Rooted in Healing
An Introduction to Horticultural Therapy for Mental Health Professionals
Rooted in Healing is a two day experiential training designed for counselors, social workers, and therapists interested in integrating horticultural therapy into clinical practice.
Horticultural therapy is a structured, evidence-informed modality that uses plant-based activities and nature-centered experiences to support psychological, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning.
This training blends didactic content with carefully designed experiential activities. You’ll learn and practice how horticultural therapy interventions can be used therapeutically with diverse client populations.
No prior gardening experience is required.
Mental Health Goes Green
No Green Thumb? No Problem
Throughout the training participants explore plant-based metaphor, mindfulness and sensory grounding, grief and meaning-making, trauma-informed session design, and creative expression through nature.
Participants practice translating experiential work into clinical language, treatment goals, documentation, and ethical decision-making. Emphasis is placed on scope of practice, accessibility, trauma-informed care, and adapting activities for different physical, cognitive, and emotional needs.
Why Horticultural Therapy?
Connecting with clients is your job. Connecting with the nature grounds you. Putting them together opens up new possibilities for healing.
If you’ve ever taken a walk in the woods, watered a houseplant, enjoyed beautiful fresh flowers, planted seeds and watched them grow.. then you know how life-giving our connection to plants is.
Our world would cease to exist without plants. It’s not that plants are nice to have and fun to look at… they are an essential part of lives. So many people turned to houseplants and gardening during Covid’s lockdown, and that’s no surprise. When we’re disconnected from others we turn to plants to feel reconnected.
Spending time in gardens and nature have been prescribed for thousands of years because we have an innate sense that they are healing. Bringing horticultural therapy into your practice allows you to tap into healing that is shown to have benefits for emotional, physical, social, and spiritual wellbeing.
As mental health providers we are completely underutilizing horticulture as an intervention.
Horticultural therapy is being used around the world in a wide variety of settings. It’s most commonly seen in residential programs like nursing homes, rehabs, psych hospitals, and physical rehabilitation units.
However, people who are interested in using plants as a part of their well being with clinicians don’t have access unless. We have a huge opportunity to make this evidenced-based practice available to more people if we’re willing to include it into what we already do.
You don’t need
To have a garden.
To go outside.
Make a huge mess in your office.
You can
Adapt activities and interventions to telehealth with a little bit of logistical planning.
Provide an entry point for clients to gain new depth and insight into themselves and how they see the world.
Add a unique offering to your practice that a lot of people would love to do but never knew existed.
Why choose this training?
This training is designed to be an entry into using horticultural therapy in your mental health practice. It can be adapted and used in a wide variety of ways - from as simple as utilizing plant metaphors to full on gardening with clients, and everything in-between. You’ll get exposure to the modality along with valuable information on how to do horticultural therapy effectively, safely, and ethically as a therapist.
You could go to Temple or Del Val, take their three or four horticultural therapy classes, pay thousands of dollars, and end up with a certificate, no CEs, and no practical way to integrate horticultural therapy into your practice.
I made this training to be the one I needed when I first learn about horticultural therapy. I got that certificate and felt frustration about having enthusiasm for the intervention but no practical way to include it into my role as a mental health therapist. I found my way, though.
I am a horticultural therapist. I ran an HT program at a community mental health center, included horticulture as an intervention as a provider in residential programs and private practice. I use plants as a part of my EMDR intensives and encourage clients to engage with plants and gardening as a way to live a therapeutic life. I’m starting a trauma-focused horticultural therapy women’s group this spring. I’m on the board of the American Horticultural Therapy Association and working to try to make HT more accessible to providers that don’t work in large facilities. I’m also a lifelong gardener, plant parent, and volunteer with Philadelphia Master Gardeners.
If you’ve ever been interested in horticultural therapy or curious about how you could add plants into how you practice, this is for you.
This Training is For
Licensed Professional Counselors
Licensed Clinical Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Wellness professionals working under clinical supervision
You’ll Learn
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
Define horticultural therapy and differentiate it from gardening, ecotherapy, and general nature exposure
Describe the evidence base and core principles of horticultural therapy
Identify ethical and scope-of-practice considerations for integrating HT into clinical work
Design trauma-informed horticultural therapy sessions aligned with treatment goals
Apply plant-based metaphors to support emotional processing and insight
Use sensory-based HT interventions to support nervous system regulation
Adapt horticultural therapy activities for accessibility and diverse client needs
Integrate horticultural therapy into documentation and treatment planning
You’ll Leave With
A foundational understanding of horticultural therapy
A toolkit of low-cost, low-mess HT interventions
Sample language for documentation and treatment planning
Ethical and scope-of-practice guidance
A personal HT integration plan for your practice
The Details
-
The training is scheduled for May 1st and 2nd.
-
The training will be at my office in Sherman Mills at 3201 Scotts Lane in East Falls. There is plenty of parking and is a short walk from bus routes on Ridge Ave and the Wissahickon transportation center.
-
Early Bird Pricing until March 1 - $715
After March 1 - $835
Graduates of the Philadelphia Ecotherapy Association’s training gets the early bird price no matter when they sign up. Just upload your certificate at sign up.
-
Yes!
A $225 deposit is required to hold your spot. You’ll be asked to put a card on file for the additional payments
Half the remaining balance will be charged on March 31. The other half will be charged on April 15. ($245 for Early Bird, $305 for standard each payment).
-
I’m anticipating that this training will come with 13 CEs. An application to the PA Social Work Board was submitted is pending approval.
I should have a definitive answer by March 1st and will communicate about CE approval as I get information from the board adjudicators.
-
Click on the button below and that will take you to a form to fill out.
Once I receive your information you’ll get a welcome email and be sent an invoice within 24 hours. I will keep all sign ups posted about CEs.
-
You can cancel your registration by emailing info@phillyemdr.com. You can cancel with a full refund, minus a $50 processing fee, until April 1.
Due to the nature of planning, getting supplies, and logistics, any cancelations will not be refunded.
You can transfer your spot to someone else after April 1, but any payment would be between you and that individual. Any transfer needs to be requested in writing by email to info@phillyemdr.com
-
There are 10 seats available. They are first-come-first served.
If spots sell out I will maintain a wait list and will offer any spots that may become available first to the waitlist.
I will connect with the waitlist to see if there is interest in doing the training on a weekend over the summer.
-
The form has a section for you to check a box if you are unable to attend this time, but want to stay informed of future dates for this training.
I will reach out when additional dates are set and give the waitlist and this list first access to those other trainings.
-
Check out the American Horticultural Therapy Association at www.ahta.org
Also, National Horticultural Therapy Week is March 15-21. AHTA will have access to free information about how to celebrate HT week.