Reconstruction of Habitual Occupations in an Old Japanese Woman

Abstract

T his poster analyzed the reconstruction of habitual occupations of a 78-year-old Japanese woman with stroke and was part of a larger ethnographic study of Hana (pseudonym) that investigated the lived experience of Hana and people close to her and the therapeutic experience of Hana and her therapist Mari (pseudonym). The purpose was to understand good aging (a positive experience of aging) for Hana and people close to her, including her occupational therapist. This poster discussed how Hana's habitual occupations were disrupted after stroke and how her therapist initiated her recreation of new habitual occupations.After stroke, Hana was overwhelmed with her new world of disability and was scared to confront her reality by active participation in rehabilitation after she had a fall. She became alienated from people and withdrew from daily life because she thought she could not do anything more. She had lost her habitual occupations that embodied the routines, pleasures, family events, socialization, and lifestyle choices she had developed over her lifetime.After 5 years of this "liminal" life, Mari, the occupational therapist working in the day care center that Hana was attending, initiated contact with Hana to promote her engagement in some familiar occupation. Once Mari created a trusting relationship with Hana, using a traditional style toward honorable elders, she invited Hana to participate in a traditional Japanese craft activity that Mari believed to be ap-propriate for an affluent homemaker. From Hana's presentation of self and the occupational history that emerged in their conversations, Mari saw this style and role as what Hana once was and could be again in the future. During collaboration with her therapist while making a sophisticated paper craft, Hana rediscovered future possibilities for herself as an occupational being, a respected craftsperson. Mari coached Hana to help her find occupational balance and supported her continued engagement in meaningful occupation, not withdrawal from life. Hana came to use craftmaking and other occupations emerging in her post-stroke life as tools for recovering social interactions with her family, relatives, and others.This study found that good aging occurred when an elder was motivated to recreate continuity in her life. Disposition, including preference, habits, and routines in lifestyle, promotes the person's motivation into the future and repeats itself (Bourdieu, 1977;Swartz, 2002). Engagement in a familiar occupation, embodying her disposition, reinforced Hana's motivation to create continuity with her past habits and resocialize.