Trauma and the garden: Inquiry into the presence of response differences among traumatized and non-traumatized viewers to garden design influenced by aspects of trauma

This thesis hypothesizes that the creative imagination found to be induced by trauma can be harnessed to produce therapeutic landscape design for traumatized individuals. The engendering research question concerns the relationship between the individual, the landscape, and the response to traumatic experience. This relationship is examined to determine its applicability to creativity in historic and contemporary garden design. The primary study investigates the presence of response differences among traumatized and non-traumatized viewers to five landscapes with designs that were influenced by aspects of trauma. The results and findings are used to postulate a foundation for further research into the development of guidelines for incorporating the trauma response process into landscape design for beneficial therapeutic results.