Occupational Formulation: Making Sense of Participation Without Pathologising

Date: 18th of June

Time: 9am-12pm

Where: Google Meet

Developing occupational formulation that organises complexity without reducing people to diagnosis.

People’s lives are complex. Participation is shaped by context, history, relationships, environments, bodies, systems, and opportunity, not simply by symptoms or diagnoses. And yet, clinical reasoning can easily drift toward reduction, focusing on problems to name rather than patterns to understand.

This training centres on occupational formulation as a way of organising complexity without pathologising people. It supports occupational therapists to develop formulations that hold lived experience, context, and meaning at the centre, while still offering enough clarity to guide intervention, decision-making, and communication.

Together, we will explore how occupational formulation differs from diagnostic or deficit-focused approaches, and how it can be used to make sense of participation across time and situations. The session offers ways of thinking that help you notice relationships between doing, being, environment, and opportunity, without collapsing these into labels, categories, or overly linear explanations.

This is not about avoiding structure or stepping away from clinical reasoning. It is about using formulation to deepen understanding rather than narrow it, so that practice remains ethical, relational, and grounded in what occupational therapy does best.

This training is particularly relevant for occupational therapists working in mental health, neurodivergence, trauma-informed practice, community services, and systems where diagnostic language can easily overshadow the person.

When participation is understood in context, intervention becomes more humane and often more effective.