CEMETERY AS A THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT

Therapeutic environments can be seen in a variety of contexts, particularly in the health and residential environme
nts. These are designed specifically to fit people's intellectual, environmental, community and spiritual needs.

As mentioned in the Hospice Wellington Volunteer Training Course handout, “In recent years the concept of what
constitutes as ‘therapy’ has been broadened from its original meaning ‘that which heals medically’ to include ‘that which
takes care of’ or ‘makes whole again’”.

Landscape architect, Matthew Berry examined the cemetery as a therapeutic environment and identified three key
aspects of a therapeutic environment as outlined below:

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS:

Include the objects in a setting; places such as the cemetery entrance, administrative buildings, monumental and
lawn areas; natural features such as forests and lakes; relations between places created by such things as barriers, paths,
vegetation, views and qualities such as the setting, light, sound (as cited in Salisbury, 2002, p. 18).

ADMINISTRATIVE ENVIRONMENTS:

Include the formal rules governing such things as contractual arrangements for use, and procedures to access the
property; as well as informal rules such as what is appropriate behavior (as cited in Salisbury, 2002, p. 18).

BEHAVIORAL ENVIRONMENTS:

Includes the characteristics of people, their activities and social interactions/ relationships between people (as
cited in Salisbury, 2002, p. 18). Berry found that the cemetery created a therapeutic environment and identified several
relevant therapeutic models for analysis which are prosthetic model, normalization model and enhancement model.

PROSTHETIC MODEL

This puts forward for consideration that the way a hearing aid or prosthetic leg provides compensation for lost
skills is the same way people can make up for a defect in conduct or experience. Similarly, the individual grave and
memorial acts as a prosthetic device in the process of grief. It becomes a substitute for the deceased, which acts as a focal
point of contact with that person in grief. This helps the bereaved to recover, gradually let go and accept the reality of
death. One distinctive attribute of monuments is their ceaselessness and stability over time. The limits of a remembrance to
physically persevere time, or its obvious imperviousness to the impacts of time are compared with the steadiness of living
memory (as cited in Salisbury, 2002).

NORMALIZATION MODEL

Berry discounted that the creation of a surrounding environment would help a person rejuvenate by establishing a
connection with the ‘normal’ environment. He referred to the fact that the cemetery, by definition, is not at all like more
extensively encompassing nature scenes, making it impossible to be viewed as 'ordinary'. Berry further states that, “a forest
cemetery provides an environment where death is placed within the context of larger natural life cycles” (as cited in
Salisbury, 2002). This mix of natural and built environment setting helps the bereaved heal from death and grieving. The
natural landscape of a woodland cemetery certainly provides a normalized therapeutic environment for the bereaved in
grief (as cited in Salisbury, 2002).
ENHANCEMENT MODEL

This is the last therapeutic model discussed by Berry, where to provide hope and rejuvenation the landscape is
enhanced making it more captivating than a common setting. Open space similar to a natural cemetery creates a place of
refuge within the city. These engaging natural surrounds are a place of comfort for the people suffering from the death of a
loved one and also for the larger community (as cited in Salisbury, 2002).

Berry’s research concludes that any type of cemetery provides a therapeutic environment for the bereaved. The
research also identifies that a natural cemetery overcomes many of the disadvantages inherent in traditional cemeteries.
He further suggests that the natural cemetery will be favored as a final resting place for the loved ones (as cited in Salisbury,
2002).