Mission & Philosophy

Russell Sage College’s Occupational Therapy program encourages students to be self-directed and engaged actively in their learning. The program provides opportunities for reflective practice and critical inquiry with vibrant problem solving. We emphasize experiential learning that builds occupation-based clinical reasoning practices explicitly linking the person, environment and occupation. Our graduates will occupy diverse workforce roles and contribute to the health and well-being of individuals, populations and society.

In Occupational Therapy, occupations refer to the everyday activities that people do as individuals, in families and with communities to occupy time and bring meaning and purpose to life (WFOT, 2015). Occupations carry both practical and symbolic significance, and include things people need to, want to and are expected to do.

As subjective and objective events experienced within temporal, physical and cultural contexts in physical and social environments, occupations contribute to the construction of one’s self-efficacy and sense of self.

Russell Sage College’s Occupational Therapy Program recognizes engagement in occupations as the core of individual, community and societal well-being.

Occupational engagement occurs within complex relational systems that provide connection to other persons and environments. The curriculum design of the program emphasizes the contextualized lived experiences of individuals and the intricate nature of occupational engagement. The Person-Environment-Occupation model serves as the theoretical framework for the program.

In accord with Russell Sage College’s motto, “To Be, To Know, To Do,” occupations are vehicles for being, doing, and becoming in the world.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (3^rd ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68 (Suppl. 1), S1-S48. https://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1860439.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Philosophy of occupational therapy education. Retrieved from https://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=2701702

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2011). The philosophical base of occupational therapy. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(Suppl.), S65. https://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1865199

World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2012). Definition of Occupational Therapy. Retrieved from https://www.wfot.org/about-occupational-therapy.