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What is horticultural therapy
Creative therapy The general objective of therapy in mental health care is that the client learns to direct his life in a satisfactory way. Creative therapy is specifically chosen when discussing problems fails to lead to a solution satisfactorily.
Sensual experience by images through music, dance, drama or gardening appeals to the inner world of the client. With the assistance of therapist the client can mirror his own behavior or the result of his actions. This way he gains insight into the problem. At the same time he learns to handle the burden and finds a way of accepting the inevitable. |
Horticultural therapy Working with living material has a unique basis e.g. it comes and goes automatically: it germinates, grows, bears fruit, shrivels, dies off, sprouts again etc. It acts as supporter and opponent at the same time. Therefore it makes good got identification and projection of feelings. It is the therapists task to supply the tools needed by the client on the one side and to offer a suitable structure on the other side.
Although the therapist presents the client a refuge or sort of playground, he certainly influences the event. In view of the therapeutic progress the therapist assist specifically in the patients safety and desires when and where needed. Drawing barriers and
trespassing bounds cover exactly what gardening is about. Presenting even
more bounds offers the client equally more possibilities, potential to
overcome his inner or outer problems. Pruning leads to blooming. But when
you leave nature alone, you do not need to control the world for a while.
Destroying and cultivating, sewing and harvesting, exertion and relaxation,
in the therapeutic garden there is always a wide field open to explore
opponents. By searching the extremes and everything in between, the client
gets a chance to newly explore himself in relation to his environment |