Meanings of creativity within occupational therapy practice

Abstract

Since the early days of the occupational therapy profession, creativity has been intrinsic to the beliefs and practice of occupational therapists. However, notions of creativity have been rarely explicated in occupational therapy research. The aim of this exploratory research was to study the phenomenon of creativity through the subjective perceptions of three occupational therapy clinicians. This qualitative research used a methodology in the spirit of phenomenology and took a descriptive, critical approach. Five themes of meaning were derived from the data: creativity is part of everyday practice; the use of creativity as a conscious approach; creativity involves risk‐taking; creativity needs a supportive environment; and creativity is the use of expressive arts in therapy. This study illustrated that creativity, as a phenomenon, has a multifaceted structure and appears to manifest in practice in a much richer way than is being revealed by occupational therapy literature.