I knew something was up when I received 20 telephone calls and 15 urgent emails by 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 25. An article titled "Watch How You Hold That Crayon," focusing exclusively on occupational therapy and handwriting, was published on the front page of the Style section in my hometown paper, the prestigious New York Times.

This last year has been a challenging one for many private practitioners, between the looming uncertainly of health care reform and the persistent recession. I've been telling others to keep their eyes open because, no matter what, health care is changing and so are our patients. We are shifting from a referral system to a consumer-choice system as competition for health care dollars increases.

With this in mind, a main focus of mine over the last year has been helping therapists establish new and effective marketing campaigns, using image and consumer education to increase awareness of our services. Was this article an opportunity to put my preaching into practice?

Publicity and advertising are two different entities, and the best marketing plans have a mixture of both. The old adage, "Advertising you pay for, publicity you pray for," is only true if you want publicity. Usually, our field usually only gets bad publicity; for example, a New York OT was arrested for billing fraud in November and charged with grand theft larceny.

The Times article was troubling at first read: ".in affluent neighborhoods in and around New York, occupational therapists have taken their place next to academic tutors, psychologists, private coaches and personal trainers-the army that often stands behind academically successful students." Many of the therapists who contacted me were outraged; they felt the article belittled the profession, painted them in a negative light and trivialized their work.

I saw some positives about the article. Occupational thera-pists are really starting to connect with the public. More and more OTs are seeing new applications of our skill sets and a broadening of the scope and capacity of our practice, all within the framework of individual state practice acts. Some of us may choose to work with people who may not have a diagnosis per se, but still desire assistance to achieve their maximal physical and mental functioning in daily life tasks. Wellness is nearly a trillion-dollar industry, and many OTs may have the skills and fortitude to capitalize on this trend in a professionally sound manner.

The article generated more than 130 reader comments. Most were from parents and educators attesting to the many positive ways they have seen OTs help children, from improving fine-motor skills and handwriting to succeeding in school and uncovering undetected issues.

Read the article and comments, and draw your own conclusions: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/fashion/25Therapy.html.

[Columnist note: In the next column I'll answer reader questions. Submit private-practice related questions by April 15 at infonytherapy@aol.com.]

Iris Kimberg, MS PT, OTR, has worked in the non-clinical aspect of therapy for the past 30 years. She founded New York Therapy Guide (www.nytherapyguide.com), a site dedicated to the growth, viability and success of therapists in the private sector. Reach her at infonytherapy@aol.com.