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by Sonja Linden and Jenny Grut
London: Frances Lincoln, 2002, p/b,
160pp, £7.99.
Reviewed by Anabel Farnell Watson
This is a book of hope: it tells of what can occur if someone
has the time, skill and imagination to recognize the life force,
however crushed, in another human being and then reconnect it
to the great source of energy held in nature.
How beautiful it is to read of the careful untangling of the
intense pain of damaged trust, shattered lives, and broken bodies
alongside the intense labour of creating a garden from a forgotten
piece of land.
The clients of The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims
of Torture are people who have been dispossessed, terrorized,
and tortured. Not only their minds but their bodies too have suffered
untold damage. They find themselves in a strange land, not always
welcomed, jobless, penniless and often alone. The Medical Foundation
is a haven; a place of hope and a place that offers psychological
and medical help. However, for some, an indoor situation makes
it harder to begin to express the turmoil within. Jenny Grut,
a psychotherapist working at the Foundation, noticed this and
gave birth to a brainchild, ‘The Natural Growth Project.’
In The Healing Fields, we follow the journey of the birth
and unfolding of this project. With the help of two psychotherapists
and one organic gardener, clients, mainly Middle Eastern, work
on allotments, on sites shared with ordinary holders, using nature
as a metaphor for accessing, clearing and restoring damaged aspects
of their psyches. I was profoundly touched to read of the sensitive
way in which the therapist/gardeners gently encouraged and carefully
watched how individual clients responded to the challenges before
them, and within them, and then helped to reconnect them to themselves
and the world around them.
An abandoned plot of land replicates the inner chaos of the client.
The effect of introduction to the land and the ensuing relationship
with it is profound. It is often a slow and painful process, but
in finding ways of giving expression to the contradictory and
powerful feelings within, the first steps toward healing are made.
Clients and therapists make courageous journeys from far away
lands to integration with the land of England, from shattered
spirits to gradual revival, and from rough, neglected earth to
gardens full of fruit and flowers.
The book gives a picture of the day-to-day happenings in ‘The
Growth Project’ and moving and powerfulstories of individual
clients coming to terms with themselves and some of the people
with whom they now share their lives. The story of Colin and Farouk
is one. Colin, a long term allotment tenant, whose plot is the
pride of the site, is, at first, horrified by the strange approach
of Farouk, who ignores his ire and spends months slowly working
through ugly, untidy mounds of weeds. What Colin does not know
is that Farouk is vigorously discarding with them very painful
memories. At last Farouk transforms his plot to rival Colin’s,
and restores his broken relationship with his wife and family
and with his new life. Colin admires this and also learns the
value of organic methods. The two become friends.
The work gives rise to many such journeys of transformation and
The Healing Fields is an inspiration to anyone wishing
to combine the nurturing of broken bodies and minds with the power
of the life force all around us.
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Anabel Farnell Watson was trained in Transpersonal
Psychology and had her own practice in North London for seven
years.
Further information about the Medical Campaign
for the Care of Victims of Torture from www.torturecare.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7813 7777.email: info@torturecare.org.uk
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© Caduceus, 2003.
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