it made my heart glow. As someone with an arts background, I look forward to finding as many opportunities to meld the arts with treatment. It's exciting to me how much creative problem solving we use to modify activities and always doing so with the best interest of our clients' interests/accessibility. In my Art Education program at CSULB, our curriculum was based on The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and creating lesson plans that were meaningful, student centered, culturally relevant, and instill critical thinking skills. I was able to work with Rehab patients at Flossie Lewis Sober Living Community and provide a couple months of therapeutic art lessons. We did student-centered individual projects like a journal/sketch book making activity, as well as collaborative projects that involved outdoor art installations in their shared communal space. I am curious to learn about ways I can get more volunteer experience in these types of settings. Merging Social Practice with OT is something I would also like to delve into. I believe in the possibilities for healing that these two areas of study can create in unison, facilitating spaces for clients to practice self-expression, learn coping strategies, have access to social groups, and improve their physical functioning.

Reflections on...

Mexican Indigenous Spirituality/ Curanderismo in OT 5-2023

In one of our discussion assignments we were asked to do research on a field that may work with OTs/COTAs during a client's treatment. I remember in the lecture that coincided with this assignment, there was a category of "Chaplain/Priest/Pastor/Shaman-Assists with spiritual needs and can be faith based or nondenominational." I was curious why we weren't given that option in the actual discussion board, so I ended up doing research on any ties between Curandera/os and Occupational Therapy. I found a link to a blog post by a Latinx OT- ( link at the bottom of this reflection) I appreciated finding another WOC in OT studies that was thinking along the context of this connection to cultural competency as a means of providing meaningful treatment, as well as trust and understanding between the client and practitioner. It plays a lot into understanding the values that shape our clients so we can step into their shoes with empathy, no matter how different we may be in contrast to each other. This may also include what some may heed as "silly" or "superstitious." It takes a lot of checking our own worldview and implicit biases to know that to our clients a condition like Susto, or illness from shock/fright, is a way to explain the interconnectedness of our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual self navigating the effects of trauma.

Curanderismo: The Forgotten Occupational Therapy Client Factor of Spirituality in Mexican-American and Latino Culture**For the purpose of distinguishing between Mexican American and Latino: Mexican American refers to individuals who are of full or partial Mexican descent and are a citizen or resident of the U.S. …