Between March 17 – 23, 2024, it’s Horticultural Therapy week in Canada. As the Horticultural Therapist at Homewood Ravensview, I offer between 10 – 12 sessions/week. Many of those sessions include some form of a walking activity, like a guided forest labyrinth walk, or a walk with plant identification, or just a walk around the property to review with clients what gardening tasks have recently been accomplished, or to identify what still needs to be completed. Another reason I like to include a walk, is because it’s a reason to get clients outside, and into the fresh air! I walk the talk away ..read more

I’m approaching my first-year anniversary working as the Horticultural Therapist at Homewood Ravensview. At Ravensview, we are very fortunate to be located on 28 acres of forested hillside. The area is the traditional home to the WSÁNEĆ people and is referred to as ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱/John Dean Park. One of the primary reasons I accepted the role was I saw it as an opportunity to connect others with the local land on a deeper level.  Even before I worked my first shift at Ravensview, I began dreaming of building a labyrinth somewhere on the property so clients and staff could have ongoing a ..read more

What is Horticultural Therapy? Horticultural Therapy (HT) is a formal practice that uses plants, horticultural activities and the garden landscape to promote well-being for its participants. HT is goal orientated with defined outcomes and assessment procedures. HT sessions are administered by professionally trained horticultural therapists. Therapeutic Horticulture (TH) is the purposeful use of plants and plant-related activities to promote health and wellness for an individual or group. Goals and defined outcomes for individual participants are not necessarily considered nor clinica ..read more

Rainbow Fish by Cliff Thorbes Many across Canada recognize June as Pride Month. I’m proud that in the MHFA Standard training I provide, we explore guidelines for cross-cultural competence, and communicating with the 2SLGBTQ+ community. I’m currently doing some professional development, and was introduced to the Q Glossary, a resource that explains Queer terminology. Words can empower, acknowledge, identify, validate, promote understanding, celebrate, provide reassurance, heal, and they can be used as weapons to inflict pain, destroy, harm, divide, label, perpetuate stereotypes, predjudice and ..read more

Reflective processing is about diversity of thinking and engaging your mind deliberately in order to grow and improve. It’s at the core of creativity, empathy, analysis, open-mindedness, problem solving, and goal setting. Reflective thinking is a skill used throughout one’s career, and if nurtured, and sharpened through practice, can lead to improved employability and ongoing career growth. Most of the time, I operate on auto-pilot; following a set pattern of daily routines. From a professional perspective, reflective thinking is a purposeful way of thinking (versus daydreaming) about experie ..read more

There’s a Japanese maple outside my front door that’s captivating my attention these days. The color of the leaves is such a lovely copper-bronze. I know the leaves won’t be here for much longer so I’m making sure to appreciate them while they are. They’re spent from spring and summer. I expect the windstorm tonight will blow a good many of them to the deck below. I’m looking forward to the show the moss and lichen that live on the same tree, will put on next. ©Cliff Thorbes 2022 ..read more

Photograpy by James Curtis NATURE PLAY SWIM 33 of summer 2021 (Beaver Lake, Victoria BC) Play is the business of childhood and playing outdoors in Nature brings out the child in me. I believe it’s important to remain in touch with our inner-child throughout our lifetime. It keeps us feeling young and provides us with precious moments of carefree abandon. Nature Play occurs primarily outside in the natural environment and involves play with natural elements and features like water, rocks, sticks, pine cones, leaves, and shells. Nature Play is known to promote physical, cognitive, soci ..read more

Cliff’s Garden Summer 2021 As I work towards launching my second educational course this April, Reflective Practice for Reflective Practitioners, I’ve been busy honing my own reflective thinking skills. The course will feature guest presenters and be filled with activities and assignments that provide opportunities for students to develop their own reflective thinking skills and facilitate them in others. One activity that didn’t make it into the course line-up this time around, is the reflective writing activity, What’s Behind A Name. Like any good HT/TH professional, I would never try out an ..read more

We’re not out of the woods yet with the pandemic. People are experiencing more worry, stress, anxiety, and loneliness than before. To help alleviate the distress caused by the pandemic, I created this series about the many ways to connect mindfully with Nature and as a result, feel better for it. Celebrate Horticultual Therapy Week March 14 – 21 with me and take time to really notice the Nature around you. 15 Days of Nature Connection ©Cliff Thorbes 2022 ..read more

As a Facilitator for MHFA Standard (Virtual), I train others how to have conversations with others about their mental well-being. Some older adults may be unwilling or unable to discuss how the pandemic has affected them psychologically. Here are some tips that may be useful. COVID-19 Tip Sheet Caring For Older AdultsDownload ..read more