Uma luz no final do túnel do conhecimento: a chegada da terapia ocupacional na cidade de São Paulo

In this article, I recite the beginning of my academic and professional trajectory, which was marked by the arrival of Occupational Therapy in São Paulo. The facts reveal the challenges faced in different moments of this history. When I majored in pedagogy, I wished to work and keep on studying. When the occupational therapy course was implemented at the Faculty of Medicine of University of São Paulo, I became interested and enrolled in the course. Occupational Therapy was then known as Labor Therapy. This fact occurred as a consequence of a poliomyelitis outbreak in 1950. The special treatment required by those patients became an emergency; however, there were no specialized professionals to aid in the rehabilitation of those patients. As a result, some specialized \udprofessionals, including occupational therapists, came from the United States of America to teach in Brazil. The Rehabilitation Institute of the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo opened the first Occupational Therapy course, taught in two years. Later, I started working as an OT teacher at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, where I remained for 32 years. Some facts have marked my professional life, during which I have always fought for the development of Occupational Therapy. In 1997, I retired and was invited by the Camillian \udpriests to implement the Occupational Therapy course at ‘Sao Camilo’ University, where I worked as a coordinator for 14 years. After that, I joined the Graduate Studies Program in Bioethics at the same university. The report of my professional trajectory tells the history of the occupational therapy in the state of Sao Paulo.\u