Women's health & matrescence | Occupational therapy

Across all life stages, women and girls have unique health needs which are poorly understood and often overlooked, which means that many women suffer in silence. Gender equality plays a key role in better health. Following the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2019 recommendations, the Victorian Government is rolling out a new Women's Health and Wellbeing Program; striving to set a new standard with comprehensive, inclusive, and accessible high-quality services. 

Occupational therapy in women's health recognises and addresses the unique needs and challenges that girls and women may encounter throughout their lives. Our OT approach promotes holistic wellbeing, empowers individuals, and contributes to improved overall quality of life. 

Women often have specific occupational needs related to their gendered roles as caregivers, parents, family members, and in the workforce. OT can address these unique demands to help women manage their daily lives more effectively. Therapy is tailored to help nurture women's internal strength and confidence, boost self-esteem and identity, and develop life skills using occupation-based narrative therapy and values-based methods. This approach aims to empower women to better handle overloading and prevent burnout, to thrive and regain balance in their daily lives as individuals, partners, mothers, friends, and professionals. 

We are learning more about the importance of women's health across the lifespan. Occupational therapists who specialise in matrescence consider motherhood as a rite of passage over the lifespan, from a gendered and matricentric feminist perspective. This includes the biological, psychological, social, spiritual, and political challenges girls and women navigate during childhood, puberty, adolescence, womanhood, motherhood, menopause and beyond. OTs can provide support for occupational issues women struggle with whilst adapting, coping, and transitioning through these developmental phases. 

OT takes a person-centered and holistic approach to health and wellbeing, addressing physical, emotional, social, and occupational justice aspects of daily life. Girls' and women's health issues often intersect with complex psychosocial challenges, gender role burden, chronic conditions, and social determinants of health, making the holistic, strengths-based perspective of OT unique and valuable to clients. 

Occupational therapy empowers women to restore capacities, regain independence, connection, and confidence in their lives. We work collaboratively with girls and women to re-equip them with skills and strategies to manage challenges during disruptive life stages such as puberty, pregnancy and motherhood by strengthening capacities for independence, positive self-concept, and connected primary relationships. 

OT in girls and women's health prioritises preventive care and early intervention, helping clients to maintain their overall health and wellness. This can include strategies for stress management, self-care, ergonomics, and lifestyle choices. 

Life is not always full of sunshine and buttercups, and not all occupations in the "dark" are negative. Our OT works to understand and address the dark side of occupations girls and women navigate, and shine light on things we do (occupations) that are taboo, shameful, embarrassing, and overlooked. Many women suffer in silence because of this, which perpetuates feelings of isolation, loneliness, and poor self-concept - which are leading causes of premature death. OT services help women to work through difficult experiences, feelings, and relationships, including difficult partner relationships, divorce, separation, traumatic birth experiences, difficulty bonding with baby and developing relationships with children, infertility, miscarriage, and infant loss. Our OT is passionate about working with solo mothers by choice (SMC), and anyone who needs to be seen and their story heard. 

By addressing physical, psychosocial, and emotional challenges that women face, OT services are collaboratively tailored with women to enhance their quality of life. This includes addressing needs and issues impacting intimate and sexual occupations, continence, occupational overloading, fatigue and burnout, disrupted sense of self and identity during motherhood, and managing the symptoms of conditions such as endometriosis.