Guest blog post « Therapeutic Landscapes Network

“Soft Touch For A Silent Voice: Therapeutic Gardens for Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” – Masters Thesis by Michelle Parkins

February 22, 2012 | by Naomi Sachs

Photo by Michelle Parkins, Soft Touch For A Silent Voice

Photo by Michelle Parkins. "The response to the veterans survey about water really illustrated to me the connections veterans (and others) have with water as a healing aid."

I met Michelle Parkins last May when I was teaching at the Chicago Botanic Gardens Healthcare Garden Design Certificate Program, and was immediately impressed by her commitment to her MLA research project on gardens for veterans with PTSD and other combat-related issues. Since then, Michelle has completed her thesis, which is available as a beautifully bound book at www.lulu.com/product/paperback/soft-touch-for-a-silent-voice. Below is the thesis abstract and a bit about Michelle, a veteran herself.

Michelle (that’s her on the left in the red jacket), in collaboration with Annie Kirk, principal at Red Bird Design and founder of the Acer Institute, recently created Therapeutic Gardens for Veterans groups on Linked In and Facebook. These groups are a “Collaboratory to advance therapeutic garden environments as an extension of support and care for veterans & their families.” I encourage everyone interested in this subject to join in on the conversation.

Here is what Michelle writes about herself and her interest in this subject:

My adventures in life have seemed to always evolve around the military; growing up an ‘Army Brat’ triggered my interest. My time in the Navy consisted of great travel overseas and the education I received both in and out of Navy was invaluable. Due to an injury, my time in the Navy was cut short, however my respect for my fellow veterans and active duty military has never gone away. As a veteran using the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, I saw first hand the need and potential benefits for utilizing the outdoor garden spaces as VA hospitals and clinics. Although I have completed my Master’s of Landscape Architecture I plan to pursue the research and possible consultation of gardens for veterans.

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“Methodologies frame how we produce knowledge.” Guest post by Carol Krawczyk

February 2, 2012 | by Naomi Sachs

Today’s guest blog post is by Carol Krawczyk, a landscape architect whom I first met at the 2010 ASLA Healthcare and Therapeutic Design Professional Practice Network tour of restorative landscapes in Washington, D.C. We have been corresponding ever since, and Carol has become an active member of the TLN groups on Linked In and Facebook, as well as the new TLN “Autism and Special Needs” subgroup on Linked In. Her insights about research, especially research methodologies, are important in this field, where we are placing more and more value on evidence-based design (EBD). Carol’s doctoral work focuses on environments for children with autism. If this is an area of interest, please join our Linked In group, and stay tuned for a page devoted to this topic on the TLN website. Many thanks, Carol!

Methodologies frame how we produce knowledge
By Carol Krawczyk, ASLA

Naomi Sachs and I began corresponding through this blog regarding the topic of research methodologies. Naomi had summarized an article on gardens and walkways about people who lived in senior assisted living facilities (ALFs). The author had observed seniors in two ALFs and had interviewed staff and therapists at these facilities in order to recommend important landscape design suggestions. I commented that while this research was important, it was still deficient because we –the readers, researchers and practitioners who would use this information – did not know why the senior citizens made decisions regarding which pathways to take, which seats to sit on, what views they particularly enjoyed, etc. So, at Naomi’s request, I’ll describe some of the research methods I like to use and the reasons why.

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Designing a Landscape for Color Blind People – Guest blog post by Genevieve Schmidt

June 21, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

Can you see the summer daylilies? Photo by Naomi Sachs

This is the time of year when the orange daylilies bloom – bright orange sparks waving from slender green wands held above lush green foliage…that my father can’t see. Because he is color blind.

Last year, Genevieve Schmidt wrote a wonderful post, “Designing a Landscape for Color Blind People” for the Garden Designers Roundtable‘s forum on Therapy and Healing in the Garden (I wrote one called “Thoughts and Evidence on Therapy and Healing in the Garden.”)

Genevieve’s post was a big hit and got about a million comments. I’ve been thinking about it lately, last weekend being Father’s Day and all. I’m including a couple of images and the opening paragraphs to hook you in, and then linking to Genevieve’s original post for you to read on.

Designing a Landscape for Color Blind People: The Garden Designers Roundtable on Therapy and Healing

Image courtesy of Genevieve Schmidt, North Coast Gardening

People who are color blind make up about 8% of men and .5% of women, and of those people, the vast majority aren’t actually color blind, it’s more that they see colors differently. Though we think of color blindness as seeing the world in black and white, the most common form of color blindness is where people have a weakness in the green receptors of their eyes. What would it be like to experience color that way?

Bob Davis, a dear client whose landscape I designed last year, described it by asking me to imagine a continuum of yellow, green and blue. Along that continuum, most of us see any number of subtle shades of yellow, yellow-green, green, green-blue, and blue. Bob sees yellow, green and blue, period. So all those gently contrasting greens rolling through the garden? It’s all pretty much the same color.

