Badge for Association of Occupational Therapists

Badge with words “Association of Occupational Therapists” with a phoenix rising from flames, owned by Valerie Davis following her qualification as an occupational therapist in 1957

Reborn from its own ashes, the mythical phoenix is the symbol for many occupational therapists’ associations. As a symbol, it refers to the recovery and rehabilitation after illness, injury or adapting to ageing. Occupational therapy works with people to give them confidence and independence and to overcome barriers in their every-day lives.

Valerie Davis qualified as an occupational therapist, aged 25 in 1957. Like many women of her generation, she stopped working once she married but was also living far from her nearest hospital. Her son remembers that his mother’s occupational therapy knowledge influenced the way she interacted with the world how she cared for her family, both in health and illness. Valerie Davis did return to practice in the 1970s, working at the OT department at the Royal East Sussex Hospital. However, changes in the NHS impacted how occupational therapy was carried out. Focusing more on aids and adaptations rather than the craft practice Valerie had learnt, she felt that the overall well-being and development of competence with the people she helped was often overlooked.