Main description:

Newly updated to address emerging directions in occupational therapy and occupational science, The Meaning of Everyday Occupation, Third Edition encourages occupational therapy personnel-students, educators, researchers, and practitioners-to recognize humans as occupational beings and to understand the meaning and significance of everyday occupation in day-to-day life.

Written by award-winning and internationally known authors Drs. Betty Risteen Hasselkus and Virginia Allen Dickie, the Third Edition explores the concept of meaning as it relates to occupation in daily life. Each chapter is augmented by the authors' personal reflections, narratives from occupational therapists in practice, and quotations from participants in the authors' occupational research, creating a text in which the concepts and theories of occupation and occupational therapy come alive for the reader.

Themes in the Third Edition include:

Meaning in everyday life and its occupations
Space and place as sources of meaning
Culture in everyday occupation and in the context of therapy
Well-being and development through everyday occupation
Occupation as connection
Disability and occupation
Occupation and the human spirit
Everyday creativity

Emphasizing occupation as experience, the comprehensive Third Edition champions the contributions of meaning to a client-centered approach to practice. This brings forward a new understanding of how to therapeutically affect the systems in which we all live and work.

The everyday occupation of our lives is often overlooked. By increasing the visibility of everyday occupation, The Meaning of Everyday Occupation, Third Edition offers readers the opportunity for personal reflection on day-to-day occupational patterns. By recognizing and acknowledging these patterns in their own lives, occupational therapy personnel can better understand how day-to-day occupation and disruption of that occupation affects the lives of clients.

Contents:

Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1 Meaning in Everyday Life
Individual and Community Meanings
Meaning and Performance in Life
How Do We "Know" Meaning?
Being Open to Ways of Knowing

Chapter 2 Meaning in Everyday Occupation
Defining Occupation
Breaking Out of the Box: Doing, Being, Becoming, and Belonging
Occupational Justice
Chapter 3 Space and Place: Sources of Meaning
Space and Place in Our Lives
Space and Therapy
A Place to Call Home
Special Places
A Geography of Health
Chapter 4 A Cultural Perspective on Everyday Occupation
Culture Defined
Recognizing and Understanding Our Own Culture(s)
Encountering "Otherness"
Culture in the Therapy Context
Chapter 5 Everyday Occupation: Source of Well-Being and Development
The Essence of Well-Being
Synthesis Through Occupation
Relative Well-Being
Occupation and Lifespan Development
Occupation as the Experience of Everyday Living
Chapter 6 Occupation as Meaningful Connection
Relation and Well-Being
Occupational Forms of Relation
Relation and the Professional
The Therapeutic Relationship as Connection
Occupational Therapy and Connectedness
Chapter 7 Disability and Occupation
Disability as Difference
Shifting the Focus to Participation
The Faces of Disability
Victory and Defeat
Occupation as Disability Experience
Disability as Occupational Experience
Being the Bridge
Chapter 8 Occupation and the Human Spirit
Occupation and the Human Spirit in Everyday Life
The Human Spirit in the World of Occupational Therapy
Occupation and the Space Within
Chapter 9 Everyday Creativity as a Source of Meaning
Creativity From Without and Within
Arising From Chaos
Creativity and Health
The Dark Side of Creativity
To the Dancing Star
Chapter 10 Occupation Speaks: Final Thoughts
The Therapist and the Splint
Index