The Kawa Model: A Self-Reflection Tool for Occupational Therapy Student Development in Practice Placements in Australia

Table 6

Theme 3: working with the metaphor.

Theme	Subthemes	Quote
The metaphor	Understanding the metaphor	3.1 “Yeah, I think for me, the river flow is probably the hardest element of the Kawa to understand because it is kind of easier to identify strengths and weaknesses, but you could, if you really honed-in on the model that you did draw, see that there was water still flowing. For me, it was hard to conceptualise what that meant… so that element kind of fell by the wayside because it was not really necessarily understood by myself, yeah.” Amelia
	Visual representation of self	3.2 “And also, it is a great way to see visually how much something is impacting you, because even though it is not completely accurate, you draw depending on how much it is bothering you, and sometimes things that you thought would have been a little boulder were actually quite a large boulder compared to the others…” Ava