I’ll start by admitting that my music taste is probably still stuck somewhere in the indie and alternative rock of the ’90s and early 2000s, but even I can see that Taylor Swift is more than a pop star. Whether or not you enjoy her music, you’ll likely have some awareness of her. Over the past two decades, she’s become a cultural fixture, known not just for her chart-topping albums but for the way she navigates identity, reinvention, public scrutiny, and creative control.
Occupation refers to the meaningful activities people do every day, the things that fill our time, shape our identity, and help us participate in the world. This includes things like caring for others, creating, resting, learning, socialising, or managing routines. Occupation is how we live our lives.
When people experience illness, disability, trauma, or life disruption, their ability to engage in those occupations can shift. Occupational therapy is about helping people adapt, reconnect with what matters to them, and find ways to live well on their terms.
When Might an OT Use the Kawa Model?
The Kawa Model is a culturally grounded occupational therapy model developed by Japanese occupational therapist Dr Michael Iwama. It draws from Eastern worldviews and represents life as a flowing river. This metaphor allows people to describe their own journey in ways that reflect not just personal abilities, but interdependence, environment, and collective identity.
The Kawa Model is often used:
- In mental health and rehabilitation contexts
- With people who are adjusting to a new diagnosis or life change
- When traditional models feel too medicalised, deficit-based, or Western in approach
- To co-create a shared understanding of barriers, supports, and possible adaptations
It offers an alternative to standard assessments one that places the person’s own narrative at the centre.
Although I don’t use the Kawa Model routinely in my own practice, I find it a powerful way to reflect on how people move through life. In this post, I’m not applying the model to Taylor Swift as a case study but using her public persona as a tool to help readers visualise and better understand how the model works.
Taylor Swift’s River: Flow, Barriers, and Adaptation
Taylor Swift’s story has unfolded in public. While we can only ever view a curated version of her life, her trajectory offers some recognisable themes: identity, disruption, creative occupation, and adaptation. These are the same types of experiences that many people explore when using the Kawa Model with their occupational therapist.
Water – Life Flow and Occupation
In the Kawa Model, water represents the flow of life our energy, purpose, and participation in occupation. For Taylor, this includes songwriting, performing, creative production, and sharing narrative through music. As her career has progressed, the genre shifts and reflective lyrics show how her occupations have matured and adapted.
Rocks – Obstacles and Disruption
Every river meets rocks. In a symbolic sense, Taylor’s might include:
- Gendered media criticism and public scrutiny
- Losing legal rights to her original recordings
- Burnout or withdrawal during periods of high pressure
- Navigating relationships, betrayals, and public breakups
These are external and internal barriers that could disrupt flow but the model reminds us that it’s the person who defines the significance of each rock, not the observer.
Driftwood – Personal Qualities and Resources
Driftwood represents values, personality traits, knowledge, and lived experiences. For Taylor, this could include:
- Strong creative vision and ownership of her work
- Business skills, seen in her Taylor’s Version re-recordings
- A supportive fanbase
- Persistence and self-reflection in her lyrics
Driftwood can get tangled up in rocks, or help push through. Either way, it interacts with the whole river system.
Riverbanks – Environment and Social Context
Riverbanks are the systems and environments we live within. Taylor’s might include:
- The music industry’s structures and pressures
- Public and media expectations
- Social movements, such as feminism or LGBTQIA+ inclusion
- Her personal support network and team
In the Kawa Model, the riverbanks are never neutral, they shape the size and speed of the water. They can support or constrain flow depending on context.
Final Thoughts: Why This Matters in Occupational Therapy
Taylor Swift’s public journey shows us that life isn’t linear. It’s shaped by interaction with environments, with expectations, and with ourselves. And although we only see a fraction of her lived experience, her evolving story offers a relatable way to understand the Kawa Model in practice.
For occupational therapists, this model can be especially powerful when a person feels stuck, overwhelmed, or unheard. It helps build a shared language to explore what’s going on in their life not in terms of deficits, but through their own narrative. What are the rocks? What’s helping them flow? Where do they feel squeezed or supported?
In practice, the Kawa Model can help people:
- Reclaim their story
- Recognise and use their strengths
- Identify barriers in their environment
- Reconnect with meaningful occupation
I’ve written this blog not to analyse or define Taylor Swift, but to show how occupational therapy models can come to life when connected with stories people already know. Whether it’s music, film, or everyday culture, popular narratives can provide a bridge to understanding occupation, identity, and adaptation.
Read other blogs in this series:
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