What is a Recreational Therapist?

What is a Recreational Therapist? Hopefully my future career! :)

I am majoring in therapeutic recreation at University and often, people ask me what that is.  I thought I would share parts of a paper I wrote to help express why I chose to pursue this career.


Therapeutic recreation involves implementing programs and activities specific to a specific community, individual, or group of individuals in order to create and promote a good life, and better overall well-being.  The job description of a recreational therapist is to create, coordinate, direct, and implement activities for people with disabilities or illness.  In coordinating these activities, often arts and sports are included in improving emotional, social, physical, and spiritual well-being. 

Specifically in this field I would love to work with seniors at a nursing or retirement home. After working at one for just over year as a rec therapist assistant during high school, I decided that I absolutely loved the opportunity to help others and concluded that this was the career I should pursue.

For my project I had to interview someone with my dream job. This is a selection of the paper. :)

Interview with Ashley Clark

            In regards to finding someone who currently has my ideal career, I contacted my past manager Ashley Clark.  Ashley currently works as the Recreation Program Manager at Prince of Peace Manor and Harbour in Calgary, Alberta.  I contacted her via email, then telephone to ask her some questions concerning her position and experience in the therapeutic recreation and recreation management field.  In our discussion, I discovered that in qualifying for her job, she gained an education majoring in adapted physical activity as well as a kinesiology and health studies degree.

            The day to day tasks performed in this position vary daily, but in general, a person needs to be organized and sufficient at prioritizing in order to get through a day.  A typical day can include assisting and implementing programs, assessments of residents, management meetings and collaboration, assisting residents with various needs, and planning future events and programs.  Each day the recreation team tries to reach their goals of making the residents' day better. Specific goals that Ashley shared with me that her recreation team set are, "Coming to work and striving to make the residents lives more meaningful by providing loving human & animal companionship, providing activities with passion that are rich in variety and creativity, and creating opportunities for residents to give as well as receive care."

            Lastly, I inquired Ashley about what she thinks is most important to find success in the field and what her favourite part of her job is.  She responded that her favourite part of her job is "Spending time with the residents and learning about them."  The advice she provided was the importance of passion for what you are doing.  She told me that having heart and passion for making each day better for the residents was key.  She explained, " if you have passion you're able to make others feel more passionate and motivated for what they are doing."  Also, she related this to the importance of volunteering as she said it is essential in helping individuals find out what they are most passionate about, and which specific population they are most passionate about.  

 Ashley is one of the most kind, thoughtful, and innovative people I have ever met in my life. She was such a great example to me of what it means to be passionate about your career and really loving the people she works with.   She is so great at what she does and I definitely was blessed to have the opportunity of working with her! She helped inspire me to pursue this field and I hope I can develop my skills to be a great recreation manager one day in my future! :)