Saturday, November 1, 2003

This presentation is part of : Complimentary Care Initiatives

Outdoor Healing Spaces: Designing with Clients

Emily Catherine Schlenker, PsyD, RN, CHN, Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
Learning Objective #1: Discuss the components of an outdoor healing space
Learning Objective #2: Apply the components of an outdoor healing space to work with individual clients and groups of clients across the lifespan

Outdoor healing spaces extend the therapeutic milieu, traditionally an indoor venue for patients, into the world outside the walls of the institution. Such spaces, in the form of healing gardens, offer emotional, psychological and even physical opportunities for clients and staff to progress on their journeys to wellness. Components of an outdoor healing space include color, visual and tactile texture, light and shade contrast, real and implied movement, sound, water, and real or implied boundaries. Shelter, or the perception of shelter, is also important in helping us to feel nurtured and protected. If we believe that one's perception is one's reality, then the healing garden provides a place that we can perceive as a point from which to start and to which to return on our path to health.

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