Kenneth Balfelt developed a therapy and anti-stress garden at Halden Prison together with the inmates during 2010-2014.
Through conversations with about 50 inmates ranging from 10-15 minutes to 6 hours and over several sessions, the inmates at Halden Prison have expressed a desire to work on self-development under the heading of ‘motivation, self-esteem and self-determination’, and there has been a strong desire for activities that can create a different mental space, such as yoga, meditation and inner journeys.
These two desires can be combined in a therapy garden. A therapy garden is a tried and tested and scientifically proven method of creating development for people who are in crisis, burnt out, anxious or suffering from stress.
The idea of the project is to create a ‘life development garden project’. This means using the garden in interaction with self-development methods for development.
The idea comes from the anti-stress garden concept, where people suffering from stress come to a therapy garden and work with themselves. Here, the interaction between therapy, relaxation, presence, mindfulness and working in the garden is combined into one programme. We want to replace the work on stress with work on self-development under the above themes. Hence a ‘life development garden’.
I also wanted to work on letting the inmates help to physically characterise the prison. In a prison, everything is predetermined and regulated down to the last detail - both the physical environment and behaviour. It was therefore interesting to create an expressive free space where inmates could characterise this environment, leave their fingerprints and watch the plant life grow.
‘Halden is the worst place in Norway, I still suffer from anxiety after my time there, but I remember the sensory garden as the only free space. That's the sanctuary I also experience here on Bastøy’
Quote from 2019 from former inmate in Halden Prison
