Healing Places - notes from Gesler

(notes from Healing Places by Wilbert M. Gesler Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham, USA: 2003)

pp5-6
Meaning is achieved through the experiences people have in places, such as a sense of identity, security or of belonging.An important component of mental illness is a feeling of homelessness or rootlessness, of no place to call home. Psychiatric patients benefit from a sense of home or attachment to certain places
The humanist geographer Yi-Fu Tuan has another perspective on a sense of place when he talk about 2 elements that enhance our experience of a place - public symbols and fields of care.
Public symbols = what strike us first about a place, the visual impression, eg. the imposing structure of a hospital facade (or Kingseat), public monuments which make us feel proud of a place - however, they can also be negative (eg. Kingseat).
Fields of care = more subtle and represent a longer lasting attachment to a place. They are the nonvisual elements of a place and include the networks of interpersonal concern. It does not make an immediate impact and is only felt after longer experience of a place. Healing places are considered fields of care eg. the sound of the ocean at a beach retreat, the therapeutic touch of a nurse, the caring voice of a therapist.
pp 7-16
Gesler defines 4 environments to be important in the definition of a healing place: natural, built, symbolic, social.
Natural = related to the biophilia hypothesis (as humans evolved from nature the acquired an affinity for nature and therefore feel comforted by it); a belief in nature as the healer; beauty, aesthetic pleasure from the surroundings; remoteness, immersion in nature; working in gardens is considered therapeutic; research to back the positive effects of views of nature through hosptial windows and the healing process (Ulrich)
Built = (basically all the aspects covered by evidence-based design) can provide a sense of trust and security; affects the senses; symbolic power of designs;
Symbolic = eg. water symbolises purity, washing out of sin and disease; high tech equipment in hospitals can represent the power of medicine, trust (but perhaps also fear); this category also includes rituals, and even the way a doctor may use a simple, ritual phrase such as 'you're going to be all right'. Many healing ceremonies have ritual language. This also includes associated myths about a certain place.
Social = the interactions with people who play various roles in the healing process eg. the therapists. The idea that good social relationships are essential to providing healing environments was at the core of the 'therapeutic community or mileu therapy'