Prominent psychiatrist and avid gardener Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith will be at the Ebell of Los Angeles on Monday, March 13 in partnership with the The Garden Conservancy for a conversation on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith, and she will be speaking about her book, The Well-Gardened Mind, and how psychology, mental health, and the natural world are interconnected.
The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the “real” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth, we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Drawing on her grandfather’s return from World War I, Sigmund Freud’s obsession with flowers, and interviews with people from gardening projects in prisons, hospitals, and in the community, Dr. Stuart-Smith will discuss how gardening can answer to deep existential needs and present findings from recent research showing how connecting to nature can alleviate anxiety, stress, and depression.
Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith, a prominent British psychiatrist and psychotherapist, graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in literature before going on to train as a doctor. She worked in the National Health Service for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. She currently teaches at The Tavistock Clinic in London and works for DocHealth, a not-for-profit service that helps doctors suffering from stress and burnout. She is married to Tom Stuart-Smith, the celebrated garden designer, and, over thirty years together, they have created the wonderful Barn Garden in Hertfordshire, UK. Her book, The Well-Gardened Mind, was published in 2020 and became a Sunday Times bestseller and a Times and Sunday Times book of the year. It has since been translated into seventeen languages.
Click here for tickets and registration
$45 for Members of The Ebell and The Garden Conservancy
$55 for General Admission
A wine reception following the talk is included with admission
