Healing Spaces Book Report

The book Houses of Healing, “A Prisoner's Guide To inner Power And Freedom”, by Robin Casarjian, is a very purpose driven re-imagining of what a self help book can be. It is obviously geared towards rehabilitation of inmates as they live out their sentence, however I found the completion of the program stands for much more than its intended audiences incarceration. Not only was it a rewarding read for myself, but I believe it could be useful in rehabilitating inmates and giving them a new outlook on life.

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

Once he returned to the United States, he remarried, and began a traveling ministry. One of the places he was asked to speak was Spokane, Washington. He was asked to start a healings room, and he agreed. Over an approximately five year period, over 100,000 healings were reported. Spokane was declared "the healthiest city in the United States". Although Lake's church was never large, thousands came from all over the country and the world to receive prayer. In 1920, he felt called to move to Portland, Oregon and start a healing room ministry there. Similar healings were reported during these years as well.

“A healing hospital is a place characterized by thousands of small and wonderful things and a few big ones. At the center is love. More than anything else, supports a strong culture of caring. It expresses the deep passion of both patients and caregivers” (Chapman, 2003). Healing hospitals focus on patient-centered care.

When people think of their environment people think of their immediate surroundings; however, one's environment goes beyond and further into the psychological connection to one's personal environment. To further explain, Gallagher discusses three different aspects of The Power of Place: Outside In, Inside Out, and Synchrony. The book opens doors previously unnoticed about psychological ecology. From reading the book one learns that settings influence behavior more than the personalities of most people.

Hospital social work is time limited and the focus could easily be more directed at problems rather than solutions. Patients enter the hospital with a physical problem and desire to leave with answers. In this type of environment the focus can be on the physical ailment rather than additional factors that may be contributing to physical distress. Environmental factors can promote well-being or become a barrier to wellness. An ecological perspective provides a lens to view patient systems in a broader context.

The Pastoral Clinic book by Angela Garcia takes place on a penetrating journey into an iconic Western landscape northern New Mexico’s Española Valley, home to the highest rate of heroin addiction and fatal overdoses in the United States. In a luminous narrative, Angela Garcia chronicles the lives of several Hispano addicts, introducing the intimate, physical, and institutional dependencies in which they are entangled.

For example, the hospital. This environment is one of the main ones exhibited throughout the novel. This is one environment that interacts in both a positive and negative way. The hospital interacts in a positive way by trying to save Lia’s life and provide the best health assistance for her and her epilepsy. However, it also acts in a negative way as well. The medical professionals do not seem to value Lia’s family’s wishes in regards to her health, and they tend to cross boundaries in regards to her beliefs (Fadiman 1997).

The Samueli Institute’s framework is “one heart at a time” Samueli (Institute, 2015), while Planetree believes that “we are human beings, caring for other human beings” (CHI Health, 2013). Both companies establish qualities of an optimal healing environment. Both organizations labor in the community to encourage healing environments, by creating flu clinics, as well as educating students, patients and families, and by providing psychosocial support to patients and their families. They also encourage healing environments with in the medical facilities by educating as well as offering psycho/social support to staff, and offering the best treatment possible to their patients.

The first component speaks of a healing environment. This is an environment that is restful to the patient and the patient‘s family. There are no overhead paging, no sweepers going down the hall at night, promotion of a calming stress free environment for staff and patients to connect with their internal spirituality. The implementation of something as simple as a relaxation garden or massage treatment can go far in helping a patient rejuvenate so that they can move forward.

It is my personal belief that environment plays a considerable role in the patient’s short term and long-term wellbeing. When nurses acknowledge the environment that the patient is interacting in while receiving their care we know this greatly impacts the overall successfulness of the care plan. The patient’s feelings must be

When considering this the color of the environment plays a big part of the healing environment. The use of chromotherapy, color healing, is essential when considering a healing environment. Green is considered the universal color for healing (Stefanidakis, 2001). Using colors appropriately in the hospital environment can encourage emotional responses to enhance healing. If the incorrect colors are utilized the patient may present with symptoms of irritability instead of peacefulness or cheerfulness which could inhibit healing. Furthermore, the hospitals interior plays a major role in the healing process. Spirituality will be promoted if the interior reflects the hint of a religious atmosphere such as exercising specific religious artifacts spirituality will be promoted. Hospitals can also incorporate unrestricted visiting, decorative fountains, fireplaces, skylights and healing gardens to help provide a relaxing environment which decreases stress for their customer population.

The Environmental Theory by Florence Nightingale defined Nursing as “the act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery” (Alice Petiprin, 2014). It involves the nurse’s initiative to make environmental settings appropriate to aid in the recovery of the patient’s health. According to Nightingale all external factors are somehow associated with the patient and affects their life physically, mentally, and socially (Alice Petiprin, 2014).

A healing hospital is a healing community providing radical loving care (Journal of Sacred Work, 2009) in a safe environment that focuses on human interaction, interpersonal caring and enhancing the wellbeing of patients, caregivers, and all other members of the healing community. While a healing hospital is, of course, dedicated to providing excellent medical care to its patients (Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, 2012), it is also dedicated to integrating work design and technology (Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, 2012), and ultimately to the overall wellness of every healing community member. Using physical healing, education and supportive human interaction, this care model seeks healing on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels for everyone involved in the process (Zarren, n.d., pp. 1-2). The success of this model requires the cooperation of every

One of the main goals of healthcare facilities is to provide the patients with a “healing environment”. The goal of the healing environment is to remove the patient from all the toxic and hazards to give them time to heal. Three concepts that help creating a stable environment will be explain in this paper. These concepts are the seen environment, the unseen environment, and the storied environment.