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Former Student Christene Tashjian, from North Carolina
shares her success story:
I am a relative new comer to the field of horticultural therapy (HT) and am
a recent graduate of the Horticultural Therapy Institute (HTI), March
2006. This article details how the HTI course work and homework assignments
were the catalysts for my development of a grant proposal for a pilot
HT project with survivors of
sexual violence.
My third
HTI course, HT Programming, was held in June 2005 in Ft. Collins at
the Gardens on Spring Creek. Our guest instructor was Karen Kennedy,
HTR. During the first day of her instruction, she told us about her
job coordinating the HT program at The Holden Arboretum (outside of
Cleveland) and an HT program she conducts for individuals with chronic
pain or terminal illnesses, weekly sessions for 6 weeks. I thought about
other populations who might benefit from a similar program - survivors
of sexual assault. I had been volunteering on the fund raising committee
for my county's (Orange) rape crisis center (OCRCC) and have supported
the Center for many years. They offer support groups to clients 4 times
a year, each group meets weekly for 8 weeks, and addresses similar topics:
shame, self-esteem, anger/rage, grief, coping skills, giving and receiving,
and happiness. The Center has never offered a support group that incorporates
the use of HT.
When I returned home, I shared my idea with the director of the HT program
at the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG), where I have volunteered
for almost 3 years. She was supportive of the concept and we talked
about how to implement such a program. I then met with OCRCC's director
whom I have known socially for several years. She was interested and
asked me to speak with the Center's client services director who is
in charge of the support groups. She asked me to give a presentation
to the support group facilitators on HT at an upcoming meeting in November
2005. I asked the NCBG HT director to assist me and we met with the
group for an hour, gave an overview of HT, conducted an HT activity
with them, and gave them printed materials on some HT activities. They
expressed a lot of interest in HT and its potential for the Center's
clients.
My final HTI course, HT Management, was soon to be in session (February
2006). We knew from the start of class that we would have a homework
assignment requiring us to develop a grant proposal for an actual project
we wanted to implement. I decided to focus on furthering my idea of
an HT group with survivors of sexual violence. One of the best things
about the assignment was the limit on length (5 pages), although initially
I thought, "how can I get all the information required for the
assignment on an HT project in so few pages?" The page limit forced
me to distill the essential information and present it in a clear and
concise manner.
Rebecca Haller required us to develop a timeline and lessons for our
proposal. (We only had to submit one HT activity in detail; all others
had to be described in a paragraph.) During the course, we had some
class time to discuss possible HT activities to meet the various program
goals students had for their potential programs. While my project will
focus entirely on the psychological needs of clients, classmates talked
about the applicability of these needs with the populations they intend
to serve. For example, the topic of anger: while the source of this
feeling will differ, addressing it through HT is applicable to a survivor
of sexual violence, an elderly person put in a nursing home, or a person
who has recently lost a limb or essential physical function/ability.
Upon my return home, I met again with the NCBG HT director to discuss
my ideas for a group of seasonal activities to be conducted in late
fall 2006, the last support group the Center would offer for the calendar
year.
Another
assignment in the course, given by guest instructor Pam Catlin HTR,
required us to identify local resources in various areas of support
to our HT program: collaboration, financial, tools, plant materials
and supplies, and advice. I knew that the Carolinas Chapter of AHTA
gave 3 grant awards annually at their fall conference. I decided to
use my homework assignments as the basis for a proposal to my regional
chapter. My budget was limited to $500 for the 8-week program I proposed;
that is the largest amount of a CCAHTA grant award. I revised my CCAHTA
proposal to address a few concerns Rebecca raised and submitted it at
the end of July.
If funded,
the grant would allow the OCRCC to try a new methodology with a long-standing
Center service.* The Center's mission statement is to "stop sexual
violence and its impact through support, education, and advocacy."
A support group using HT would address the issues of posttraumatic stress
syndrome and grief, two areas where HT has been used previously. More
importantly, it would address quality of life issues. An HT support
group would supplement the Center's services and could possibly result
in a new program offering on a regular basis. Creating ways for individuals
whose lives have been affected by sexual violence to engage in sustainable
self-care practices is important to the Center's work; using horticulture
therapy is an ideal way to do this. Longer-term, the Center would be
a great place for enhancing an HT practice by using the extensive yard
that is available and currently underutilized for some outdoor projects.
The pilot
project will be a wellness program, aimed at improving the general well
being of the clients participating in the support group. The program's
goals are: (1) introduce the psychological topics typically covered
in support group sessions through the use of HT; something that has
not been done before, and (2) evaluate the use of HT as a methodology
for use in support groups with survivors of sexual violence. I will
work with an OCRCC staff member to co-facilitate a support group of
no more than 10 people, most likely women . The group will meet for
2 hours a week during evening hours for 8 weeks. Each week during the
first hour of the group, I will conduct an HT activity that will help
introduce one of the topics typically addressed in the Center's support
groups. Participants will be asked to rate their mood before and after
each week's session on a 5-point scale I developed for this purpose.
During the second hour, the Center staff person will lead the group
in a discussion about that topic from a clinical perspective. The two
of us will meet weekly to review the session and decide what modifications,
if any, we need to make for the following week. At the end of the 8
weeks, participants will be asked to complete the Center's evaluation
for the group as well as an HT evaluation I developed. The staff member
and I will also evaluate whether or not the stated program goals were
met.
In sum,
the HTI coursework helped me take a thought, put some structure to it,
and take action to see it to fruition. The assignments lead me step-by-step
in a very practical way; they were not just tasks to complete to get
a grade. If you are reading this and considering enrolling in the HTI,
the usefulness of other HTI coursework to the real world also applies.
The HTI curriculum lives up to this stated objective of the HT certificate
program by providing opportunities for practical application of HT knowledge.
I'm grateful
to my HTI classmates for their ideas and shared enthusiasm for HT, the
OCRCC director and client services director for their interest and willingness
to try a new methodology with their support groups, the NCBG HT director
who has encouraged my interest in HT and challenged me to see its potential,
and to my husband for his complete support of my new-found passion.
The CCAHTA awards will be announced September 18 at the annual conference.
I will pursue other funding sources if CCAHTA does not come through;
I am committed to this pilot HT project with survivors of sexual violence.
Eventually I'd like to develop a similar set of activities to be done
during the springtime. Green Blessings!
Christene
A. Tashjian
Chapel Hill, NC
HTI Graduate, March 2006
*Christine
received a $500 grant award to implement her pilot HT project with survivors
of sexual violence.
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