By Oteka Macklin
He survived early life in the segregated South during the Jim Crowe era and combat duty in the Korean War. This 76 year old service-connected veteran was no stranger to tragedy and, after several weeks of sessions, he courageously shared his memoirs with me. He talked about everything from being the son of a sharecropper and working as a child to help support his family in Jonesboro, AR, to receiving gunshot wounds by enemy fire and sleeping outdoors during the freezing winter with nothing more than a sleeping bag as shelter. Throughout his life journey, he had suffered injuries, battled substance addiction, developed mental disorders, and experienced age-related changes. Each of these limitations, in addition to his age, proved to be barriers to employment after discharge from the U.S. Army.
A member of the Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) program at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Healthcare System, this client received time-limited vocational rehabilitative services in an environment structured to address the unique biopsychosocial needs of veterans while teaching job skills and providing supportive services needed to improve vocational outcomes. His primary role as a CWT worker was to plant and harvest vegetables that were sold at the weekly farmers' market. Our sessions typically consisted of us exploring thoughts, ideas, and concerns he had as he enthusiastically turned soil, planted seeds, watered plants, and harvested the produce in which he had invested months of nurturing.
I found this unconventional yet creative therapeutic setting to be conducive to the exploratory process as well as the strengths-building process. He was a highly-skilled gardener who discussed feeling confident, competent, and triumphant whenever he was doing what he knew best: growing food. During our sessions, he worked in the soil while exploring aspects of his life that he described being satisfied and dissatisfied with. He expressed feelings of hurt over the emotional and physical trauma he had endured; however, he also explained that he found resolve through working in the earth. Out of my own curiosity about the wonders of horticulture, I would periodically inquire about things like optimal times to harvest certain vegetables or techniques he used to increase the vitality of soil.
This enriched the rapport-building process and helped to establish the “client as the expert” theory. I found that allowing him the opportunity to demonstrate his knowledge and enthusiasm in his vocational area of expertise inspired him to see himself as the valuable asset that he was to employers, and thus, hirable. During our sessions, my client was relaxed, conversational, and unguarded, which enhanced the therapeutic process. He described gardening as being “the closest thing to God” and as an activity that brought him inner-peace that he had not found elsewhere. For him, gardening was a creative process. By holding sessions while he was gardening, I was able to tap into his creativity while establishing rapport with him and obtaining information that would help me address his psychosocial needs.
Oteka Macklin is a recent MSW graduate of the School of Social Work, California State University, Los Angeles. She has completed fieldwork at Single Room Occupancy Housing Corporation, the Theresa Lindsey Senior Multipurpose Center, and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Healthcare Administration where she provided direct case management and clinical services to older adults. She is currently a Social Worker at Adult Protective Services, Los Angeles County Department of Community, and Senior Services and aspires to pursue a doctorate in social work.