When It Is Used
Use it when a client’s own lived experience needs to shape occupational therapy discussion and planning.
Kawa River Drawing
Kawa River Drawing is a client-generated contextual formulation tool for occupational therapy. Practitioners send it to help clients express everyday life context, challenges, supports, well-being, and openings for change through the Kawa river metaphor.
Preview the drawing activity, review a sample result, and save this tool to share with clients.
Interested in using Kawa River Drawing with clients? Request access now.
Request access
Request access to Kawa River Drawing. Enter your email below.
Tool guide
Learn more about this tool
Use this background section to understand when the tool fits, how practitioners use it, and what to consider before sharing it with clients.
Client And Practitioner Roles
The client creates the drawing before submission. The practitioner reviews it and adds interpretation separately.
Important Limitation
The tool does not interpret the drawing, assign clinical meaning, or require scores or fixed ratings.
Does the client have to label every river component?
No. Labels and descriptions are optional where the client chooses to add them; the review should show when labels are absent.
Can the drawing be completed later?
Yes. In-progress drawings should be saved so expressive work is not lost.
Is this a practitioner-only tool?
No. The client/user view is central because the client creates the river drawing.
What gets saved?
The fixed Kawa River Drawing tool is saved. Fictional demo drawings and sample notes are not saved as real client data by default.