Change of Focus: Interventions of Occupational Therapy From a Psychodynamic Perspective

Abstract

Aims

Strictly speaking, occupational therapy interventions in mental health help clients through different activities to improve and develop skills that allow them to become increasingly independent and self-sufficient. Occupational therapy evaluation includes areas such as activities of daily life, play/leisure, productivity, study, work, and social participation. Occupational therapy also considers the impact of the context on the areas mentioned, but usually does not include the psychodynamic aspects of the client.

Methods

Male patient in his early thirties who was suffering an acute psychotic episode. He was experiencing a mystical delusion, with grandiose ideas of personal significance and delusions of reference. His mood was elevated, in consonance with the content of his thoughts. He was disorganised and needed help to maintain his daily routine. He said that he was experiencing a Maslow's Peak-Experience not a psychotic episode although he acceded to take medication. In an attempt to avoid involuntary admission to a mental health clinic (he refused to be admitted, as did his family), we tailored a home approach, with the inclusion of an occupational therapist on the team. Our first approach was unfruitful. Our attempts to help him to organize himself and his daily routine did not work. He was so fixated with his delusional project that any other idea or plan was rapidly discarded. So, we decided to change our approach and took his delusional project as the activity to organise and plan about. We agreed with him that we were going to help him with his project, but that there were no guarantees of success. Occupational therapy interventions helped him organise his project step by step and accept the frustration that his plan was impossible to achieve. Eventually, the episode ended with no need of admission.

Results

Changing the focus of the occupational therapy interventions, paused the interventions that were aimed at activities of the daily life, and taking the delusional project as the main and the most important activity of the client at this point allowed us to build a stronger therapeutic alliance and helped the client deal with the psychotic process and tolerate the constraints of reality.

Conclusion

The introduction of a psychodynamic point of view in the planning of occupational therapy interventions enriches the realm of occupational therapy and allowed, in this case, a flexible and creative approach that opened the path to a home treatment plan avoiding involuntary admission.