Services

Garden Based Therapy

Many patients at the Center ÜBERLEBEN are not allowed to work in Germany because they have no fixed residency status. These people often come from rural areas where the cultivation of a small garden is a part of everyday life.

Our garden project „Intercultural Healing Garden“ emerged from the idea of involving patients in a meaningful and physical activity that also brings about daily routine and therefore structure in their lives. These men and women undertake work with earth and plants, nurturing the growth of the garden as part of an active, meaningful and partly self-sufficient task that is an important resource in the therapy process.

As a result of their work in the Healing Garden, a large number of patients felt themselves to in a better state of health. They are able to share knowledge about their own culturally specific experiences in gardening and also return to ideas of value and creative richness that were part of their cultures of origin. They experience a newly strengthened perception of the self and creative competences of the personality that they developed in their homelands.

The garden is situated on the grounds of the old Moabit Hospital, not far from the Center, on a parkway that has been specially acquired for this purpose. The garden is also used by patients from the Center ÜBERLEBEN day clinic and is therefor a permanent part of the semi-inpatient therapeutic service.

Fotocredits: Djem/shutterstock

Cooperation Partner

Council Office of Mitte, Berlin
Dr. Günter Piening, Senate Commissioner for Integration and Migration (Schirmherr)

Interkultur Foundation