Regardless of the treatment involved, all therapy aims at restoring functional ability. With appropriate therapy clients can learn to accomplish tasks that have become very difficult for them. For example, because of physical injury, emotional and psychological problems, or issues with their mental processing caused by brain injury, it can be hard for clients to accomplish desired goals. Therapy helps clients regain functional ability by providing strategies designed to overcome (or work around) these obstacles.
The methods of restoring functional ability are as varied as the reasons for the limitation. Physical injury, for example, may limit a client’s ability to do household tasks. Recommendations for correct physical movement may help solve the problem or assistive devices can make difficult jobs easier to accomplish. Or clients may limit their social interactions because of anxiety or problems managing their anger. Treatments such as systematic relaxation and anger/stress management may help the client to extend their range of enjoyable social interaction, restoring the functional ability of employing social skills.