Garden therapy, a form of therapy that has the same effects as music therapy, art therapy and game therapy, has grown increasingly popular over the last few years and experts believe that victims of the floods caused by Typhoon Morakot can use garden therapy to bring peace to their damaged souls.
Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station research assistant Chen Yan-rui said that garden therapy can help calm a person’s emotions, can give people a place to rest their souls and is a form of spiritual reconstruction, which would be helpful to the victims of the recent floods. Victims can do more than plant trees to commemorate relatives that have passed on. Seeing plants blossom and bear fruit and watching leaves age and turn yellow can also help them understand this is how life is while also helping them learn how to calmly accept reality.
Participants in gardening therapy can also learn how to move around problems and still lead a fulfilling life instead of meeting them head on, just as a papaya tree with a damaged trunk grows new shoots and successfully grows into a tree, as if the tree is trying to create a new life for itself.
Garden therapy is viewed as a form of assisted therapy outside the traditional realm of medicine. And apart from being a suitable method of relieving stress and improving concentration among the general public, people such as the elderly, the physically disabled, the mentally ill, female victims of domestic violence and prison inmates can all explore life and its meaning while learning to look after plants. Strolling in a garden, planting seeds, watering plants and pruning leaves can provide opportunities for exercise, which is beneficial for health.
“Look at the flowers I planted. They’re beautiful, right?” says Dong Dong, a tall and strong student at the Nantou Education and Nursing Institute. Dong Dong used to have violent tendencies and would hit classmates he didn’t like. However, after coming into contact with garden therapy and planting a large patch of Mexican aster with his own bare hands, he now urges his classmates to look at his flowers and has become calmer and has more confidence in himself. Siao Suan, who never liked going to school now constantly asks his teacher “When will the shoots start growing?” and looks forward to classes.
The Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station has assisted the Nantou Education and Nursing Institute, the Maria Social Welfare Foundation and the Tzu En Home for the Disabled in Changhua in designing gardens and promoting garden therapy.
Head of the Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station Chen Rong-wu says, “Plants are the teachers in garden therapy classes.” Plants have feelings and understand what people say. Researchers have discovered that tomato plants that “listen” to recordings of female voices grew 2.5cm higher on average than plants that “listened” to the recordings of male voices. Apparently plants really do have some unbelievable powers.
和「音樂治療」、「藝術治療」、「遊戲治療」異曲同工，「園藝治療」近年也在台灣撒下種子。專家認為，八八風災受災者或許可透過園藝治療，讓受創心靈獲得平靜。
台中區農業改良場助理研究員陳彥睿表示，園藝治療可安定情緒，讓人有精神寄託，對於受到八八風災的創傷者，也是心靈重建的方式之一。不僅可種樹來紀念逝去的親人，看到花開結果、老化枯黃，更可藉此瞭解生命原本如此，學習坦然接受現實。
又如見到主幹折損的木瓜樹，側芽長出來，也順利開花結果，木瓜樹為自己的生命尋找出路，就像遇到挫折時，轉個彎，生命依然亮麗精彩。
園藝治療被視為傳統醫學外的「輔助治療」，除適合一般人的紓壓、培養專注力外，從老人、肢障者、精神病患、家暴受創婦女、受刑人等，都可以在學習照料植物的同時，討論生命議題。而漫步花園、播種、澆水或修剪枝葉等，也提供運動機會，讓身體更健康。
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