Students working in garden

Recreational Therapy Makes Life Worth Living.

SRU Recreational Therapy addresses all areas of client well-being.

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Student working with client

Recreational Therapists Make a Difference

Recreational therapy helps heal injuries and improves patients' quality of life.

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Students working in garden

Thinking Outside the Gym

SRU Recreational Therapy students find ways to incorporate client interests into therapy.

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Recreational Therapy

Offered by: Recreational Therapy

Do you have a passion for helping people with disabilities? Do you want a rewarding career that increases the physical well-being of others? Recreational Therapy could be the perfect program for you. Offered as both a major and a minor, the coursework for Recreational Therapy students is unique among other therapeutic study areas.

The Recreational Therapy program at Slippery Rock University offers a dynamic and progressive approach to preparing you to work in health care and human services fields. In addition to having received several national awards, our program is accredited by the Committee for the Accreditation of Recreational Therapy Education (CARTE), which is the only national accreditation body for Recreational Therapy education.

In this program, you will be engaged with a variety of hands-on learning experiences both inside and out of the classroom. The Recreational Therapy curriculum will prepare you to work with children, adolescents, and adults with physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities in a variety of settings and specialty areas.

Why Choose Recreational Therapy?

As a Recreational Therapy student at SRU, you will be among exceptional students who consistently score above the national average on the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) exam. You will be guided in your educational journey by dedicated and experienced faculty who are nationally certified and are actively involved in national leadership positions in the field.

A unique aspect of the program is the experience you'll have the opportunity to experience the specialty areas of Equine Assisted Therapy and Therapeutic Riding while learning at our award-winning Storm Harbor Equestrian Center.

What Will You Learn?

Through a combination of coursework, hands-on experience, and internship opportunities, you will gain the tools that qualify you as a professional, ready to take on the challenges of the field. Through experiential learning, an evidence-based curriculum, and a 14-week internship, you will emerge from the program confident and prepared to excel as a Recreational Therapist. You have the opportunity to specialize in a minor, including but not limited to, adventure fitness, animal-assisted interventions, adapted physical activity, aquatics, and/or gerontology.

Careers In Recreational Therapy

Upon graduating, you will be prepared to provide therapeutic services to clients focusing on the following learning domains: the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior). Graduates find careers as Recreational Therapists, Life Enrichment Coordinators, Transition Specialists, or any of a number of similar positions in healthcare and human services.

Clubs & Organizations

  • Active Minds
  • Adapted Physical Activity Council
  • Therapeutic Recreation/Recreational Therapy Club

Related Links

Related Programs

  • Psychology: Psychology is the study of human behavior, and given that Recreational Therapists work with a variety of individuals with varying psychosocial needs, a major in psychology provides a more in depth examination into human behavior.
  • Social Work: Social work is a profession that applies knowledge about people and society to help persons, groups, or communities meet a diversity of needs, and assist people in becoming empowered. Recreational Therapy has common goals.

Recreational Therapy

In This Section

Contact Information

Recreational Therapy
 724.738.4306
elizabeth.kemeny@sru.edu