A Good Obseration About Using Recreational Therapy in Publications/Communications

This morning I received an email message from an RT Blog reader who is an M.S. prepared CTRS. She had read the news release on Dr. Marieke Van Puymbroeck's research that I'd posted a couple of days ago. And she noted that nowhere in the release did it refer to Dr. Van Puymbroeck as a professor of recreational therapy or therapeutic recreation.

This person was correct. I went back to the release and found this reference describing Dr. Van Puymbroeck: "Marieke Van Puymbroeck, assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation." There was nothing to indicate she was a professor of therapeutic recreation. I should point out that this was not Marieke's fault as university news releases are typically distributed without the faculty member's knowledge.

This reader's point was that too often we don't mention RT or TR in our communications. Instead expressions like "yoga therapist" are used rather than recreational therapist.

I entirely agree with the reader. We in RT need to be proud of our profession and to use the term recreational therapy (or therapeutic recreation) in our communications so that others begin to realize that we exist.

I can recall that when I was ATRA President that the officers and board members made an agreement that each of us would inform others when we met them that we were in recreational therapy. For example, when meeting someone I would say that I taught recreational therapy, rather than I was a university professor. I don't know if this informal policy is still followed by national leaders -- but I would suggest it if it isn't being followed.

At any rate, I'm very glad that one of our own recreational therapists took the time to point out the need for all of us to continually promote our profession. I know that I will be more sensitive to the issue and hope you will too.