Therapy
Therapists use their special knowledge and skills to assist persons who are physically challenged to become as self-sufficient and productive as possible. They evaluate, diagnose, and/or treat people of all ages whose function is impaired by physical illness, injury, emotional disorder, congenital or developmental disability, or the aging process.
Numerous career choices are available for those interested in becoming therapists. Examples of careers in therapy include occupational, physical, recreational, music, sports and exercise, respiratory, speech, and hearing. Therapists work in a variety of settings from hospitals and clinics to schools, private offices, clients' homes, outdoors, gyms, or swimming pools. The therapist must be patient with slow progress and attentive to detail, yet flexible and creative. Lack of progress can be frustrating for the client and the therapist, but seeing a client's improvement is very satisfying.
Alternative healthcare practices, such as Reiki, Midwifery, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, are sometimes used to complement western allopathic medicine. Many patients feel that their treatment plans benefit from the congruency of their values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations with clinical medical methods via such complementary therapies. Due to the difficulty of verifying standard information about certification requirements, regulating agencies, employment prospects, or salary estimates for such alternative therapies as careers, those therapies are not detailed in the following section.
Many but not all the careers addressed in the following "Therapy" section require a baccalaureate or graduate degree.
