GroHappy is a web site that uses the concepts of horticultural therapy to bring joy and happiness to people though interacting with plants and nature.

GroHappy has three main principles:

1) Happy people are more important than perfect plants.

2) All gardening/nature activities should be joyful.

3) There are no failures in the garden.

Over the last 20 years, I have worked with over 1,000 people of all ages and types using horticulture and therapeutic techniques to help them deal with physical, cognitive, social and emotional challenges. Venues have ranged from special-needs schools, to prisons, to nursing homes to my mother’s backyard. Certifications from the University of Connecticut as a Master Gardener in 2000 and the New York Botanical Garden in Horticultural Therapy in 2009 have given me a base of knowledge from which I have been able to help my clients. I am also a member of the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the Northeast Horticultural Therapy Association as well as the Connecticut Master Gardener Association.

For over a decade, I have been running a twice-monthly horticultural therapy program at Ann’s Place, a not-for-profit facility helping those with cancer located in Danbury, CT. I also manage and take care of the grounds, which I designed over a decade ago to accommodate our clients. I am also a Commissioner on the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, which manages and maintains over 5,800 acres of open space in Ridgefield, CT. In the past, I have run horticultural therapy programs at senior living and nursing facilities as well as run programs at Green Chimneys, a school for special-needs children in Brewster, N.Y.

These experiences have been captured in my soon-to-be-released book, A Therapist’s Garden. It helps readers learn how opening their senses to plants can heal their psyche and nourish their soul.

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 within the pages of A Therapist’s Garden that takes readers on a journey of how interacting with plants and nature can help heal mental, emotional, and physical trauma. Through the lens of January to December in a New England landscape, discover how horticultural therapy improves the lives of those in pain including special-needs children, cancer patients, and disabled seniors.

A Therapist’s Garden is unique in portraying how gardening, nature-based arts, plants and horticulture can revitalize the spirit of people. It encompasses over 20 years of experiences seeing the healing power of horticultural therapy. Its themes and subject material are universal in interest as different portions of this book apply to nearly anyone who likes plants or to garden, both booming activities today, as well as therapists who will find the approach interesting and of use to their client bases.