OT vs. PT – What's the Difference?

What’s the difference between Occupational Therapy (OT) and Physical Therapy (PT)? We asked our director of the Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI) and OT students what an Occupational Therapist does and how that role differs from Physical Therapy. 

Brianna Brim, MOT, OTR/L, CPAM, CLIPP, director of OTI said she gets this question a lot. She views OT and PT as sister professions. 

“A lot of times if someone's getting PT and OT, we collaborate to split the load. So that we're working on some things and they're working on some things and we're not billing insurance twice for the same thing,” said Brim. 

Brim said people have the misconception that PT does gross motor and OT does fine motor. Both professions can cross over but they work in conjunction for the benefit of the patient. 

“Theoretically though OT, a lot of times, our goal is daily function. We really work a lot on skills that people don't necessarily think about every day - a lot of things like dressing, cooking, cleaning, handwriting, going to the bathroom, those kinds of things that are really crucial to your daily existence for most folks, but we don't necessarily think about all of the time. Whereas PTs a lot of time are going to focus on some of the larger movement patterns, including walking, stairs, and balance in a very contextual way,” said Brim.

Both PT and OT are able to assess the body, head to toe and work on strength and pain and range of motion.

“It's just how we do those things are often a little bit different, because OTs use a lot of what we call occupations or just things that occupy your time to try to facilitate that improvement in strength, range of motion, where PTs framework is very bio mechanical a lot of the times, in that they're working on doing that range of motion versus doing a functional activity to get that range of motion” Brim said. 

Salus University OT student, Aditi Kadakia ‘23OT, agrees. “With occupational therapy, the focus is on the client’s everyday life and what they would like to focus on first,” she explained. “Things like dressing, grooming, bathing are sometimes overlooked, but are so important to a client's everyday life and are things that they want to focus on first.” 

OT in regards to patients often has the ability to work across practice areas. “That’s one of the beauties of OT - we can work in a lot of places and we have a lot of skill sets that translate over to a lot of different abilities in working with clients from all ages,” said Brim. 

If you or a loved one need occupational therapy services, contact us today.