. When beginning treatment it is almost impossible to start with a specificprescription of activities, and there is no need to (Doniger, 1953). Usually, the patientwill provide a spontaneous starting point with reactions, favorable or destructive,observed with a practiced eye and open mind, which provides clues for purposefulactivities (Doniger, 1953). Often, patients are full of ideas but are slow to organizeanything along realistic lines. It is also important for the occupational therapist to bespecific when prescribing an activity because different things have different meanings toindividuals. The occupational therapist must be able to differentiate between constructiveexpression, release, and the use of the activity to reinforce the pathological pattern(Doniger, 1953). A patient who works his/her hostility out towards the therapist insteadof working it through at the scheduled time are ultimately working at their owndisadvantage. An example is a patient who uses creative painting to withdrawal into afantasy world, when really the patient should be drawn out and expressing his/heremotions within the group. The occupational therapy group provides support,opportunities for growth, and to assess ones limitations. Occupational therapy, in somecircumstances, can help patients through vocational exploration even though some mayavoid contacts with working situations because of emotional difficulties (Doniger, 1953).The following activities facilitate the individual in many ways. Classical treatmentactivities include:Evaluation where a self-image collage, combined with an interview and goal-settingsession, serves as the foundation of the occupational therapy program.Therapeutic use of crafts is used to indicate underlying resistance to the entireprogram, and can surface when patients are asked to perform specific tasks. Duringthe task, the patient is asked to focus on dealing with behaviors and attitudes whichare related reasons for why ...
