Recreational Therapy

Why did you choose Recreation Therapy?

I was originally going to be a graphics design artist and then a good friend of mine had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury when we were only 18yo. At this point in my life, she was the second person that was close to me to sustain such a life changing injury. This of course spiked my interest in rehabilitation and all the therapy services offered. So, I put on my blue smock and the required white pants to volunteer at St. Joseph’s Hospital back in the late 80’s to see what sparked my interest. After following physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT) and speech language pathology (SLP), I decided that recreation therapy was where I wanted to be. I liked that recreation therapy (RT) could play a significant role in various areas including mental health, addiction recovery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, forensic psych, pediatrics, geriatrics and of course adaptive sports and recreation to just name a few.

Recreation therapy improves the quality of life for those we serve. This can be done with adaptation to recreation and sports as well as with understanding the importance of leisure. During my time on the rehabilitation side of RT I noticed that many folks did not have healthy recreation/leisure interests or no interests at all and thus the impact of not having a healthy recreation/leisure lifestyle can have a significantly negative effect on a person’s overall health and it can lead to a permanent disability. I remember a patient stated with a tear in his eye “I just always thought I would have time to enjoy life, but I ended up just working and now I am here recovering from my stroke”.

It takes courage to be in the field of Recreation Therapy. This type of person needs to be fantastic at the art of persuasion, confident in their skill set, excellent at adaptations, able to quickly stabilize trust in the relationship, have an excellent sense of humor and know that nothing is impossible. Recreation therapists are typically not shy or timid as this would not be advantages to the patients/clients they serve.  Recreation therapy has one of the best opportunities in that they get to take the skills the patient/client is learning with OT, PT and SLP and apply them all in the real-world setting while implementing RT goals. The team approach makes for such a successful outcome for the patients/clients and their families. When the family feels comfortable taking their loved one out and the patient/client has the skills learned after working with RT they are more likely to be active and not suffer from isolation, weight gain and living a sedentary lifestyle. Again, it is the team approach of RT, OT, SLP and PT that make this possible.

Arizona has well established programs focusing on adaptive sports/recreation and leisure. Daring Adventures and Arizona Disabled Sports.

Adaptive sports cover all of Arizona Here are a few others you would want to familiarize yourself with as well Northern Arizona Adaptive Sports Association, Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports and Ability360 Sports and Fitness Center.

The Disability Resource Connection AZ is new in Arizona and allows anyone who might be visiting or living in Arizona to see what is happening around our state. We have about 44 organization that attend monthly meetings to continue to improve resources and access to recreation for those we serve. Please check out Disability Resource Connection of Arizona to learn more.

I have had the honor of helping develop adaptive watersports in the state of Arizona for the past 25 years. Arizona Adaptive Water Sports (AAWS), a non-profit organization has expanded programming and more events on the water.  Arizona Adaptive Water Sports provides adaptive watersports to children (ages 3yo and up) and adults with amazing abilities. We offer a wide variety of activities including- adaptions with waterskiing, wakeboarding, and wake surfing. The other activities include tubing, fishing, kayaking and boat rides. We love that the families get to play together while tubing, fishing, kayaking, and boating. These families can also cheer on their loved one while they waterski, wakeboard and wake surf. The ultimate goal is to provide adaptive watersports while bringing families together thru play/recreation on the water. Volunteer opportunities and participation opportunities can be found at https://www.azadaptivewatersports.org/

Like they say at Daring Adventures…”life is a either a daring adventure or nothing at all”. Helen Keller