In addition, many tones of red actually appear green to him, making what might otherwise be a bold contrast of red flower against green foliage, well, kind of lackluster. Every spring, his wife Judy raves about the gorgeous red Camellia out back, but Bob just sees the same greenery he sees all year. He can make out the shapes of the flowers, but the color contrast of red against green is lost on him.

For us landscapers, color is the easy button for designing a garden. You come up with an awesome color combo, and even if your textural contrasts aren’t what they could be – eh, who’s gonna notice with all that splashy color? Those of us who can see the full color range notice color first. But for people who see limited numbers of colors, composition and contrast become key.

Bob was kind enough to give me some tips about what stands out most to him in a garden, what elements he sees most boldly and clearly, and which seem to be lacking to his eye.

To read the rest, link to Genevieve Schmidt’s North Coast Gardening blog’s original post, “Designing a Landscape for Color Blind People.”

Thank you, Genevieve!

“Bonner Healing Garden: A Place of Solidarity at Life’s Threshold.” Guest post by Chris Garcia

February 24, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

In the following guest blog post, Chris Garcia, a U.C. Berkeley fellowship recipient for the study of healing gardens, writes about how Bonner Healing Garden facilitated an experience of emotional solidarity between him and six garden visitors at Bonner Community Hospice in Sandpoint, Idaho. To read the full the article, visit the Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s References page.

“Bonner Healing Garden: A Place of Solidarity at Life’s Threshold”

Bonner Healing Garden, Sandpoint, ID. Photo by Chris Garcia

Old-growth Cottonwoods and natural materials convey a sense of permanence. Photo by Chris Garcia

A gray and white pencil sketch faces Debra Kellerman, Director of Bonner Hospice, as she works at her desk. The sketch is composed of ghostly human figures that dance around the garden chapel, climb its pitched roof, grow wings, and ascend toward the moonlit night sky. Kellerman bought the drawing from a sixth-grade artist for twenty-five dollars, at a community auction to raise funds for the Healing Garden. “I think this drawing really captures how kids see the Healing Garden,” says Kellerman. The drawing is a symbol of the invisible community spirit that pervades Bonner Healing Garden; a place that fosters collective meaning and provides hope at life’s threshold where the “transformative ascent” is comfortable dying.

The meditation chapel provides a private shelter for grieving and contemplation. Photo by Chris Garcia

I first read about Sandpoint’s Bonner Healing Garden in an article when preparing a list of healthcare facilities to visit for my fellowship granted by the University of California, Berkeley.

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“What makes a prison landscape therapeutic?” Guest post by Amy Lindemuth

January 18, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

Garden at Rikers Island. Photo by Hilda Krus

Last week, we published an article by guest blogger Amy Lindemuth, “Can prison landscapes be secure, restorative, and ecologically sustainable?” This was the first of two articles, and this week we give you the second:

What makes a prison landscape therapeutic? by Amy Lindemuth

In my last post, I discussed the possibility that the accepted cultural norm for prison and jail landscapes of ubiquitous mown lawn, chain link, blank walls, and wire could be shifted to include greater plant diversity and visual complexity. From our perspective as advocates of healthy, healing places, the primary goal of such an effort would be to increase the potential for these spaces to provide therapeutic benefits for users and improve the ecological health of the site. Yet, I’ve begun to ask myself the question, within the context of corrections complexes, what makes an open space “therapeutic” or “restorative”? In describing a new sustainable, therapeutic garden at the VA Puget Sound Fisher House in Seattle, local landscape architect Jan Satterthwaite (www.vireods.com) made this distinction: “What makes the therapeutic garden at a hospital special involves an understanding of what might help ‘transport’ people away from the medical process or the medical center.” See this ASLA Healthcare and Therapeutic Design Newsletter for the full article.

In the garden at Rikers Island. Photo by Hilda Krus

The GreenHouse Project gardens at Rikers Island Jails are located in a secured area. Students in the program have been screened and are considered to be a low security risk. Photo by Hilda Krus

I think this is true for gardens in prisons and jails, but corrections settings also have a unique set of circumstances and constraints compared to hospitals. As I’ve discussed, differing security levels within the same facility determine the level of landscape complexity that can occur in different open spaces. Usually these open spaces are so stark and bleak that I find myself wondering whether any kind of interesting landscape elements, even annual borders, offer some healthful benefits. Certainly elements this simple cannot generate the deep, lasting changes discussed in the research literature on therapeutic landscapes. Yet, in an environment where the bar for landscapes is despairingly low, these simple gestures may offer a symbol of normalcy that helps reduce someone’s stress in that instant or set a helpful tone for the day.

