Occupational narratives and the therapeutic process

Clients’ occupational narratives reveal the overall meaning of life events, signifying their place in a plot that integrates past, present and future. Occupational narratives have also been demonstrated to predict how clients respond to therapy. A closer examination of the details of occupational narratives and how they unfold in the therapeutic context has the potential to give new insights into the experience of therapy by clients. This paper presents narratives of two clients in a vocational program for persons living with AIDS. Comparing their occupational narratives enables us to shed light on the differences between narratives that account for different client outcomes and the extent to which narratives can be impacted upon through occupational therapy intervention.