Horticultural therapy uses plants and gardening to support therapy, rehabilitation, and restoration both individually and in community. In my specific practice, I develop and facilitate gardening and plant-centered activities that responds to collective trauma and violence held in the body, centering somatics and a healing justice framework. While I am in the midst of my studies and currently in the process of developing curriculum and practices for survivors of sexual violence as well as for individuals with childhood trauma, I also use therapeutic horticulture practices in intergenerational and open-ended community settings with the understanding that personal transformation = social transformation. With deep sighs into the belief: when healing for ourselves is mired with hard feelings, we can work towards supporting healing for those we we are in community with, those we stand on the shoulders of, and those who come after us.
The below documentation is that of bringing therapeutic horticulture practices in public spaces and the commons.
“Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
– Mary Oliver
Pedagogy
I draw from both metaphor and embodied practice to create and facilitate horticultural therapy activities that nurture reflection, rehabilitation, and self-seeing in equal measure. For example, participants may find a resonance in the metaphors of seed dispersal while also affirming their own agency through germinating a seed and watching its growth in seed-starting. Goals in horticultural therapy may be social-emotional, physical, cognitive, interpersonal, or sensory. I typically center themes that utilize ethnobotany, herbal arts, gardening, plant morphology and behavior, and a general attuning to nature as teacher. Horticultural therapy activities range from starting seeds while goal-setting, to full-bodied weeding, to harvesting and preparing meals centered in community connection.
Poetics
While much healing can happen in both measurable and metaphorical, some of the magic of horticultural therapy is the awe and wonder that unfolds in the unnamable and incalculable–a poetics in tending to the plants.
On Healing Justice
Healing justice framework has been introduced and carried by Black woman. To work towards personal and social transformation at this time is only possible by opening to their work and reckoning with the harm and hurt caused in relationship to race.
Offerings
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Facilitating & Curating
Work with me to facilitate a learning experience or workshop or to curate a program, exhibition, or event that bridges therapeutic horticulture, social justice, and art.
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Curriculum
Reach out for personalized curriculum development in schools, informal learning spaces, or for personal practice. Have curriculum on themes of regenerative agriculture, people-plant relationships, therapeutic horticulture, art in the garden, and more tailored to meet your needs.
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Consulting
I work with both individuals and groups to transform spaces, small and large, into healing spaces with plant choices that support your individual needs. Reach out for support in garden design and planning—from pollinator stoop, herbal remedy window sill, or healing garden lot.
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Cross-Pollination
Would you like to collaborate? In addition to my own therapeutic horticulture offerings, I am eager to uplift and collaborate with other artists and healing practitioners who would like to shape change together.