Phinoj K. Abraham

Phinoj K. Abraham

Occupational therapist in neurorehabilitation, with 15 years of work alongside stroke survivors.

Rehab Program Coordinator at Qatar Rehabilitation Institute, Doha, and PhD research scholar.

Scroll to follow the day as it begins

Hope

A stroke can take movement, speech, or part of what a person sees. Hope does not wait for those to return. It begins when someone can picture a next step and a therapist takes that picture seriously.1

Sometimes the first step is finding what was hidden. Visual loss is common after stroke, and European guidance suggests screening every survivor.2

Independence

Therapy should not stop at reach, grasp and release. It should arrive at the buttoned shirt, the cup of tea and the walk to the door.

Sometimes a skill returns. Sometimes it is relearned. Sometimes the task changes, with one hand or a better tool.3 Each of these is independence.

Participation and quality of life

The ICF defines participation as involvement in a life situation.4 In practice it is the roles and routines that make a day someone's own.

That ordinary day is the outcome I work towards.

  • Getting up
  • Getting dressed
  • Breakfast
  • Going to work
  • Lunch with colleagues
  • Collecting the children
  • A walk outside
  • Dinner with family
  • A quiet hour

What I work on

  • Neuro-vision rehabilitation

    Building an interdisciplinary service at Qatar Rehabilitation Institute for people whose vision changes after neurological injury.

    Read about this work

  • Stroke rehabilitation and quality

    Clinical practice, program development and quality improvement within an interdisciplinary team.

    See my professional activities

  • Teaching and sharing

    18 sets of slides on SlideShare, viewed more than 140,000 times, on stroke, Parkinson's disease, perception and more.

    Browse the presentations

  • Pencil drawing

    A self-taught habit that began after biology record drawings at school and grew into a four-foot drawing on hope.

    See the drawings

Recent talks

References

  1. Bright FAS, Kayes NM, McCann CM, McPherson KM. Understanding hope after stroke: a systematic review of the literature using concept analysis. Top Stroke Rehabil. 2011;18(5):490-508. doi.org/10.1310/tsr1805-490
  2. Rowe FJ, Hepworth LR, Coco-Martin MB, et al. European Stroke Organisation (ESO) guideline on visual impairment in stroke. Eur Stroke J. 2025;10(4):1087-1159. doi.org/10.1177/23969873251314693
  3. Fisher AG. Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model. Fort Collins, CO: Three Star Press; 2009.
  4. World Health Organization. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Geneva: WHO; 2001.