From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review

Abstract

The term 'therapeutic landscapes' was first coined by health geographer, Wilbert Gesler, in 1992 to explore why certain environments seem to contribute to a healing sense of place. Since then, the concept and its applications have evolved and expanded as researchers have examined the dynamic material, affective and socio-cultural roots and routes to experiences of health and wellbeing in specific places. Drawing on a scoping review of studies of these wider therapeutic landscapes published between 2007 and 2016, this paper explores how, where, and to what benefit the 'therapeutic landscapes' concept has been applied to date, and how such applications have contributed to its critical evolution as a relevant and useful concept in health geography. Building on themes included in two earlier (1999, 2007) edited volumes on Therapeutic Landscapes, we summarise the key themes identified in the review, broadly in keeping with the core material, social, spiritual and symbolic dimensions of the concept initially posited by Gesler. Through this process, we identify strengths and limitations of the concept and its applications, as well as knowledge gaps and promising future directions for work in this field, reflecting critically on its value within health geography and its potential contribution to wider interdisciplinary discussions and debates around 'healthy' spaces, places, and related practices.

What prevents people accessing urban bluespaces? A qualitative study

“…Perceptions of urban bluespaces and how they limit use have not previously been investigated, but insight is available from research into outdoor recreation and greenspace access. Outdoor recreation is unequal, with certain groups less likely to participate (Boyd et al, 2018;Bell et al 2018;Hunt et al, 2016;Natural England, 2015), despite efforts to attract diverse users (Ethnos, 2005;Evison et al, 2013;Morris and O'Brien, 2011). Interventions requires understanding reasons behind lack of access, which little research considers Boyd et al 2018;Hitchings, 2013).…”

Strengthening Social Interactions and Constructing New Oral Health and Health Knowledge: The Co-design, Implementation and Evaluation of A Pedagogical Workshop Program with and for Homeless Young People

“…We proposed that the safe place was created by ‘locating [the participants] in the condition of their current lives’ [33] together with increasing their awareness that they were not alone. The establishment of a place of safety to discuss sensitive issues, therefore, would appear to mimic a therapeutic space, which Bell et al [35] consider to be of significance to ‘maintain and promote health and wellbeing for different individuals and groups at different times’. It was within this therapeutic space that the assessment, re-assessment and reflection of past experiences, which had raised the levels of stigmatization and humiliation, were at last reconsidered, thereby reducing feelings of shame and inappropriateness [25,26].…”

Negotiating nature's weather worlds in the context of life with sight impairment

“…As noted by Finlay (), for example, despite the isolation and myriad challenges of negotiating Canada's treacherous white space in winter, many older adults express pride in their levels of toughness and ability to endure this weather, incorporating such weather tolerance (De Vet, ) into their sense of self and identity. These everyday adaptations and embodied improvisations to both anticipated and unanticipated weather patterns remain relatively understudied and under‐theorised (Strengers & Maller, ) within subfields of geography that seek to understand how and why people come to experience a sense of well‐being or otherwise through particular place encounters (Bell et al., ; Conradson, ). By paying greater attention to the “diverse aspects of ‘living in’ and ‘against’ the weather” (Ergler et al., , p. 69), this paper foregrounds valuable opportunities to explore how everyday experiences of well‐being, impairment, disability and nature (in the form of people's weather worlds) emerge relationally.…”