Whether you are an occupational therapist, an artist or someone who is searching for ways to create more wellness and creativity in your own life, there is something here for you.
For Occupational Therapists
do you imagine…
Finding inspirational ways of framing your work
Creating new partnerships that expand your resources
Discovering new communities of shared passions
Finding a path for creative well-being
Nourishing your own creativity as you nourish the creativity of others
Learn about how to infuse more play and creativity into your daily life and into the lives of others.
For Artists, Teachers & Coaches
do you imagine…
Having the resources to develop new partnerships with Universities, Hospitals, Community Centres
Collaborating and developing projects with health care practitioners, and community members
Understanding how to strengthen your grant writing skills
Strengthening you group leadership and facilitation skills
Developing new skills to work with people with various challenges (trauma, mental illness, cognitive and physical disabilities)
Discovering how to create and adapt online activities to meet the capacities of your various groups (i.e. people with learning problems, cognitive and emotional challenges, etc.)
Open your mind to a new way of looking at and engaging with the world around you.
For Yourself
do you imagine finding activities and communities where you can…
Develop and nourish your creativity
Maximize your strengths through participation in the arts
Learn about what resources are available nearby
Find your voice through the arts
Learn about mindful and compassionate practices for self-care and to reduce stress
Learn how to practice self-care and reduce stress.
Why Occupational Therapy and the Arts?
Creative activity helps construct a personal lifestyle of well-being.
Recent research explains how increasing technology in our lives can cause isolation and loneliness, with predictable negative effects on our health.
A new wave of arts-based research tells a more hopeful story, showing how creative expression in the form of visual arts, music, dance, or writing can generate resilience and new social supports. The emergence of communities based on these shared passions supports the health and well-being of the participants, who may experience profound positive impacts on their lives.
This is the essence of an arts-based approach to occupational therapy.
Occupational Therapy grew from the understanding that people can experience healing from physical, mental, cognitive, social illness or trauma by finding ways to create new meaning in their lives.
Over the last 100 years, the profession has expanded and grown into many new areas. Still, it retains its core insight that what we do in our everyday occupations can influence our health.
It focuses on helping people modify their environments to empower them to do what promotes their well-being.