2024/11/04 by Katie Lee Bunting, Becky Meyer, Katie Janzen +3
Health Professions · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics #Occupational Therapy Practice and Research #Reflective Practices in Education
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00084174241293541
crossref issued 2024/11/04 · crossref published 2024/11/04 · crossref published-online 2024/11/04 · openalex publication_date 2024/11/04 · crossref created 2024/11/05 · crossref published-print 2025/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/28 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Background. Amid growing calls for relational teaching approaches in higher education to improve student learning outcomes and student and educator well-being, a need remains for effective relational pedagogies. Therapeutic-use-of-self (TUS) is an occupational therapy skill that centers the client–occupational therapist relationship, yet there is a dearth of research exploring its application as a pedagogy. This presents an opportunity for a widely used occupational therapy skill, TUS, to be adapted as a much-needed relational pedagogy. Objective. We explored the experience of TUS as a relational pedagogy in occupational therapy education from educator and student perspectives. Method. This qualitative description study borrowed from the evocative methodology of collaborative autoethnography. We, six researcher–participants, across two Canadian entry-to-practice occupational therapy programs, engaged in five discussions exploring the relationship between participant stories and contexts. Reflective memoing and reflexive thematic analysis were applied for analysis. Findings. Four themes were described: (a) education as transaction, (b) authenticity in learning, (c) experiencing TUS, and (d) relationship as resistance. Conclusion. With an emphasis on authenticity, empathy, power equity, and critical reflexivity, TUS challenges status quo approaches to education. Although neoliberalism challenges the feasibility of relational pedagogy in higher education, TUS holds promise as a relational and critical pedagogy.