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Garden as Therapist and Community Organizer

By Craig Chalquist

Published in the Winter 2009 issue of Communities magazine – Issue #145

“When my therapist diagnosed me with Major Depression, she referred me to a psychiatrist, who prescribed an antidepressant. Neither asked me if I liked to garden.

This omission should not sound strange. American psychology rolls off the assembly line of American culture: a culture of hyper-individualism, where your moods and conflicts remain tucked away inside you. The presence or absence of your connection to nature, to plants and animals, to climate, or to community (it is thought) have nothing to do with your illness or health. The solutions, like the problems, are internal.

As a matter of fact, I knew little about gardening back then. I passed most of my days indoors, in aptly named apartments and in linoleum-floored classrooms where I learned how to be a psychotherapist. Sigmund Freud, Virginia Satir, Irv Yalom, and Aaron Beck were included in the curriculum. John Muir, Patch Adams, Josephine McCracken, and Alice Walker were not.

In the early 1990s, pastoral counselor Howard Clinebell grew tired of this artificial split between self and natural world. Aware that it impaired human health, he collected a number of natural practices he used in his counseling work: gardening, walking, appreciating scenery, gathering plants, being around animals, strolling near lakes and on seashores. He called this ecotherapy and published a book by that name.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON THE TITLE – IT’S AN ACTIVE LINK

Craig Chalquist, Ph.D. is an author, educator, and core faculty member of the School of Holistic Studies at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. His books include Terrapsychology: Re-engaging the Soul of Place and Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (visit ecotherapyheals.com).

Articles by Craig Chalquist

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