On Wednesday Byron, Nicola and I went for a visit to Lothlorien Therapeutic Community. Lesley, Outreach Coordinator at Lothlorien introduced us to two of the staff before showing us about the grounds, with the assistance of Skye the collie.
Lesley showed us the part of the woodlands where the residents and visitors can take mindfulness walks and sometimes, they use tarpaulins to make shelters and undertake some workshops there also.
Lesley spoke of the plans they have for making the walkways more accessible so that more people with different abilities can use the outbuildings, meditation hut and enjoy the pond, which she is hoping in the future, service users, residents and visitors can all walk right around the pond to take in the scenery and admire the different wildlife, making Lothlorien even more inclusive.
From there, Lesley showed us the wood shop, where bat and bird boxes are made, all from the wood on their grounds. They also take part in willow weaving which can be seen through the gardens on their bean stalks etc.
At Lothlorien they grow an extensive array of fruit and vegetables, which visitors can learn how to plant and harvest through the spring and summer months. The nectarine was delicious!
We chatted about how DGMHA and Lothlorien can work together to improve the lives of the people we support.
We felt the service users within DGMHA would benefit from using Lothlorien, for their Nature Based Day workshops.
We hope to make these visits to Lothlorien a regular occurrence with our service users, as we feel the life skills they would learn or reignite would benefit their mental wellbeing.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Lothlorien!
Emma Telfer - Deputy Team Leader, Castle Douglas
16/07/2025