Every Day Life and Relationships Built

Has there ever been a time where you have taken something for granted? Something so simple that you never even thought twice about because it was just apart of your daily routine instead of the specific plans you made for that day like brushing your teeth, eating, going to the bathroom, getting dressed, etc. I think these every day activities that are apart of your routine are considered to be apart of this "blissful ordinariness" term used in our textbook (O'Brien & Hussey, 2017). I imagine that if I lost the ability to perform these tasks, or could not perform them independently or just as well as I did before injury or illness, it would throw off my sense of normalcy in my daily routine. even though these things seem small, they are very big components to a person's quality of life, and independent self sufficient life.

This relates to the therapeutic relationship and holistic approach because we do not just focus on one thing. There is active listening involved to understand what the client is experiencing not only with their illness/injury, but how that is impacting their life socially, emotionally, mentally, and physically. it is not only the "what" but the "how". Also, empathy plays a role in this relationship on top of what was previously mentioned. We want to know what is wrong, HOW that is affecting them, and with active listening.. we can and want to connect through empathy and create an open line of communication which builds trust in the therapeutic relationship. Keeping in mind that there always has to be practicing professionalism intertwined in it all.

Reference

O’Brien, J. C. & Hussey, S. M. (2017). Introduction to occupational therapy(5thed.).St. Louis, MO: Mosby, Inc.