Occupational therapy is an allied health profession. This term is used to refer to the wide range of professional groups that work in mainstream health care. Other examples of allied health professionals include physiotherapists, radiographers, speech and language therapists, and podiatrists. Occupational therapists are required to train at degree level and register with the Health Profession Council, which was set up by the government to ensure the safety of the public and continuing professional development of its members.


Occupational therapists are concerned with human occupation in its widest sense. They believe that people have an intrinsic drive to be active and express themselves via occupations and activities. Occupational therapists understand that occupations contribute to a person's sense of identity and place in society. Take a moment to have a think about all the roles and occupations that make up your life, you may be a parent, or partner, you may be studying at college or working your way up the career ladder, you may be into exercising and keeping fit or you may be leading a hippy lifestyle!

Whatever, your life choices, it is likely that these roles and occupations give your life direction. For example, think about the range of activities that you do in any week, you will find that most of what you do, is related to your life roles and choice of occupations. This is because we do what is meaningful to us and what is necessary (ironing is likely to fall into the latter category!).

The body and the mind require activity in order to maintain functioning. Through the activities that you do, you develop skills, use them and test them out, interact with other people, learn to adapt to situations, meet basic human needs, convey who you are and strive towards goals (COT, 2006).


It is understood that if your routines are disrupted or you are deprived of occupation because of illness, stress or other problems your health and well-being will suffer. Occupational therapists help people whose usual and important routines are disrupted because of illness, stress or social problems. Their aim is to enable people to achieve as much as they can for themselves, so they get the most out of life. Occupational therapists work on any occupational difficulties and in this way are experienced life coaches. When people cannot do things which are important to them - such as getting dressed, giving a presentation at work, having a shower, working, socializing, feeling confident to go out into the community or undertaking a favorite hobby - an occupational therapist can help them in many ways, based on each individual person's needs and lifestyle.

Occupational therapy can help you to maintain a personally satisfying routine of activities. Occupational therapy, life coaching is available privately in Aldbury in Hertfordshire. I am an NHS experienced occupational therapist and have worked with people with mental-health difficulties of all types, using a range of mental health therapy techniques. Occupational therapists are skilled at empowering individuals with depression, anxiety and stress to become re-engaged with life and to feel confident again. Life-coaching in Hertfordshire will involve a combination of occupational therapy, NLP, hypnotherapy, and CBT techniques.

If you feel you would benefit from occupational therapy, life-coaching or cognitive therapy techniques visit www.karenhastings.co.uk. Karen is based in Hertfordshire.