Therapeutic cultural environments
An indigenous epistemological expansion of the therapeutic landscapes concept
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24238144 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bruno Marques (0000-0002-4761-8225), Jacqueline Mcintosh (0000-0001-7896-5089) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 102 |
| Pages | 103758 |
| Publication date | 2026-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health & Place (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1353-8292 • E-ISSN: 1873-2054 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.healthplace.2026.103758 |
| OpenAlex | W7223127776 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
Background Since Gesler's foundational 1992 paper, the therapeutic landscapes concept has generated a rich and productive research programme examining how place supports healing and well-being. However, the field has developed primarily within Western, post-Enlightenment epistemological traditions, raising serious questions about its capacity to explain, or meaningfully support, the health of the world's 476 million Indigenous people. Aim This paper critically examines the epistemological foundations of the therapeutic landscapes concept, identifies its culturally specific assumptions, and proposes an integrative framework, Therapeutic Cultural Environments (TCE), drawing on Indigenous health philosophies to expand and reorient the field. Approach Drawing on a critical conceptual synthesis of the therapeutic landscapes literature alongside Indigenous health epistemologies from Māori (Aotearoa New Zealand), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Australia), and First Nations (Canada) traditions, we map the foundational divergences between Western and Indigenous frameworks along three axes: the ontology of place, the definition of health, and the understanding of therapeutic process, and examine how colonisation operationalised the dispossession of therapeutic landscapes, connecting the concept directly to resulting health disparities. Findings Indigenous frameworks challenge three foundational assumptions of the therapeutic landscapes concept: that ‘place’ is a spatial container for health processes; that healing is fundamentally an individual and physiological recovery; and that the relationship between person and landscape is contingent rather than constitutive. We propose the TCE framework as an integrative response, expanding the ontology of place from spatial setting to relational co-constitution, the definition of health to include identity, belonging, and intergenerational continuity, and the understanding of therapeutic process from individual to communal and ancestral. Conclusion The therapeutic landscapes concept requires not merely diversification but epistemological expansion; the TCE framework offers a theoretically grounded path toward a more inclusive, epistemologically extended landscape-health paradigm.
Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Urban Green Space and Health
Beyond Components of Wellbeing
Being Well Together
From trauma to resilience
Indigenous Perspectives on Ecosystem Sustainability and Health
Placing Well-Being
Beyond Recovery
From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices
The challenge of urban Maori
Networks, resources and agencies
Therapeutic landscapes and First Nations peoples
Medical geography
Mattering at the Intersection of Psychology, Philosophy, and Politics
Indigenous Health and Climate Change
Bringing nature back into cities
Landscape, care and the relational self
Politics, economics, how about our health? Impacts of large-scale land acquisitions on therapeutic spaces and wellbeing in coastal Tanzania
When "health" is not enough
Climate change influences on environment as a determinant of Indigenous health
Aboriginal urbanization and rights in Canada
Therapeutic landscapes
Nunamii'luni quvianaqtuq (It is a happy moment to be on the land)
Therapeutic landscapes of traditional healing
Therapeutic landscapes and non-human animals
| Highly cited | No |
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