After writing this essay, I felt deeply impressed with the wide range of disabilities and conditions that could be treated by therapeutic horticulture, as well as its positive effects on a person’s general health and wellbeing. I was not surprised, though, because at the end of the day it’s almost silly to think that nature wouldn’t have a positive effect on humans. Every living thing on this planet came from a single-celled ancestor swimming around in the ocean all day. It’s highly unlikely that hominid ancestors Homo hiedelbergensis, Homo erectus, and Austalopithecus habilis spent millions of years hanging out in caves rewatching Twin Peaks together and eating obscene amounts of Wal-Mart trail mix to make themselves feel better. They had to go out and hunt or gather to survive- if they stayed indoors, they would die. There are still societies that operate in a similar fashion, like the Ju/’hoansi or !Kung people of the Kalahari desert, who are predominantly a non-exploitative foraging society that had been thriving for thousands of years until their clash with modernity in the 1970’s. Called “the original affluent society” by anthropologists for the reason that they have a high rate of contentment, their days would consist of three to five hours of work and the rest of the day for leisure and socializing. In their society, they consider the Earth the “first mother” and also a midwife to a mother in childbirth. Ever since I learned about their society in my anthropology class, I had been curious about how constantly interacting with nature as a way of life like that could positively affect quality of life and mental health. Once I discovered horticultural therapy, I was amazed by the massive scope of mental health issues and issues overall it could aid. Children that have intellectual disabilities like autism or are coping with trauma, abuse or neglect can benefit from horticultural therapy and learn therapeutic skills that will last them their whole life and bring them outdoors. Older people can use therapeutic horticulture to cope with their mental illnesses and improve their quality of life, especially if they are dementia patients and need a reason to stay active and engaged in their surroundings. Horticultural therapy can be used in conjunction with psychotherapy, like Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, to give a different perspective to people having trouble with aspects of their lives like mindfulness and emotional regulation. Even though there are some problems with determining how to implement horticultural therapy into settings like an inpatient psychiatric facility, such as getting adequate funding for such a program, having to train psychiatric workers to administer horticultural therapy, finding green spaces in which to host the therapeutic activities and getting around limited accessibility of the program for some mentally ill or intellectually disabled patients, there are solutions being worked on and some people feel that the benefits of horticultural therapy to the mentally ill outweigh the issues associated with making it more widely available. Researching horticultural therapy and its benefits has definitely sparked in me a deeper appreciation for the natural world and how we as humans interact with it emotionally, and a hope that as more developments are made in the world of psychiatric treatment, horticultural therapy will become more well-known as a healthy, effective and valid alternative or supplement to psychotherapy for the mentally ill.
“About Us: History.” FRIENDS OF HORTICULTURAL THERAPY: Where Change is Possible. Prince William County Community Services. Web.
Cipriani, Joseph et al.. “A Systematic Review of the Effects of Horticultural Therapy on Persons with Mental Health Conditions.” Occupational Therapy in Mental Health 33:1, 2017, pp. 47-69. Web.
DePrado, Laura. “Horticultural therapy program for Somerset County youth at risk grows more than plants.” myCentralJersey.com, 14 Aug 2017. Web.
De Seixas, Miguel et al. “Horticultural Therapy in a Psychiatric in-Patient Setting.” BJPsych International 14.4 (2017) pp. 87–89. Web.
Digati, Benjamin J. C. "Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Heroes: A Comparative Study of the Hero's Journey and DBT." Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2015. Web.
Hickey, Megan Alexia. "Horticulture Therapy Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Creation and Evaluation of a Manual for Group Treatment." Order No. 10119462 Alliant International University, 2016. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web.
Jarrott, Shannon. “An Observational Assessment of a Dementia-specific Horticultural Therapy Program.” HortTechnology July-September 2002, vol. 12 no. 3, pp 403-410
Maher, Louise. “Therapeutic garden provides healing for traumatised children at ACT's Melaleuca Place.” Abc.net.au, 3 Nov 2015. Web.
Prince William County. “Prince William County Horticultural Therapy Program.” YouTube, 19 Jan 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En-UCpnUFLU
Renzetti, Claire. M; Follingstad, Diane R. “From Blue to Green: The Development and Implementation of a Therapeutic Horticulture Program for Residents of a Battered Women’s Shelter.” Violence and Victims, vol. 30 no. 4, pp. 676-690
Skyland Trail. “Horticultural Therapy.” YouTube, 21 Oct. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHx6n5d2hC0.
[closest i could get to hanging indent on here]