Page 58 - KW LUXURY MAGAZINE

Natural
H
aling
H
a
By Kristen Ordonez
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e
These professionals have cultivated their own paths to help heal others through landscape design.
Growing in prominence in recent years, therapeutic gardens are being built with increasing frequency as the
awareness about their value has transcended across many industries, including healthcare and landscape design. Professionals in these various elds have come to know the signi cant change these projects can bring, and work in different ways to sow this knowledge in order for others to reap the bene ts.
By de nition, a therapeutic garden
is categorized under the restorative type of garden, as it focuses on therapeutic intervention that is “designed for use as a component of a treatment program and may exist on its own,
as an indoor program or part of a larger healing garden,” according to a report published in the AHTA News Magazine. Elizabeth “Leah” Diehl, the author of that report, is director of the Therapeutic Horticulture Program at Wilmot Botanical Gardens at the University of Florida, as well as a licensed landscape architect, master gardener and registered horticultural therapist. She, in particular, works everyday with patients
According to Julie Moir Messervy, a stopping place at the end of “Stroll Journey,” such as a quiet sitting area on a walking path, is the perfect place to create what she calls a special “Mind Journey.”
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