Image courtesy Henry Domke Fine Art
We’re going through some major transitions here at what has been the Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center.
We’re working on a new beautiful, searchable, and information-packed website (coming soon!). We’re creating an actual membership base (sign-up coming soon!). We’re honing our mission and goals. And we’re changing our name.
There has been much hand-wringing about the name-changing part. Unfortunately there’s no set term in this field for landscapes that facilitate health and well-being. Which is what we’re talking about. Healing/restorative/salutary/therapeutic/ + gardens/landscapes/outdoor environments/outdoor spaces = ??? I’ve tried using the term “landscapes for health” but it’s just awkward.
As for us, we’re looking for a name that is professional and inviting and inclusive. Something that fits our broad interdisciplinary network of designers, health and human service providers, scholars, and garden and nature enthusiasts. We don’t want our organization to sound too serious or clinical or academic, but we also don’t want it to sound fluffy and minor-league. We’re looking for that perfect balance.
The plan was to call our organization the Therapeutic Landscapes Network, with the url changing from healinglandscapes.org (which it’s been since 1999) to therapeuticlandscapes.org. It’s recently come to my attention that therapeuticlandscapes is a heckuva mouthful and is kind of hard to spell when you’re typing fast, and that the word therapeutic is perhaps a little too clinical. So, before we launch the website and print the business cards and make the t-shirts, I’m posing the question to you, dear readers:
Therapeutic Landscapes Network (www.therapeuticlandscapes.org)
or
Healing Landscapes Network (www.healinglandscapes.org)
Please leave comments! Your feedback is, as always, important. After all, this is a network!