Occupational Therapy and the 'Seat at the Table' Fallacy
Also titled: Why OT’s next evolution must move from consumption to creation I’ve been writing about occupational therapy’s educational evolution for nearly two decades, and this feels like the conversation we need to have next. For years, the justification for moving occupational therapy education to the doctoral level has centered on an oft-repeated promise: we will gain a seat at the table. The logic was simple enough - if we matched the credentials of our peers in other health professions, we’d gain equal standing, influence, and voice. I believe that assumption, though comforting, is wrong. A degree doesn’t grant influence. Credentials open doors, but they don’t dictate what happens once you step through them. A “seat at the table” means very little if the table itself was built by someone else, and if all we do is wait to be served. I’ve been a vocal critic of the mandatory entry-level OTD for exactly that reason. The last time we went through a similar transition - from ...