American Psychiatric Association

The forerunner of the APA was the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, organized in 1844 in Philadelphia by 14 asylum superintendents. Dr. A. B. Richardson, superintendent at Athens in the 1880′s, was a featured speaker at annual meetings of the organization.

The thread of moral treatment philosophy and the healing properties of the natural world continues in the APA in the form of its Integrative Psychiatry interest group, see http://www.intpsychiatry.com/  At the website are books and other resources with chapters, blogs, and workshops devoted to nature.

American Horticultural Therapy Association

Day Five of a week of resources devoted to the restorative good of nature: the American Horticultural Therapy Association. The organization is dedicated to advancing the practice of horticulture as therapy to improve human well-being. Its website at www.ahta.org has information on research, publications, grants and the professional field of horticultural therapy.

 

Photo by Matthew Ziff

flower power

Last summer while offering a Touch Drawing workshop for staff of the Appalachian Community Hospice in Athens, our work space began to fill up with flowers. Brought by gardeners,  the flowers were arranged by volunteers and then carried to patients by visiting nurses. The flowers, brought with love, were as healing as the art we were creating – a beautiful community practice.  Hope in Bloom is another healing flower project: flower and vegetable gardens planted free of charge at the homes of women and men undergoing cancer treatment: http://www.hopeinbloom.org/

The asylum at Athens grew flowers year round in the nineteenth century, outdoors as well as in the greenhouse. They went in arrangements in the public spaces and were also sent as gifts to people and businesses in Athens.  Photos by Matthew Ziff.

center for education, imagination and the natural world

I think Frederick Law Olmsted and John Muir, who worked during the psychiatric moral treatment era, would have felt at home with The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World. The Center, through a path of inner schooling based in contemplative, intuitive and imaginal ways of knowing, brings educators and children into a deep inner relationship with the Earth and Universe. Guided by a Council of Educators as the working embodiment of its mission, the Center offers publications, educator retreats, consulting and programs for schools. See https://beholdnature.org/

For the past two years I have been fortunate to participate, via distance learning facilitated by director Dr. Peggy Whalen-Levitt, in the Center’s Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice program for educators, which brings new perspectives to my work as a counselor.

Photo take on The Ridges, the new name for the site and landscape of the Asylum on the Hill.

children & nature on The Ridges

The asylum at Athens admitted a few children, and certainly the children of its superintendents and physicians, who lived on-site into the twentieth century, enjoyed the grounds as a place to play. And for its whole history the asylum’s landscape was an outdoor play and recreation destination for Athens children and their families.

In these days of indoor play and lessons for children, the Children & Nature Network is a resource for the recent news, research and books about the benefits for children of being outdoors in nature. See http://www.childrenandnature.org/

Photograph by  Matthew Ziff.

therapeutic landscapes network

If I were an American asylum superintendent in the nineteenth century I would have bookmarked the Therapeutic Landscapes Network on my computer, had I one.

The TLN is a rich source of all kinds of information on gardens and restorative landscapes: resources, photos, designers, an inventory of healthcare gardens. Check it out at http://www.healinglandscapes.org/

The TLN blog has up-to-the-minute reviews of new research findings and upcoming conferences and grants:  http://www.healinglandscapes.org/blog/

Photograph by Matthew Ziff.

restorative benefits of nature

This evening I am feeling the benefits of an hour’s walk earlier through tree-filled neighborhoods in Athens.

Frederick Law Olmsted said it well: (natural scenery) employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; it tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus, through the influences of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshment and reinvigorates the whole system (from The Value and Care of Parks, 1895).

These days empirical research of every kind is published documenting the restorative benefits of nature for humans of all ages – a cornerstone of asylum-based moral treatment philosophy a century and a half ago. Every day this week I will post a resource based on this exploding knowledge base.

Painting  of FLO, 1895 by John Singer Sargent at Biltmore House, Asheville, North Carolina.