Occupational Adaptation as a Normative and Intervention Process: New Perspectives on Schkade and Schultz’s Professional Legacy

Overview In this chapter, I present a reconceptualization of Schkade and Schultz’s Occupational Adaptation (OA) model (1992) as having two core principles: Occupational adaptation is an inherent normative process in humans as occupational beings which may be disrupted by life change, transition, illness or disability; and Occupational adaptation is an intervention process where occupational therapists serve as facilitators to empower within the client the process of change and enable the inherent occupational adaptation process within them. This chapter aims to present Schkade and Schultz’s OA model as a conceptual framework with constructs and language that can be easily applied in daily clinical practice.