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Horticultural therapy at the Veterans Centre

June 29, 2016

Summer is here at last and it’s time to get outside in the garden and see what’s new as it is an ever changing canvas! Horticultural therapy (HT) involves the use of plants, nature and gardening by a trained horticultural therapist, as the vehicle to developing a therapeutic relationship with the resident. This can result in nourishing and enhancing all areas of a person’s life — cognitive, spiritual, social, emotional and physical.

Many (but not all) of the participants in the horticultural therapy program at the Veterans Centre have been avid gardeners most of their life and are happy that they can continue on with their love for plants and gardening. The Veterans Centre offers several lovely garden spaces for veteran residents to enjoy the outdoors. Did you know there is also a 2nd floor rooftop garden in L-wing and a greenhouse in L-wing for when the cooler weather returns?

Janet Phillips, (BRE, MDiv Counselling, HTR) has been the horticultural therapist at Sunnybrook Veterans Centre since September 2013. Originally from Maugerville, New Brunswick, she has worked as a horticultural therapist since 2006 at a number of seniors’ centres in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton. She completed her 7 month horticultural therapy internship in 2007 at St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Guelph.

Horticultural therapist