Abstracts

Weeds and Seeds: Reflections from a Gardening Project for Juvenile Offenders
Sarah E. Twill, PhD, MSW, Tara Purvis, and Michael Norris, PhD

Efforts to engage juvenile offenders in beneficial programming that promotes prosocial skills is often difficult. Gardening, however, is one activity that has shown preliminary benefits for incarcerated populations. This research adds to that small body of knowledge by reporting on a formative evaluation examining the use of a gardening program in a juvenile rehabilitation center. Nineteen youth participated in a gardening project during the summer of 2010. Qualitative and quantitative data suggest that the youth benefit from gardening. Two themes, gardening promotes a new self-concept and gardening helps emotional and behavioral management, emerged. Implications for future practice and research are discussed.


The Use of Horticulture in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in a Private Practice Setting
Howard Z. Lorber, LCSW

More and more private psychotherapy practitioners are seeing those diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in their offices. The therapeutic use of horticulture is proposed as an adjunctive method in the treatment of PTSD in a private practice setting. This paper proposes combining the use of “nearby nature” and hands-on horticultural activities as a means of developing emotional safety with the desensitization and narrative restructuring of traumatic memories through the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). The cognitive/behavioral and physiological foundations of combining EMDR with therapeutic horticultural activities as a modality of treatment are explored.


Development of the Neuro Critical Care Unit Garden at Emory University Hospital
Jack Carman, FASLA, Kirk Hines, HTR, Marguerite Koepke, MLA, ASLA, and Owen Samuel, MD

Research reveals that gardens located in or nearby acute care facilities favorably effect health outcomes for patients and contribute significantly to reducing stress for families, hospital staff, and patients. This article describes the design process, the benefits of reducing stress in healthcare settings, and the design concepts and elements that were used to design a healing garden for the forward thinking, state-of-the-art Neuro Critical Care Unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.


Grandparent Gardening Gifts: The Enduring Gifts Grandparents Can Offer Their Grandchildren
Charles E. Majuri, Ph.D., HTR, QMHP
(no abstract)