Physical Therapy Mission Statement

Mission Statement Our life is complicated and challenging at times, but when you find a group, a particular hobby, or a passion, it can help alleviate some of the stresses of it. That's why recreation and leisure activities are so essential. In my experience, the groups I belonged to helped shape me into who I am today. For example, I am a rather shy individual. It wasn't until I joined a weekly drum circle meditation group where those aspects of myself were less at the forefront of my personality. At first, I was shy because that is my usual temperament going into things. I am not musically inclined whatsoever, so when a friend told me to come, I was a little apprehensive but went away because I love to meditate. I left my comfort zone

Daily I am exposed to residents who, unfortunately, have dementia. It is my job to administer the activities to the residents. Because of this, I am fully aware of the challenges and limitations in their lives with this disease. Aside from that, I enjoy working in memory care. Despite the disabilities that have come into their life, they are the group you can unequivocally be yourself with without fear of judgment. I also love the chance to better their day in any way possible, whether through reminiscence therapy or something fun like a physical game. Having graduated with a bachelor's in psychology, I am well suited to understand the emotional aspects of Recreation and the functionality/ importance that it serves. As a result, I can apply the knowledge I have learned in my academic career and implement it in my work being a recreation assistant. In addition, I can assess changes in behavior and other peculiarities regarding someone's mental well-being. In addition to using my own judgments, I work closely with the psychiatrist about mood changes and behaviors. Since I spend a lot of time with the residents doing activities, I can assess their decline by how they perform or act during my program. I then take my observations to the psychiatrist to discuss whether the change is purely a cognitive decline behavior or a behavior change due to their

Dispute that my interest in recreational therapy was really cultivated when I worked with a certified recreational therapist. With her insight and knowledge, I became interested in learning more. While I was working with her, we had many in-depth conversations about what recreational therapy is and isn't. It was when I did further research to find that this type of work correlates well with psychology. In addition to what I discovered and the conversations I had with her, recreational therapy would be a good fit for me because of my background in psychology. Due to my interest and passion for psychology, I am interested in the behavioral health side of recreational therapy. I understand the importance of recreational therapy as a whole and the many branches of it, but recreational therapy is vital when someone is dealing with addiction. I want to make recreational therapy my career because I would love to be a tool for people who are in recovery. I also want to provide and assist people with different modalities to help support their recovery and the recovery process, and a recreation therapist offers