Empowering Advocacy: A Theatre Pedagogy Training With Occupational Therapists.
Panagiotis Barmpagiannis, Olga Chazapi
PMID 40995026WHAT IT FOUND
Participants said the theatre-based programme shifted how they saw their own practice: noticing how clinical language emphasises weaknesses, asking whose problem a child's behaviour is, and letting the person lead instead of assuming they know.
Most had no earlier advocacy training.
Key findings
01Participants described advocacy as something already present in ordinary clinical moments rather than a separate skill; one said that every time they ask whose problem a child's stereotypical behaviour is, they are advocating for the child and for neurodiversity.
02Participants described moving away from assuming they know what a client means and toward letting the person in front of them lead. One gave the example that when a client says they are sleeping, it may not mean sleeping in a bed or at night.
03Participants said structured advocacy strategies and approaches had not been part of their earlier education or training.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 11 therapists took part and all of them worked with children and adolescents in Greece, so the findings may not carry over to adult rehabilitation, mental health or geriatric practice. Recruitment through social media may have restricted participation to therapists with internet access who were active during the recruitment period. The two people who ran the training also interviewed the participants and analysed the interviews, so participants may have said what they thought the facilitators wanted to hear. Nothing was measured before and after the programme, so the study cannot show whether the training changed anyone's practice or improved anything for clients. The interviews were translated into English for publication and the authors note that some Greek expressions could not be rendered accurately.
Declared interests
The text provided contains no funding statement and no conflict of interest declaration. Participants received no financial or material compensation. Both authors co-facilitated the training they later analysed, and the first author teaches theatre pedagogy in undergraduate occupational therapy education and has published on its use.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that theatre pedagogy improves advocacy or client outcomes. Nothing was measured before and after the programme, the two researchers who ran the course also interviewed and analysed the participants, and the study reports only what 11 therapists said about their own experience.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →