Smelling therapeutic landscapes: Embodied encounters within spaces of care farming

Abstract

The conceptual framework of ‘therapeutic landscapes’ has been used as a means of considering the significance of specific environments, spaces, and places for aspects of health. Building on a growing attention to the sensory elements of spaces of health and wellbeing, this article mobilises empirical research on ‘care farming’ practices to discuss how smellscapes come to be crucial in fulfilling anticipations, imaginations, and expectations of a ‘therapeutic space’. This article highlights how embodied relationships with specific scents can constitute a therapeutic encounter with place, actively influencing practices and engagement with(in) place, and the ways by which place can have a meaningful affect on health.