
Therapy makes the client look and feel “different” than everyone else- Going to a therapy session is not something that every child or teen does, so attending therapy can be a reason that makes them look different. Why do clients show resistance in therapy?īefore we get into strategies to encourage functional participation, let’s break down why we may see failure to participate during therapy sessions.
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We’ll also cover how to support follow transitions and make engaging in therapy fun through meaningful games and some simple resources to utilize to make sure therapy activities happen smoothly throughout the therapy session. Let’s cover various techniques to support children showing resistance in therapy sessions. In this way the transitions for children to move from preferred to non-preferred activities is sometimes hard to get their “buy in,”. But what’s more is that beyond client resistance, there may truly be functional occupations that are being missed or delayed as a result of resistance to therapy.Īdditionally, when children are asked to participate in a therapy activity or to stop doing a preferred activity and move to another, sometimes challenging, task. Encouraging participation in therapy sessions and functional engagement in daily tasks can be a couple of underlying areas that we are trying to address in therapy sessions. There are so many different reasons why a therapy client my object therapy participation. From differing perceptions to the outcomes of OT interventions, to not understanding what occupational therapy is and what it can do for the client, understanding therapy process is just one aspect of client resistance. There are many reasons for barriers to participation in occupational therapy intervention.

If you’ve worked in OT for even a short time, you have probably experienced resistance from your clients.
