# The Knowledge We Hold: Exploring Occupational Therapy's Epistemic Identity and the Balance Between Evidence and Practice

## TL;DR

This paper explores how occupational therapy integrates various types of knowledge to address complex health and social challenges.

## Contribution

The paper introduces occupational therapy as an epistemic community with a unique role in shaping healthcare through integrated knowledge.

## Key findings

- Occupational therapy has evolved from intuitive care to an evidence-based, epistemically pluralistic profession.
- The profession functions as an epistemic community that contributes to interdisciplinary networks and policy.
- Occupational therapists must embrace collaboration and epistemic humility to influence healthcare systems effectively.

## Abstract

Aliki Thomas

Occupational therapy has long drawn strength from its ability to integrate diverse forms of knowledge, scientific evidence, clinical expertise, patient narratives, and embodied wisdom. This lectureship explores the profession's epistemic identity: how we develop, validate, and apply knowledge in practice, and how this identity enables us to respond to complex health and social challenges. Drawing on historical and contemporary case examples, the author examines the evolution of occupational therapy knowledge, tracing shifts from intuitive, relational care to evidence-based models and toward today's epistemically pluralistic landscape. She argues that occupational therapy is not only shaped by multiple forms of knowledge but also functions as an epistemic community, one that holds authoritative, policy-relevant knowledge and contributes meaningfully to interdisciplinary networks. This identity positions occupational therapists to influence care models, policy directions, and systems transformation. However, our influence depends on epistemic humility, strategic collaboration, and a commitment to bridging research, practice, and lived experience. The author then outlines three key calls to action: (1) strengthening our knowledge base through pluralism and reflexivity; (2) amplifying our collective voice by clarifying professional identity and reducing fragmentation; and (3) increasing our policy influence through purposeful collaboration and leadership. In rapidly evolving healthcare environments, occupational therapy must assert its role not only in delivering services, but in stewarding integrated, context-sensitive knowledge that drives equity, participation, and justice.