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Essay / Values, Beliefs and Values as an Occupational Therapist
I feel like I have learned a lot about the versatility of occupational therapy this year and I now know and see how different activities can be transformed into a therapy session. Through my observation of how the therapist transformed cooking, cleaning, and board games into therapy sessions that the client found expressed and found helpful, really helped me shift my perspective. With my new perspective, I find it very easy to adapt an activity to let it work in therapy. One activity I always feel uncomfortable with is how to stretch the client so that they feel stretched, but not so much that I risk damaging the client's muscles. In almost every session, the therapist would stretch the client's muscles and show the other student and me how to stretch the fingers and wrist in a particular way. I feel comfortable stretching a client in these places, but I feel like I need more guidance on how to stretch the client in other areas. Overall, I feel I learned a lot during my first shadowing opportunity at Nazareth College and know that the remainder of my occupational therapy program will thoroughly prepare me to become a useful and competent occupational therapist.