Family Life

Family Life is Filled with Family Occupations.

Ever wonder to yourself--what is a family occupation and what does it mean for occupational therapy and all families? And even more so--how could understanding family occupations serve my practice or my family? Occupations are meaningful activities in life, and family occupations are an expansion, yet embody their own entity because of depth for those involved. Family occupations are mutually shared through varied lens of each member and seek to be joined together through healthy relationships! Family occupations entwine daily routines that organize life such as brushing teeth or preparing a family meal, and include rituals which give greater symbolic meaning and can deepen family relationships such as the tradition of joining on the porch for a cup of tea with extended family members weekly, or sharing every night, snuggling together on the couch with children, reading a favorite bedtime story, or participating in joyful Irish ethnic dancing at a wedding or reminiscing together in the kitchen about cherished family memories. Family occupations are multi-cultural and diverse! Family occupations are unique to each family's day-to-day experiences that form the rhythms of family life.

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Reflect on the many ways that your family interacts and experiences life together---these are family occupations! Ask yourself, what brings joy to you? to your family on a daily basis? What might hinder your ability to do things together and be together? How do you bond and belong and create a family identity to become closer and enrich your lives becoming together as a family throughout the lifespan?

In our families, we hope to make the human connection as our family activity includes: doing together collectively while being in relationships. Through these family occupations we seek to build bonds and love, to create belonging and we want to emerge to become a stronger family throughout many life experiences! This process is making the connection ®!

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Family occupations have been studied by OT's for over 25 years, interdisciplinary research on family togetherness, routines and rituals and the like substantiate family occupations with rigorous studies and expand extensively to over 50 years. And, family occupations have been my personal journey in practice, analysis and synthesis of literature, dabbling in research, disseminating in presentation and publication and creating a theoretical model, The Science of Family Occupations, for nearly 20 years! And, I just keep going--to help you to embrace these very important concepts into clinical work and family life!

Remember that the more that you know and understand family occupations, the better you are able to work to create a more fulfilling healthy family life!

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A heartfelt message for all families and practitioners from Dr. Stacy