The Path to Holistic Practice: Yoga as Occupation Throughout OT School

Mary Page Watts, Clarkson University

When we are passionate about something, it can fuel us in providing service to others. Perhaps that is what makes us want to be practitioners, in this broadly encompassing profession that is occupational therapy. We feel passionate about helping people holistically. We must access motivation and drive to facilitate meaningful occupation in others’ lives to promote positive change.

Prior to becoming an OT student, I spent 10 years passionately studying and practicing yoga. To say that yoga was a meaningful occupation for me would be an understatement! As a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor I led groups and individuals in regular sessions. I felt highly motivated by the desire to help others develop a holistic sense of well-being to improve their health-related quality of life. When I discovered yoga was a meaningful occupation that I could weave into OT practice, I was eager to apply this occupation in a way that might add value for fellow students and to my greater small-town community. I was driven to provide this service to others.

Before entering the OT world, I would go to local hospitals and teach yoga to the staff. The classes were free for employees as part of a health initiative provided by the organization. This allowed employees a lunchtime or post-work chance to connect with their bodies and de-stress. Because many of my students were stiff from sitting at computers all day without stretch breaks, I would bring props and adapt the environment (e.g., yoga blocks, blankets, a chair, or the wall) so they would be able to get into the poses correctly. My teaching experience helped me realize that persons in all settings can benefit from the occupation of yoga. This experience also gave me the opportunity to practice adapting and modifying the environment while providing services for persons in need. I was already learning how to find the just-right challenge!

Many of us, particularly if we had other jobs or careers prior to OT school, may find that we have always been drawn to looking at people holistically. Understanding this approach can be valuable knowledge as to how we might find what is meaningful and inspiring in our own lives and bring it to our educational program, future treatment sessions, and communities. After discovering this for myself, I knew that I could connect yoga with the practice of OT more formally. This was a driving factor in my decision to pursue OT school. I began to see this dream come to fruition by utilizing my resources as an OT student to continue to spread the word and use yoga as either a preparatory activity or a meaningful occupation.

At first, I provided a few free classes to fellow students in the Health Sciences library on Saturday mornings. A fellow OT classmate noticed how students were responding to the classes and approached me with an opportunity to contribute to her capstone by teaching classes for Health Sciences students in order to promote interprofessional socializing within the occupational therapy, physical therapy, and physician assistant disciplines. For this, she arranged a free sunset yoga class on the beach. Being outdoors in the sunshine in combination with the mind-body connection generated by the yoga postures created a meaningful experience for the attendees. The students loved it! In fact, we received rave reviews! Collaboration among professions is a motivational factor for the OT community right now. Discovering ways in which we can enhance our relationship with the interdisciplinary team is particularly important while we are in school. Yoga as a meaningful occupation for social participation shows that we can be creative when promoting interprofessional collaboration in a variety of ways.

Then, Clarkson University’s Graduate Student Association showed interest in providing free classes to further promote social participation among the broader community of graduate students. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we even held weekly classes via Zoom. Classmates and fellow graduate students experienced the potential in yoga sessions as a meaningful way to gather together to connect with others of different professions, while providing a healthy, holistic approach to stress relief. Both of these examples show how powerful yoga as occupation can be in improving and promoting social participation, as well as valuable stress relief to improve rest and sleep among graduate students.

Not only did the occupation of yoga seem to apply to young adults, but a classmate and I recognized we could apply it to the pediatric population as well. One assignment for our pediatric coursework involved creating a group intervention plan for pre-school aged children to promote social interaction and play. Together, we selected a story. While reading this story out loud, we led the children through a playful yoga class. This consisted of an active adventure through the woods—over the river, through the mountains and hills, and back home again. Simultaneously, we connected the story with yoga movements and postures that were accessible to all the children. We adapted the movements to fit with the story and be appropriately challenging for pre-school children. Yoga as an intervention in this instance facilitated social participation among the children, simultaneously involving them in the imaginative elements of moving with the story to support the occupation of play within the group environment.

As future OT practitioners, it is absolutely critical that we take care of our own mental and physical health so we can lead by example when working with clients. Part of this involves understanding our own passions and motivations and potentially using them in ways that can benefit the people with whom we work. Helping others to create positive, meaningful change is a large part of our profession. If we can access this within ourselves and apply it to our practice, not only are we caring for our own well-being, but we are inspiring those around us to do the same for themselves. For me, inner drive came from my own meaningful occupation—yoga—but this could be anything for any student and any client. Many of us enter OT school because we want to help people. A deeper question to ask ourselves as OTs is, how can we help people? How can we motivate our clients to help them meet their goals? What is my meaningful occupation, and how can I help my future clients find or participate in theirs?

Before beginning the journey through OT school, I was motivated to inspire positive change in others by providing the occupation of yoga as a means to relieve stress, increase body awareness, and foster social participation in a healthy environment. In what ways can you inspire fellow students, friends, teachers, future clients, or even your broader educational community? And how can you use your unique passions to do so?

Mary Page Watts, OTR/L, CIYT, is a recent graduate of Clarkson University’s MSOT program in Potsdam, New York. She is currently practicing as a pediatric occupational therapist, while teaching Iyengar yoga in her spare time, virtually and in person. Her meaningful occupations include hiking, cooking, painting, traveling to new places, and exploring the outdoors. She hopes to implement holistic practices such as yoga, meditation, horticulture therapy, aquatic therapy, and mindfulness into her work as an occupational therapist. Mary Page would like to thank her family, friends, classmates, and Clarkson professors for their assistance, guidance, and support throughout this process.

June 2021