John Mckeon and I had the pleasure of visiting Gould Farm in June this year. We participated in the work programs, shared meals with guests, toured the houses, explored the amazing woodland, and spent hours chatting with guests and staff. All of this was part of our journey towards opening Kyrie Farm, a therapeutic farm in Kildare, Ireland.
Since 2021, we have established a charity, bought a 57 acre farm, transformed it into an organic horticulture farm, and received planning permission to build the accommodations and community buildings for up to 40 guests. While there will be some differences, we are modelling a great deal of our project on what Gould Farm has developed and achieved over more than 100 years.
I had read a lot about Gould Farm, and therapeutic farms in general, before our visit. But of course the distance between intellectual understanding and experiencing is, of course, significant. It became abundantly clear that meaningful community participation was of considerable importance in helping people recover from mental health challenges, and having the chance to experience this was deeply convincing.
I knew that a therapeutic community was in and of itself a healing space, that being surrounded by nature and engaging in working outdoors, helps people along their healing journeys…but I didn’t know what that really felt like.
Now, albeit after a brief visit, I am further convinced. More importantly we are reassured that
as we work towards opening Kyrie Farm, we are on the right track.
The prominent role of peers and volunteers was humbling and reminding of the common ingredients of our shared humanity that provide the foundation for all support and healing. As a mental health professional this was a reminder of our place in the context of a truly recovery oriented system, where peers and volunteers are at the heart of the most valuable and prominent aspects of service delivery, with professionals providing an important but by no means exclusively valuable role in this system. The thread of common humanity is what weaves everything together.
Gould Farm’s incredible ecological home was also a stark reminder of the profound value of nature. As we deepen a connection to the natural world, as we participate in healing and restoring nature, we heal ourselves. It seems so simple, and so obvious, and yet, we have drifted from this in our societies, and no less so in mental health services. When we create a setting that embraces the natural world, a therapeutic community setting, and a rights based person centred, recovery oriented philosophy, this provides a context within which recovery and healing can occur.
It is deeply reassuring to be reminded that nature happens to us, community happens to us, the respect and appreciation of others happen to us.
If you create the environment it provides a context within which healing and recovery can occur. We don’t do recovery to people, recovery comes from within the person, in a context that facilitates it.
In mental health services when we begin working, we have almost no say in the type of physical environment we work in (the buildings are already built, their location and style chosen) or the social environment we work in (the culture is usually already set, and is typically a medicalised one, within clinics and hospitals). With Kyrie Farm we have a chance to build from the ground up, a setting that embodies healing, and recovery oriented thinking, in everything from the natural setting, the buildings and the social environment as well as the mental health service culture we choose to bring to life. Gould Farm has provided us with a wonderful template to guide us in our journey. A huge thank you to Lisanne and all of the staff and guests who were so welcoming to us during our stay. We feel grateful to have had this opportunity to learn about Gould Farm and look forward to sharing our progress on Kyrie Farm. All I have to do now is find a way to get over my deep sense of pond and woodland envy!
Special thanks to Dr. Eoin Galavan, D.Clin.Psych., C.Clin.Psychol. PsSI, A.F.Ps.S.I., Clinical Director of Kyrie Farm for sharing his reflection and photos so that we might share it with you.
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