RT Book Recommendation

I highly recommend all Recreational Therapists to read Dr. David Austin’s new book, Lessons Learned: An Open Letter to Recreational Therapy Students and Practitioners.
Dr. David Austin is a pioneer in our profession. He was a founding member of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA), a past-president of ATRA, and the author of numerous textbooks and journal articles. He also developed the health protection/ health promotion model in recreational therapy. Dr. Austin is also featured in the many Recreational Therapy Videos. Dr. Austin has a lifetime of experience in the field and he has much wisdom and advice to offer to not only students, but RT practitioners in the field, too.

I first discovered Dr. David Austin when I had taken introduction to therapeutic recreation as an undergraduate student in 1999. Dr. Austin was the author of the text used for the course. My instructor Dr. Sandra Parker had showed some of the Recreational Therapy Videos in our Introduction course.

I decided to peruse my graduate degree in Therapeutic Recreation at Indiana University because I knew Dr. Austin was a professor there. I’m fortunate to say that I had taken the last course he taught to students in therapeutic recreation before he had retired. The course was on the social psychology of therapeutic recreation.

Here is the link so you can get his book:
http://www.sagamorepub.com/products/lessons-learned