A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalize Your Spirit was the winner in the Home & Garden category of the 2022 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Erik Keller.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalize Your Spirit, March 23, 2022
What’s the book’s first line?
At the entrance of a drab, red-bricked building hidden in the woods, I push the buzzer on the intercom, identifying myself and the person I am there to see.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The Zen of mixing mud with seniors; crafting surprising salads out of weeds; and a hidden rabbit bringing joy to girls in a juvenile detention center. These are a few of the nearly 100 stories that Erik Keller takes readers on in A Therapist’s Garden through a journey of how interacting with plants and nature can help heal mental, emotional, and physical trauma.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
When I was receiving my certification in horticultural therapy, I started a blog about my experiences. Ten years later, I discovered that I had many wonderful and interesting experiences and stories to share.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
There is no single main character (except me) but rather a cross section of clients all in need of therapy to overcome some trauma or personal challenge.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
As Joan Baum of NPR said/wrote in her review of A Therapist’s Garden “. . .a guide full of plant lore and love that should appeal to anyone, at any level of learning anything.”