Vegetable garden at Rikers Island. Photo by Amy Lindemuth

Open spaces in prisons and jails can and do range from the simple to the complex. I think one of the responsibilities of designers and corrections administrators is to push for these landscapes to do more and serve multiple functions, from addressing stormwater onsite and improving habitat function to helping reduce stress among officers and inmates. I believe this approach can be accomplished without compromising overall security. Rather than planting lawn, what if high security areas had plants 24” or less in height which were physically inaccessible to inmates? These low height landscapes could provide better functionality in terms of reducing irrigation and maintenance requirements and addressing stormwater than is possible with mown lawn. The visual relief provided by these areas could also offer more to staff and inmates in terms of normalizing the work and living environment. Our mental image of what prison landscapes look like needs to expand to include typologies that address multiple site functions, site functionality, and staff and inmate health while meeting the requirements of the various security zones within the site.

Garden and greenhouse at Rikers Island. Photo by Hilda Krus

Amy Lindemuth is the author of “Beyond the Bars: Landscapes for Health and Healing in Corrections,” a chapter in the forthcoming Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening edited by Keith G. Tidball and Marianne E. Krasny. She practices in Seattle, WA. For Amy’s full bio, please see her previous post, “Can prison landscapes be secure, restorative, and ecologically sustainable?“

Can prison landscapes be secure, restorative, and ecologically sustainable? Guest post by Amy Lindemuth

January 6, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

A typical prison landscape in Washington State. Photo by Amy Lindemuth

Today’s guest post is by Amy Lindemuth, author of “Beyond the Bars: Landscapes for Health and Healing in Corrections,” a chapter in the forthcoming Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening edited by Keith G. Tidball and Marianne E. Krasny.

Amy became interested in corrections after taking a series of undergraduate courses in medical anthropology at the University of Washington that focused on the culture of institutions and cultural constructions of health and mental illness. As a graduate student in landscape architecture, her interest in therapeutic landscapes and corrections led to a thesis project at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, Washington, designing a large courtyard garden for staff and inmates within a unit for mentally ill offenders. She also worked as a volunteer on the design and construction of a garden for mothers and their children at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. These experiences gave insight into the concerns and perceptions of custody staff regarding green spaces in their facilities, and furthered her understanding of the cultural and psychological constraints unique to the field of corrections. Amy is interested in creating healthy, sustainable spaces that strengthen the social and ecological fabric of our communities. She practices in Seattle, WA. This is the first of two guest blog posts on the subject; we will publish the second post next week.

Can Prison Landscapes be Secure, Restorative, and Ecologically Sustainable? by Amy Lindemuth

Over the past several years, I’ve written articles [see the Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s References and Gardens in Prisons pages] about the need for landscapes in correctional facilities that provide therapeutic benefits or a restorative moment for corrections staff and inmates. For the most part, the views surrounding prisons and jails in the United States are bleak expanses of lawn, chain link security fences, walls and concertina wire, like the image above. Occasionally the view is broken by perennials planted near an administrative office or a vegetable garden in a secured area. This landscape typology evolved from the real need to keep staff, inmates, and the public safe from harm. Officer sight lines from station posts, towers, and other patrol locations throughout the grounds are unimpeded, allowing for quick identification of, and reaction to, disturbances or illicit behavior.

Butterfly and bird garden, Rikers Island. Photo by Amy Lindemuth

There are exceptions. Some facilities, such as Rikers Island Jails in New York (left image), allow students in their horticulture programs to beautify the grounds with a diverse arrangement and selection of plants that go beyond your typical geraniums lining an entry walk [for more exceptions, see the TLN’s Gardens in Prisons page]. Grounds at other facilities that were historically purposed for a use other than corrections may, in some areas, possess qualities similar to an academic campus, such as mature trees under planted with shrubs and lawn. The fact that these other landscape typologies exist in the American corrections system, including maximum security prisons, suggests that there are opportunities to include a range of landscape types within our prisons and jails.

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‘Back to School? Make Time for Play!’ The Grass Stain Guru

September 10, 2010 | by Naomi Sachs

: A fairy takes time to smell the geraniums.

“It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.”
–Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University

I’m at the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) conference in Washington, D.C. this weekend, so opportunities for blogging are slim – too busy exploring wonderful restorative landscapes in the D.C. area! For updates and pictures, visit the TLN page on Facebook. So instead, I’m sharing a wonderful post by my friend Bethe Almeras, a.k.a. The Grass Stain Guru. Bethe is Director of Education & Outreach for Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play, and co-founder of the National Wildlife Federation’s Green Hour®. She is a play advocate who’s not afraid to get her knees dirty, and I’m a big fan her work. I’m actually going to meet Bethe for the first time tomorrow, and I’m very excited. Grass stains, here we come!

Here’s an excerpt from The Grass Stain Guru’s post; click on the title below to link to the full version.

Back to School? Make Time to Play!

This year as you send the kids off to school, take a moment to think about their days. Their weeks. Is there enough time for play? Not sports, or after-school activities, but real honest-to-goodness play? Child-directed, child-driven free play — no rules unless they decide to cook some up.

You see, adults have this habit of thinking that soccer or gymnastics or even music lessons are play. But they’re not. They ‘re great, but they are goal driven and adult directed, which is exactly what school is. Children spend all day in school. They need to take a break and be put in the driver’s seat for awhile.

Click here to continue…