Horticulture Therapy

February 2023

Let’s get down and dirty right away – gardening is the bee’s knees. There have been more and more studies conducted which show that simply being around plants and green spaces have dramatically positive effects on a person’s health. The emotional, physical, and mental benefits of gardening are great and many, but please, don’t take our word for it. According to one study by the National Institute of Health, gardening improved levels of the brain growth nerve factors which are related to improved memory¹. Gardening is also known to contribute to increased attention span, to reduce anxiety and depression, and to mitigate symptoms from PTSD². Throw out those Sudoku puzzles! Delete those brain training apps! Instead, go get yourself a shovel, a packet of seeds, and a watering can. (Fine, you can keep the puzzles too.)

Our Long Branch location has known about the benefits of gardening for a while now. Our resident gardening guru, Jennifer – who originally started as an intern at our Livingston location – visits the Long Branch Day Program twice each week to lead Horticulture groups for the clients. These Horticulture groups are utilized by the therapists of every modality, including Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy. Jennifer’s groups are quite popular and usually involve a large amount of clients, but for this particular session the group consisted of only our client Angela working with Jennifer – and Angela took full advantage of the one-on-one time.

There are always specific goals and purposes for the types of therapies we create. Let’s hear it directly from the words of Nicole Flammia, our Director of Day Services at Long Branch:

“Making decisions and performing tasks to tend to our basic needs doesn’t always come easy to someone with a traumatic brain injury. In horticulture therapy, clients are presented with choices to make while igniting their creative expression using soil, succulents, and flowers. Clients tend to delicate plants and maintain their care while getting their hands dirty in rich soil – and the clients have the opportunity to strengthen their fine motor skills in the process!

In this particular session, Angela was presented with 8 assorted succulent plants, some soil, tools and a planter. Angela needed to decide how many plants would fit, which plants would be used and how they could be arranged. Angela created a gorgeous arrangement of colorful succulents anyone would be proud to display! (And Angela had a little bit of help from Clover, the therapy pup!).”

Yes, we can’t forget about the therapy dog, Clover. The other reason we love Jennifer is that she owns three dogs that all come to visit the Long Branch location with her throughout the year. Clover is a trained therapy dog – and is ridiculously cute – so during their horticulture therapy, the clients receive some good old fashioned pet therapy as well. It’s hard to imagine a better day of therapy than that.

References:

1. Park SA, Lee AY, Park HG, Lee WL. Benefits of Gardening Activities for Cognitive Function According to Measurement of Brain Nerve Growth Factor Levels. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Mar 2;16(5):760. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16050760. PMID: 30832372; PMCID: PMC6427672.

2. Thompson R. Gardening for health: a regular dose of gardening. Clin Med (Lond). 2018 Jun;18(3):201-205. doi: 10.7861/clinmedicine.18-3-201. PMID: 29858428; PMCID: PMC6334070.