16 November 2010

Designing Gardens for Healing the Mind

LA Fall Lecture Series presents Seiko Goto

Wednesday, 11/17 at 4:00 pm,
Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall;
3 College Farm Road
New Brunswick, NJ


Designing Gardens for Healing the Mind

Dr. Seiko Goto is Assistant Professor at our department. This presentation is a summary of studies conducted during her sabbatical leave in 2009.

1. Study of Japanese gardens in North America

2. Study of healing effects of Japanese gardens.

In the first part, she will introduce her recent study on Japanese gardens in Manzanar internment camp built by internees during WWII. In the second part, Dr. Goto will introduce four pilot studies on healing effects of Japanese garden. Although each study was a short term in duration and small in sample size, the results showed strong tendencies to say that population suffering from Alzheimer disease could get positive effects from viewing a Japanese garden. Horticulture therapy was developed in the rehabilitative care of hospitalized war veterans because the therapeutic benefits of the gardening have been valued in the US. The main purpose of such a program is to encourage patients to get involved in hands on gardening activities. However, benefits of gardens come not only from gardening but also from viewing. This presentation will give a glimpse that Japanese gardens could help emotional and cognitive improvement of viewers.

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