The Creative Therapy Center and Healing Gardens in Action!

The Art Therapy Studio welcomes its first group

It’s been seven weeks since we cut the ribbon opening the Creative Therapy Center and Healing Gardens on the 6th floor at Magee, and every time I stop by for a visit, I leave with a smile. Within an hour after the ceremony was done, the first Art Therapy session was taking place in the new Art Therapy Studio. A week later when I stopped by, there very 19 very happy patients, therapists, and family members creating art and filling the place with energy. As I walked around theoutside I quickly found lots of vegetables and flowers that had been planted by our Horticulture Therapist and her team that patients will help tend to as they work on therapy goals.

Our Chaplains are conducting weekly services in the Spirituality Center, and more than once I have found people in there who were just seeking a quiet space. The Meditation Garden is also seeing its share of visitors who are looking for that same peace and quiet but want to be outdoors. Movie night has been moved to the Three Seasons Therapy Area and that has also become a favorite place for lunch and dinner during non-therapy hours. Each one of the Healing Gardens has its own unique style and, for some reason, our younger visitors seem to really love the water fountain shooting across the Charlie Manuel Healing Garden.

Raised beds allow patients to participate in Horticultural Therapy at wheelchair level

I was also not surprised that Duffy Avenue on the Race Street side seems to be the most popular place for just plain relaxing and hanging out with family and friends. The views of the city through the new glass Walls to the City are spectacular. When you sit up there, you are really able to forget about being in the hospital, even if just for a few minutes.

The newly renovated Segal Street is probably seeing the most therapy sessions, as patients are using the new ramp and curb cut or working with their therapist to learn how to safely get into and out of a car. Yes, you read that right: we really do have a car on the roof!

It took a while to be finished, but I think that everyone on Team Magee is thrilled to have the Creative Therapy Center and Healing Gardens open for our patients and their families, and we all continue to be grateful to the 640 donors whose support helped to bring it to life.

If you’d like to arrange a tour of this great space, please email me at mchilutti@mageerehab.org and it would be my pleasure to host you.

Photo above: Patient Neel Patel and Art Therapist Julie Nolan take their session outdoors, moving Neel’s bed to a garden area where he practiced painting with a mouth stick

 

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