2. “ Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.” John Muir
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4. So what do we know about the people/plant response?
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7. The term “soft fascination” was coined to describes how the brain attends to the details of nature , providing a break from daily stress and resulting in a restorative experience
8. Nature Deficit Disorder “ Nature-deficit disorder is not an official diagnosis but a way of viewing the problem, and describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.” — Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods
9. Horticultural Therapy Is a professionally conducted treatment method that utilizes horticulture activities to meet specific therapeutic or rehabilitative goals.
Famous gall bladder study at Texas A&M University, Roger Ulrich At Euclid Hospital, HT was originally started as an additional tool to address pain mgt through patients potting up herb plants and discussion coping skills, relaxation as related to pain management before taking the plant back to their rooms. In this case both the passive benefits I’ve mentioned and the active benefits of interacting with plants and a therapist are involved. New study with abdominal surgery patients: Patients with plants in their rooms had significantly fewer intakes of pain medication, more positive physiological responses (lower blood pressure and heart rate), less pain, anxiety, and fatigue, and better overall positive and higher satisfaction with their recovery rooms than their counterparts in the control group without plants in their rooms. HortTechnology 10/08
Children spend less time outdoors today; free play and discretionary time has decreased Obesity has increased from 4% in the 1960s to 20% in 2004 Obesity, attention-deficit disorder, impaired social skills and what can be characterized as a “ culture of depression” are adding to the stress levels and severely impacting our young. Those are physical and psycho-social characteristics of the changes. And then there is more—less time outdoors, more time with electronic technology, little free and unstructured time, and even a 30 percent decrease in bicycle riding. http://www.childrenandnature.org/ This movement is aimed at bring Nature and play back into the cultural norm for children and families.
The focus of HT programs are to maximize social, cognitive, physical and/or psychological functioning and/ or general health and wellness.
![Growing Through Grief Karen L. Kennedy, HTR Horticultural Therapist [email_address]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/104bkennedypresentation-100624074220-phpapp02/85/104-b-Kennedy-presentation-1-320.jpg)
