Steps to Become a Recreational Therapist in New Hampshire
A recreational therapist works with others to help them at a time in their lives when they may be having some type of disability. The disability that the patient experiences can be of mental or physical nature, so a recreational therapist must be well trained before they can practice. At the entry level of this field you must only have a bachelor’s degree to practice but many jobs will require that you are certified as well. Certification is a voluntary thing but as there are is much preparation to be done before you are able to get yours so you should start the process early in your undergraduate career. In order to be certified you must go through a certain number of hours of supervised work as well as pass a board mandated test. This test will ensure that you know the many duties of a recreational therapist as well as the techniques they employ to help different patients. In addition to this you will also need to know how to perform the variety of duties of a recreational therapist.
The road to becoming a RT can be tough to many because of the many steps it may take in some states. Many states have taken to regulating the job of a RT to the point they must have a license to practice, so depending on where you plan on practicing you should research the state laws. There are many other things that you must do to become a recreational therapist in the state of New Hampshire depending on what level of education you are in. If you are just going for an entry level position then you need not go to graduate school but this may be a good idea if you want to increase you salary as well as gain more opportunities for work. As there is much competition to get into this job at the entry level position, soon you may absolutely need to go to graduate school in order to practice but for now you can get by with a bachelor’s degree. This is good for those who may not be able to afford going to graduate school or for those who simply do not want to.
As the job of being a recreational therapy can involve many different things, this is a job that not anyone with a good amount of intelligence can do, but there are some personality traits that many may need to have when deciding if this is the right job for you. One thing that a person in this job should be is a good listener and someone who likes to work with others to achieve success on the personal level. In addition to this you should be a patient person. Some patients that recreational therapist work with can be very slow to progress so if you are a patient person this will go a long way toward your success in the field. In addition to this you should be a compassionate person in order to understand the problems that people face and to be able to come up with the best types of solutions to face these problems. Though the work of a recreational therapist can be fun at times it is often very personal work that can lead a person to invest themselves in their patients and really worry about their success. In this way it can be a stressful job for some and this is something to think about when pursuing this, or any other position where you have to work very closely with others.