This website seeks to make the case for a therapeutic transformation across planning. Through an examination of if and how planners might begin to integrate therapeutic planning into their practice, my inquiry has found ample opportunity for therapeutic planning throughout the profession. Planning has always had the foundation of a caring profession as it is fundamentally about the public-planner relationship and is committed to the public interest.
When one examines planning history through the lens of care several elements of care emerge. The planner has been an expert for the public on their interests; has been a negotiator between the ideals of the public interest and the constraints of heterogenous society; has been a facilitator of a public discourse for all members of the community; and has been an advocate for the marginalized of society against the systems of power that divide them. Therapeutic planning opens up a new pathway for the profession as a community caregiver. This pathway brings the concept of care back into the foreground of planning rationale and awakens an imagination for healing and transformation.
In the wake of the growing calls for reconciliation, planning can no longer see therapeutic planning as solely a specialized planning tool. Conflict and trauma are fundamental parts of the planning process and carry their histories into every 3planning decision. The therapeutic communication techniques that come with therapeutic planning provide a diverse and flexible toolkit to help planners transform communities. This transformation becomes all the more important as planners can no longer ignore the profession’s dark side. There is a moral obligation for planners to do better when it comes to the emotional experiences and lived stories of the public.
The inquiry at the heart of this site provides fertile ground for further research. On the theoretical side, more thought needs to go into what exactly a theory of care for planning should look like. The caring professions have already spent decades parsing out the dynamics of care and it is time that planning theorists bring the richness of that discourse into the planning context. For planning to move into a community caregiver role, questions are raised around the professions shifting boundaries. How does the therapeutic planner align next to community psychologists, sociologists and social workers? How can planning better communicate with these other professions?
Moving to the applied side of therapeutic planning, more research needs to be done into the best methods of educating planners, both in planning schools and in professional practice. For example, how can therapeutic communication skills be made as accessible as possible? Seeing as therapeutic planning has seen little application outside of the indigenous planning context, more study needs to be done on the effects of a broader application of therapeutic planning. Research trials and case studies across a broad range of planning contexts will be valuable assets in flushing out the true potential of therapeutic planning moving forward.
This website makes the case for a broader application of therapeutic planning. It also provides a rooted set of recommendations for planners to move forward. There is room within the field’s public engagement strategies to begin equipping planners and the public with the concepts and tools of therapeutic planning. However, for these reforms to truly set in they must be supported by planning institutions like planning schools, professional bodies, planning firms and municipal planning departments. The challenge of therapeutic planning is that it calls for a reimagination of the very identity of planning. Whether or not planners can truly become a caring profession and adopt a community caregiver role depends on further research and visionary initiatives like Waterfront Toronto’s compassionate planning. With the legacies of colonization, trauma and conflict, it is difficult for planners to ignore the transformative potential of therapeutic planner.
When one examines planning history through the lens of care several elements of care emerge. The planner has been an expert for the public on their interests; has been a negotiator between the ideals of the public interest and the constraints of heterogenous society; has been a facilitator of a public discourse for all members of the community; and has been an advocate for the marginalized of society against the systems of power that divide them. Therapeutic planning opens up a new pathway for the profession as a community caregiver. This pathway brings the concept of care back into the foreground of planning rationale and awakens an imagination for healing and transformation.
In the wake of the growing calls for reconciliation, planning can no longer see therapeutic planning as solely a specialized planning tool. Conflict and trauma are fundamental parts of the planning process and carry their histories into every 3planning decision. The therapeutic communication techniques that come with therapeutic planning provide a diverse and flexible toolkit to help planners transform communities. This transformation becomes all the more important as planners can no longer ignore the profession’s dark side. There is a moral obligation for planners to do better when it comes to the emotional experiences and lived stories of the public.
The inquiry at the heart of this site provides fertile ground for further research. On the theoretical side, more thought needs to go into what exactly a theory of care for planning should look like. The caring professions have already spent decades parsing out the dynamics of care and it is time that planning theorists bring the richness of that discourse into the planning context. For planning to move into a community caregiver role, questions are raised around the professions shifting boundaries. How does the therapeutic planner align next to community psychologists, sociologists and social workers? How can planning better communicate with these other professions?
Moving to the applied side of therapeutic planning, more research needs to be done into the best methods of educating planners, both in planning schools and in professional practice. For example, how can therapeutic communication skills be made as accessible as possible? Seeing as therapeutic planning has seen little application outside of the indigenous planning context, more study needs to be done on the effects of a broader application of therapeutic planning. Research trials and case studies across a broad range of planning contexts will be valuable assets in flushing out the true potential of therapeutic planning moving forward.
This website makes the case for a broader application of therapeutic planning. It also provides a rooted set of recommendations for planners to move forward. There is room within the field’s public engagement strategies to begin equipping planners and the public with the concepts and tools of therapeutic planning. However, for these reforms to truly set in they must be supported by planning institutions like planning schools, professional bodies, planning firms and municipal planning departments. The challenge of therapeutic planning is that it calls for a reimagination of the very identity of planning. Whether or not planners can truly become a caring profession and adopt a community caregiver role depends on further research and visionary initiatives like Waterfront Toronto’s compassionate planning. With the legacies of colonization, trauma and conflict, it is difficult for planners to ignore the transformative potential of therapeutic planner.