The importance of considering the individual's spirituality and the confusion over the definition have been emphasized by the interest shown in this topic over the past decade. An operational definition to help reduce confusion was presented at the College of Occupational Therapists' annual conference in 2004 and it was felt that it would be useful to both review the attitudes and practices of occupational therapists in this area and evaluate how they assess and satisfy spiritual needs. It seemed that practical spiritual needs were often thought of only in terms of religious and cultural traditions or rituals and, as a result, the potential of meaningful daily occupations was not fully considered. Therefore, the use of the occupation was reviewed in relation to the satisfaction of spiritual needs. Finally, perceived barriers to incorporating spirituality into practice were investigated. The review showed that: (1) although the majority of participants recognize the importance of spirituality for health and illness and the potential benefits of treatment, the number of therapists who actually incorporate spiritual needs into daily practice does not demonstrate this recognition; (2) Some occupational therapists feel confident in explicitly addressing and assessing spiritual concerns, but this tends to be situational and dependent on factors such as the client-therapist relationship, the therapist's awareness of spiritual issues, and the expression of spiritual need on the part of the client; (3) Further exploration of the potential of everyday occupations that address the spiritual needs of both religious and non-religious clients needs to be undertaken; and (4) Spirituality needs to be addressed more comprehensively in undergraduate occupational therapy programs (Johnston...... middle of paper ......l aspects of the person – mentally, physically, and spiritually. However, when As the medical model assumed dominance in the US healthcare system, OT practitioners were forced to establish a scientific basis for their practices. Giving in to this external pressure, the OT profession adopted the medical model to guide its practices, with the result of abandoning its holistic foundations. As a result, pathology reduction has become the primary focus of the practice. Pathology reduction is not enough to engage an individual, however, as the focus on pathology ignores many dimensions of the person, including spiritual practices have distanced the profession from its fundamental values ​​of humanism and holism, with the result of neglecting the spiritual context for many years (Schwarz & Cottrell, 2007).