Participants With Acquired Brain Injury Realized They “Could Still Do Things” After a Yoga Intervention: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Abstract

Abstract Importance: Occupational therapy practitioners use yoga in practice to achieve holistic care, and the American Occupational Therapy Association has provided guidance on the use of yoga in occupational therapy. For people with acquired brain injury (ABI), however, it is unknown whether yoga affects occupational performance. Objective: To explore the perceived impact of an adapted yoga intervention on occupational performance using the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (4th ed.; OTPF–4) for participants with ABI. Design: Qualitative descriptive study using virtual, semistructured interviews. An inductive, holistic, open-coding process, followed by a deductive process to map open codes to the OTPF–4. Participants: Nine individuals with ABI were recruited from a yoga intervention study. Results: The theme generated from the data—“Yoga participants with ABI realized that they could still do quite a bit”—was supported by two major categories from the OTPF–4: Occupations and Performance Skills. Participants described improvements in their functional performance (i.e., motor skills, process skills) and how these factors were synergistically connected to their occupational performance (i.e., self-care, leisure). Conclusions and Relevance: This study provides novel insight into how functional performance improved so participants could “still do things,” such as engaging in occupations. When participants described improved performance skills, they simultaneously described re-engagement with their meaningful occupations. Participants also perceived an improvement in their mind–body connection, which should be further explored in future studies. This study generated original findings about participants’ perceptions of an adapted yoga intervention as they relate to the OTPF–4. Plain-Language Summary: This study reports individuals’ perceptions of their re-engagement with occupations and changes in occupational performance skills after participating in an adaptive yoga intervention. We highlight the distinct contribution that adaptive yoga—an intervention modality that can be used by occupational therapy practitioners—may have, using the OTPF–4 to connect the participants’ perceptions about their improvements in occupational performance.