If you have been told a child, a parent, or you yourself might benefit from Occupational Therapy, the first reasonable question is: what does an Occupational Therapist actually do? The short answer is that Occupational Therapists help people take part in the activities that fill a normal day. The longer answer is more useful, so let us walk through it.
01 . What it is
What an Occupational Therapist actually does
Occupational Therapy is a registered allied health profession in Australia, regulated by the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia under AHPRA. The word “occupation” here does not mean a paid job. It means any activity that occupies a person’s time and matters to them, from brushing teeth to driving a car to playing with grandchildren.
Occupational Therapists work with people whose ability to do these everyday activities is affected by injury, illness, disability, developmental difference, or ageing. The work is built around three questions: what does this person need or want to do, what is getting in the way, and what would help.
That third question is the part most people do not expect. An Occupational Therapist might adjust the activity (a different way of buttoning a shirt), the environment (a grab rail beside the bath, a quieter classroom seat), the person’s own skills (handwriting practice, energy conservation strategies), or some combination of all three. The goal is the same in every case: more participation in the activities that matter.
02 . How an OT thinks
The PEOP model: how an Occupational Therapist makes sense of your situation
When an Occupational Therapist looks at a problem, they look at three things at once: the person, the activity, and the world around the person. The way they hold those three together has a name. It is called the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance model, or the PEOP model, and it is one of several occupation-based models Occupational Therapists use.
The PEOP model is a plain idea dressed in a long name. It says that how well someone can do an activity is not just about the person. It is about how the person, the activity, and the environment fit together. Change any one of the three and the result changes. The model was developed by Carolyn Baum and Charles Christiansen, and refined across later editions of their textbook. Here is what each part means.
- Person. Everything the person brings: their physical ability, thinking and memory, mood and motivation, and the things they value and want to do.
- Environment. Everything outside the person: the physical space and equipment, the people around them, the culture they live in, and the systems and funding that shape their day, such as the NDIS, a school, or a workplace.
- Occupation. The actual activities, tasks, and roles a person needs or wants to do, from self-care to study to paid work to caring for others.
- Performance. What happens when the three above meet. Performance is the doing. When the person, the activity, and the environment fit well together, the person can take part. When the fit is poor, the activity becomes a barrier.
The model is often drawn as three overlapping circles, with performance sitting where they meet. The practical point is what makes it useful. An Occupational Therapist does not assume the problem sits inside the person. They look for where the mismatch is, and then they can work on the person’s skills, change the activity, change the environment, or do all three.
03 . How OT differs
How Occupational Therapy differs from other allied health
Physiotherapy, Exercise Physiology, Speech Pathology, and Positive Behaviour Support all overlap with Occupational Therapy in different places. The simplest way to tell them apart is to look at what each profession asks first.
- A Physiotherapist usually asks about pain, strength, joint movement, and how the body is loaded.
- An Exercise Physiologist usually asks about chronic conditions, capacity for exercise, and how to safely build it.
- A Speech Pathologist usually asks about communication, voice, and swallowing.
- A Positive Behaviour Support practitioner usually asks about behaviours of concern and the routines and environment around the person.
- An Occupational Therapist usually asks about a day. What does the person need to do today, this week, this term, this year, and what is in the way.
That difference in starting question shapes everything that follows. Where a Physiotherapist might address a shoulder injury by improving range of movement and strength, an Occupational Therapist might address the same shoulder injury by working out how the person can wash their hair, hang the washing, and lift a toddler while the shoulder heals. The two often work alongside each other, and both questions matter.
04 . Who OT helps
Who Occupational Therapists work with
Occupational Therapists work across the full lifespan. The people most commonly referred to Occupational Therapy in Australia are:
1. Children with developmental, sensory, or learning differences. This includes children who are autistic, children with attention differences, fine and gross motor delays, handwriting difficulties, sensory processing differences, and feeding difficulties. Paediatric Occupational Therapists work in clinics, schools, and homes, and often work together with parents, teachers, and other clinicians. See our guide to exploring your child’s motor skills for an example of how this work shows up day to day.
2. Adults living with disability. Occupational Therapists support adults with intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and many other conditions. The work covers daily living tasks, assistive technology, home modifications, and functional capacity assessments used to support NDIS plans.
