Like a River; An Introduction to the Kawa (River) Model

Editor’s note: This text-based course is a transcript of the webinar, Like a River; An Introduction to the Kawa (River) Model, presented by Michael Iwama, PhD, MSc, BScOT, BSc.Learning ObjectivesAfter this course, participants will be able to explain at least 3 examples of how the Kawa Model can be used in occupational therapy practice contexts.After this course, participants will be able to describe how the River Metaphor can be utilized as a powerful tool/framework to guide occupational therapy interventions .After this course, participants will be able to name and define the basic structure and concepts of the Kawa Model.Dr. Iwama: Thank you very much for that introduction and I bring to you greetings from my corner of the world which is a place called Augusta, Georgia. I am a chair and professor of the occupational therapy program at Augusta University which was formerly known as the Medical College of Georgia. What you see in front of you is a screen shot of some of the people that are associated with the Georgia School of Occupational Therapy and so this is what our students look like and our faculty look like and we send you all warm greetings from this corner of the world. I understand that we have a number of people that have joined the audience today and that people listening to and watching this presentation are not just located in the United States but also in other countries around the world so welcome to you all. Today we're going to talk about a remarkable development, if I can say that about this work in the field of occupational therapy and especially in the field of theory and models. We're going to talk a lot about how we take theory and models and then apply them in our practices in our great profession. What's remarkable and special about this model is that until it appeared in the mid 2000s most of our substantial models and theory in occupational therapy was developed in the English speaking languages where occupational therapy is represented. So this is different in that the model was created outside of North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. This model was developed in Japan and what's also special about it is that it has not come from the ivory tower. This is a model that was developed by clinicians and practitioners as well as students and also recipients or should I say clients of occupational therapy. The language that it was developed in was the language of Japanese and so the word kawa is Japanese for the word river. And what is at the very base, or what is at the very root of this model is that it uses the metaphor of a river to represent or depict a person's life journey and very simply said our role as occupational therapists are to unblock the obstacles that come into our lives, into our daily lives, and we find ways to enable greater flow in a person's life. That's what we do as occupational therapists so let me now just spend the next little while talking about this model and telling you as much as I can in the short period of time that we have together. We have just three learning objectives listed today. At the end of it all we should be able to explain at least three examples of how the Kawa Model can be used in occupational therapy practice contexts. And we should be able to describe how the River Metaphor can be utilized as a powerful tool or framework to guide occupational therapy interventions and then we should also be able to then at the end of the day name and define the basic structure and concepts of the Kawa Model. One thing that is really quite nice about the Kawa Model is that because it's based on a familiar metaphor of the river to depict a person's life journey or life flow, it's a model that is quite easy to understand and most importantly, our clients can understand the metaphor quickly and therefore they have another means to be able to understand what occupational therapy and it's processes are all about. I think that it's important to note that it was a model that has come from a very different place. It's come from the realities of practice. May I just also say that the people that helped me to put this model together, the practitioners and students, were specialists in the areas of pediatrics, mental health, as well as adult and elderly care so we really covered a wide spectrum of at least what constitutes the scope of practice of occupational therapy and it's when the realities of practice or more importantly the difficulties through which therapists, especially those located outside of the English speaking world, were having difficulty trying to translate or trying to explain to their clients what occupational therapy was about and what it had to offer to be able to help them in the obstacles that they faced in daily life. Wherever I go around the world and talk about occupational therapy and the Kawa model, it's remarkable to come to groups with the fact that although the concept of occupation has become so venerated and celebrated within our own profession here in the Western world, the majority of the world can't relate to occupation in the way that we talk about it within our great profession so there are occupational therapists all around the world who are actually doing occupational therapy but without a real means to be able to explain what occupation and occupational therapy really means in the way that we have constructed it in the Western world. So for example, in places like Japan or China or the African continent or parts of Europe, there is no word in those languages in these specific languages that captures all of the wonderful things that we have described or attributed to the concept of occupation as we...