While therapeutic planning is rooted in the tradition of communicative planning, it pushes the profession further by bringing reconciliation, conflict and trauma to the forefront of the planning process and making an ethical claim for planning as the public’s arbiter of community change. This section builds the case for a broader application of therapeutic planning. It highlights how therapeutic planning presents an opportunity for planners to overcome some of the challenges of the planner-public relationship. Therapeutic planning frames community healing and transformation as a central objective for planners and gives them the tools and language to address such challenges as irrational/emotional responses and stakeholder conflict.
There is an also an ethical responsibility for planners to become more therapeutic. Planners have a role to play in many of the challenges of community decision making. These challenges are further exacerbated by planning’s contributions to colonization and to the public’s experience of trauma and conflict. If planners are serious about caring for the community, they need to transcend the roles of expert, negotiator, facilitator and advocate. It is time for planners to see themselves as community caregivers with the responsibility and ability to foster community healing and transformation.
There is an also an ethical responsibility for planners to become more therapeutic. Planners have a role to play in many of the challenges of community decision making. These challenges are further exacerbated by planning’s contributions to colonization and to the public’s experience of trauma and conflict. If planners are serious about caring for the community, they need to transcend the roles of expert, negotiator, facilitator and advocate. It is time for planners to see themselves as community caregivers with the responsibility and ability to foster community healing and transformation.