3. People recovering from injury or surgery. After a stroke, a fall, a fracture, a hand injury, or major surgery, an Occupational Therapist helps the person rebuild the skills and routines that go with daily life. This often runs in parallel with Physiotherapy or Exercise Physiology.
4. Adults living with chronic conditions. People living with arthritis, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, or post-cancer fatigue often work with an Occupational Therapist on energy conservation, pacing, joint protection, and adapting tasks so the condition takes up less of the day.
5. People with mental health conditions. Occupational Therapists work in mental health settings on routines, motivation, social participation, and the practical side of recovery, often coordinated with Psychology and Psychiatry care provided outside our team. See our blog on mental health and Occupational Therapy for the detail.
6. Older adults. In aged care, Occupational Therapy covers falls prevention, home modifications, equipment prescription, dementia-aware design, and supporting a person to stay independent for as long as is realistic.
7. People in the workforce. Occupational Therapists carry out functional capacity evaluations, ergonomic assessments, return-to-work planning, and workplace modifications.
An Occupational Therapist starts with the day, then works backwards to what would help.
05 . The first session
What a first Occupational Therapy session usually looks like
A first session is mostly a conversation. The Occupational Therapist will ask what brings the person in, what a normal day looks like, what is going well, and what is not. They will ask about the home, the school or workplace, the people around the person, and any equipment already in use.
After that, the assessment depends on the referral question. For a child, the Occupational Therapist might watch handwriting, observe play, or run structured assessments of fine motor skills and sensory processing. For an adult, the Occupational Therapist might watch how a person stands up from a chair, prepares a meal, or moves through their home. For a workplace assessment, the Occupational Therapist might observe the person at their workstation or on the job.
The output of a first session is usually a working list of goals, written in the person’s own words, and a plan for the next few sessions. The Occupational Therapist will also flag if other clinicians should be involved, such as a Physiotherapist for strength work, a Speech Pathologist for communication, or a Psychologist (referred externally through your GP) for the mental health side of the picture.
06 . Next steps
How to know if Occupational Therapy is the right next step
The clearest signal is when an everyday activity is a real struggle, and that struggle is starting to limit what the person can do or how much support they need. That might be a child who is finding handwriting much harder than their classmates, an adult working out how to get back to work after an injury, an older parent who is no longer safe in the shower, or someone whose chronic condition is shrinking the day.
Most people come to Occupational Therapy through a GP referral, an NDIS plan, a hospital discharge, a school recommendation, or a workplace insurer. Self-referral is also fine. Occupational Therapy is funded under the NDIS, a Medicare GP Chronic Condition Management Plan (which can cover up to five allied health services per calendar year with a referral from a GP), the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, private health insurance (depending on the level of cover), and private fee-for-service.
For executive function work specifically, see our companion guide on Occupational Therapy approaches to executive function, which goes into the practical strategies in more detail.
If you are not sure whether Occupational Therapy is the right fit, the simplest next step is to talk to an Occupational Therapist. A short conversation usually clarifies whether the issue belongs with Occupational Therapy, with another allied health profession, or with a few clinicians working together.
References
- Bass, Marchant, de Sam Lazaro and Baum, 2024 (OTJR scoping review). Application of the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance Model: A Scoping Review. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 44(3), 521-540. DOI: 10.1177/15394492241238951. (According to PubMed.)
- Christiansen CH, Baum CM and Bass-Haugen J (2005). *Occupational Therapy: Performance, Participation, and Well-Being* (3rd ed.). Thorofare NJ: SLACK Incorporated. ISBN 9781556425301.
- Christiansen CH, Bass J and Baum CM (2015). *Occupational Therapy: Performance, Participation, and Well-Being* (4th ed.). Thorofare NJ: SLACK Incorporated. ISBN 9781617110504.
- Occupational Therapy Board of Australia. Codes and Guidelines. The national board that registers Occupational Therapists under AHPRA.
- Occupational Therapy Australia. The national peak body for the Occupational Therapy profession.
- World Federation of Occupational Therapists. About Occupational Therapy.
(Note: the Christiansen, Baum and Bass-Haugen titles are textbooks, not PubMed-indexed journal articles. The Bass and colleagues 2024 scoping review is the contemporary peer-reviewed anchor for the PEOP model and was verified against PubMed on 2026-06-12.)
