Healing Garden Rescheduled!

The Healing Garden workshop cancelled due to snow earlier this month has been rescheduled to May 1st, 3:30 to 5:30 pm at a new location: The Downeast Recovery Support Center at 11 Free Street, Machias.  The concept for this event is a 2-hour workshop on Horticultural Therapy (HT) presented by Elin MacKinnon, LCSW, for direct care staff, program administrators, educators, parents and gardeners.  After a brief history and introduction to the profession of horticultural therapy – how it works, and where it’s practiced – the focus of this 2-hour training will be on how participants can explore, encourage and support healing garden activities of all sizes in all kinds of settings and with all kinds of people. Learn how to meet social, emotional and physical goals with HT activities, and how to bring inexpensive HT activities into your program, home or other setting.  We’ll end the workshop with a hands on activity.  Registration has reached the maximum number of participants and is now closed.

Elin MacKinnon, LCSW has incorporated healing garden activities in her work with children and families since 1992 when she developed a community garden project for children in treatment foster care. For over 15 years she has taught a course to graduate social work students at the University of Maine about the benefits of expressive and experiential therapies with a focus on horticulture.