Grad School vs Certifications: How occupational therapists can choose specialties (Chapter 7 of Occupational Therapy in the Philippines)

One of the questions that interns often ask me is, “How do we choose a specialty in occupational therapy?” To have a niche, occupational therapists (OTs) either take up certificate courses or graduate school degrees. But which path is better? In this From Pages to Practice article, we’re gonna have an overview of how most Filipino OTs practice their profession through Chapter 7 of Michael Sy, Roi Charles Pineda, and Caroline Fischl’s Occupational Therapy in the Philippines: Theory, Practice, and Stories. Then we’ll delve into some practical tips on how OTs can choose their niche specialties.

Where are the Filipino OTs?

Most OTs are clinicians, which are therapists who assess and treat persons with disabilities, injuries, and chronic medical conditions. Clinicians practice in various settings which have different specialties (Pineda, et al., 2025). We can work in hospitals, standalone clinics, schools, skilled nursing facilities, community-based rehabilitation centers, and even the homes of our patients. Pineda, et al. (2025) also state that in the Philippines, clinicians work mostly in pediatrics, while some practice in geriatrics, mental health, and physical rehabilitation. OTs can also use their competencies in non-clinical roles, such as being a management consultant or a healthcare recruiter.

In other words, graduating from an occupational therapy program does not only lead to clinical practice, although that is its main purpose. Just like any degree, it can be a springboard towards possibilities outside of the profession where your knowledge of rehabilitation can be helpful. Knowing what you want to do with your occupational therapy degree is therefore crucial in determining the continuing education programs that you ought to pursue.

Certifications

Pros:

• Certificate courses provide training for specialized clinical skills within a shorter amount of time.

• Skills learned in these programs can be immediately applied to meet the needs of our clients.

• They boost employability among the most reputable and exclusive therapy centers at the early stages of your career.

• They can increase referrals for the trained clinician.

Cons:

• Some certificate courses provide training for interventions with questionable effectiveness.

• Certification programs lack the training for rigorous scientific thinking and occupation-based reasoning.

• Many certificate courses are expensive, costing therapists hundreds of thousands of pesos, given that a therapist must complete several levels of training to be considered a specialist in a particular niche.

• It can be tempting to tout a particular intervention as more effective than what it is despite the lack of evidence because you’ve invested so much in training for it.

Certificate courses are best for OTs who:

• Want specialized clinical skills

• Want to continue having a full caseload throughout the week while training

• Want to put up a specialty clinic

Tips if you will take up a certificate course:

• Specialize in an approach that has been proven to be effective through clinical trials, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews.

• If you will opt to train for an experimental intervention, do not overcharge your patients for it. 

• Critically appraise evidence to be holistic and scientific in caring for your clients.

Examples of certificate courses according to specialty

Pediatrics

• DIR / Floortime Approach

• Handwriting Without Tears Certification

• Pediatric and infant massage

• Sensory Integration

• Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding

Geriatrics

• Certified Aging in Place Specialist

• Certified Fall Prevention Specialist

• Certified Lymphedema Therapist

• Hospice and palliative care

• Vestibular rehabilitation certificate course

Mental Health

• Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance Approach

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy

• Lifestyle Redesign

• Trauma-Informed Care Certification

Physical Rehabilitation

• Certified Hand Therapist

• Certified Kinesiotaping Practitioner

• Certified Low Vision Therapist

• Neurodevelopmental Treatment

• Wheelchair service provision

Graduate Degrees

Pros:

• Graduate school provides the most rigorous training for scientific research.

• It will train you to create and communicate knowledge. 

• It equips you with skills that can be used in occupational therapy and beyond.

• Having a graduate degree expands your professional connections, hence your influence.

Cons:

• The clinical applications of what you’re studying are not readily apparent, unless you make a deliberate effort to research on a topic that can be used in patient care.

• They require significant commitment of time and effort.

• Studying for a graduate degree can have serious financial and opportunity costs.

• People might ignore your research.

Graduate degrees are best for OTs who:

• Have a talent for research.

• Want to land academic and leadership roles.

• Want to shift to a different career.

Tips if you will take up a graduate degree:

• Work outside of the academe first to have a better idea of your strengths, weaknesses, and interests before committing to grad school.

• Be clear about what you want to do with an advanced degree so you won’t waste time and resources.

• Save enough money to have the option of cutting back on your workload should you need to devote more time for graduate studies. 

Examples of master’s and doctoral degrees 

Within the rehabilitation sciences 

• Occupational Therapy

• Ergonomics

• Prosthetics & Orthotics

• Rehabilitation Sciences

• Vocational Rehabilitation

Other health science degrees

• Genetic Counseling

• Health Sciences

• International Health

• Occupational Health

• Public Health

Other science degrees

• Biostatistics

• Data Science

• Epidemiology

• Health Informatics

• Neuroscience

Education and Social Sciences

• Family Life and Child Development

• Health Professions Education

• Special Education

• Medical Anthropology

• Psychology

What about you, fellow OTs? What other tips can you share about choosing one’s specialty?

REFERENCE:

Pineda, R.C., et al. (2025). Traditional occupational therapy practice settings. In M. Sy, R.C. Pineda, & C. Fischl (Eds.), Occupational Therapy in the Philippines: Theory, Practice, and Stories (pp. 95-122). Routledge.