CARE FARMING

Care farming, also known as social farming, is a therapeutic intervention that uses farming activities such as clearing land, sowing seeds, cleaning stables, and brushing animals as a form of therapy that promotes health and well-being and fosters a sense of resilience and belonging. By participating in basic farm tasks and animal care in a natural setting, people often find that they can connect more deeply with themselves and each other.

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The act of engaging in meaningful farm work, experiencing the natural environment, and achieving tangible results can be deeply therapeutic as it increases somatic awareness and fosters a deeper mind-body connection. Care farming has been used to treat many issues, from depression to anxiety, PTSD to substance abuse, and heart disease to chronic pain. It has been shown to reduce stress, enhance energy, and promote mental clarity. 

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​Our sanctuary founder has almost three decades of experience guiding and supporting therapeutic, restorative, and transformative experiences to individuals and groups within a deep ecology of care. She is passionate about sharing the benefits of care farming as a generative path to healing through natural reciprocity. To learn more about our individual and/or group care farming sessions, or our care farming days, please contact us.​

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​The Farm offers animal-assisted and horticultural therapeutic activities that provide a haven for children, animals, and plants to interact, bond, learn, and heal. The farm serves a variety of social service agencies that bring groups of children to the farm weekly for hour-long sessions.

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At Cultivate Care Farms, Farm-Based Therapy is used as a model for engaging clients in a partnership with their clinicians. Therapy sessions involve activities that promote health and wellness for the client, the animals, and the farm. In Farm-Based Therapy, the client is in an authentic position to solve problems, demonstrate empathy, and develop strengths. Through physical work and connection with the animals, clients gain insight into their own abilities for positive change within themselves and in relationships with others.

Farm-Based Therapy is hands-on for all clients—no experience necessary! Clients are making, building, fixing, and caring for over 60 livestock animals at our farm. Unlike Animal-Assisted Therapy, Farm-Based Therapy is focused on maintaining a sustainable environment through the use of the land and animals.

This can include: growing and harvesting grain to feed the animals; shearing and knitting the fleece of an alpaca to make a stocking cap; or growing herbs and milking the goats in order to make lavender soap.

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​Ecotherapy, also known as Nature Therapy or Green Therapy, is the applied practice of the emerging field of ecopsychology, a concept first coined by Theodore Roszak in the 1990s. This therapeutic modality proves to be an effective approach of treatment for physical, mental and emotional health. At its core, Ecotherapy recognizes that humans have become increasingly isolated from nature, a contributing factor to the increase of various disorders and illnesses. Evidenced-based research has thus far supported the belief that as we renew our connection and involvement with natural environments, symptoms of mental illness are often reduced or sometimes eliminated, and a general sense of well-being is increased.

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​https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/01/06/happiest-jobs-on-earth/