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Therapeutic Gardening

Room to Heal began in a garden. Born out of the wish of five refugees desperate for some green space in which to feel free.

The Garden – a short film

Room to Heal was born out of the wish of five refugees desperate for some green space in which to feel free. A corner of a beautiful local community garden was found, where each week, they would sit and talk in a therapy group, eat together and work on the allotment.

Room to Heal was born out of the wish of five refugees desperate for some green space in which to feel free. A corner of a beautiful local community garden was found, where each week, they would sit and talk in a therapy group, eat together and work on the allotment.

The need for connectedness to nature, and to each other, remains a core part of what we do at Room to Heal.

We currently run regular garden sessions at the community centre where our groups are held and continue to meet once a week in a local community garden for a big home-cooked feast, gardening and in winter, gathering around a fire. Sometimes the food we grow gets used in our weekly community meals, always cooked by a member. 

“I think for my point to gardening and to have all these wonderful trees and herbs. When I come to Room to Heal and I can take the herbs fresh, because this building here in the centre of the city, I mean come on its so important so nice for me to see all these natural trees to grow up here. You know, fresh vegetables, fresh food, its incredible. We have to have more gardens in the city, you know, like this one at Room to Heal. So thank you for this one and thank you today for the grapes!“

We grow a wide variety of plants for food and flowers from all over the world, such as corn, sweet potato, chili, tomato, peanuts, callaloo and potatoes. Sometimes members bring in seeds from their home countries and we experiment. Our garden at the community centre has a lot of herbs, which can be grounding after a hard therapy session, or used to make tea whilst we work in the garden. 

From time to time we do nature-connection inspired trips, such as to Kew Gardens, Organiclea and our rural therapeutic retreats.

Sometimes, gardening provides an opportunity to connect with our members’ lives before their trauma occurred, bringing up positive memories and stories of working the land or of tending to a specific plant. Working with plants provides many opportunities for moments of groundedness and connectedness, as well as relating to life through metaphors of nature; watching the changing seasons, damaged plants regrowing, or tending to a seedling and watching it grow. 

As one member shares about gardening at Room to Heal:

“When we come here in the garden we can talk with the nature. For example, last week we put seeds, and this week i saw them growing. Its life. Its like a human giving birth, how they feel when they give life and a new baby. Its the same joy I have when I see how I plant a seed and it come out and grow. After a few times its growing, like a human being, it means there is life. It’s my passion. When I meet all the people … it’s a joy. We talk about the nature, we have common passion or hobby. So I want to say only it’s a joy to have plants and to plant and grow and harvest.”

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