RT and personality

I would predict that a large number of recreational therapists have extravert personalities. I’d guess this because many activity-based interventions provided by a Rec. therapist is group-oriented.

I am, however, an introvert.

I had taken a special training at an ATRA conference several years ago. It was a special pre-conference training on leadership. They had participants complete a personality inventory during this training. I think it was the Kinsely, but it may have been the Myers-Briggs. The presenters were trained/ certified to provide this assessment tool.

My personality is the Idealist/ Healer. I’ve heard that it is a rare type because very few people in the population have this personality. All of the idealists sat at a table. I guess it would not be ironic that we all had a conversation about George Baily from It’s a Wonderful Life.

My personality, the Idealist-Healer consists of: INFP: which stands for:

I - Introvert: meaning being attentive

N - Intuiting: meaning Introspection

F - Feeling: meaning Friendly  

P - Perceiving: meaning probing.

There were about an equal number of people at each of the four personality tables (to the best of my memory). This session was several years ago. The four main types include: Artisans, Guardians, Idealists, and Rationalist.

While in graduate school for Counseling, I had also taken this personality test again and had the same score. The trainer who had come to our campus Lindsey-Wilson College campus in Ashland, KY was from somewhere in Ohio (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus). She told me that an INFP is a good personality for a counselor to have, which made me feel validated. She also stated that all personalities can be good for counseling because each one has different strengths.

She had all of the idealists sit at one table to discuss our personalities. There were four in our group. Interestingly enough there was one of each type of the four idealists: teacher, counselor, champion, and myself, the healer.  The majority of people in our graduate class had the Guardian personality. Based on my experiences, I think they have a very warm personality. One person in our group had the artisan personality. And one person had the rational personality.  I am very good friends with both of them.

I wonder what the majority of Recreational Therapists are. I imagine a lot of them have guardian personalities. Of course, there are RTs who have each of the personalities out there.

No one personality is better than the other. Each one has unique traits and strengths that make them great.

I often felt that my introvert personality was a weakness during my high school years because I did not have the extroverted personality for going out to wild parties. I preferred to be alone or in quiet settings like a coffee shop with a small group of friends. I felt tired trying to keep up with my extrovert girlfriend at the time. Now that I am older, I think my introvert personality is more of a blessing. I am okay being on my own and I don’t have that need for other people. I suppose I changed my thinking from a glass half empty to viewing it as half full in regards to accepting my introverted personality.

Read this article by Huffington Post, to see the signs of an introvert:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/introverts-signs-am-i-introverted_n_3721431.html?ir=Books