The Healing Island: a holistic rehabilitative journey grounded in the desensitisation of trauma through eye movement
The 'islands' of memory caused by trauma in the aftermath of war and its impact on refugees informed a research question on:
'how Pomona Island, Manchester, can offer a strategy of rehabilitation from trauma that responds to the conditions endured by refugees between departure from home country and arrival in host country?'
This project proposes a linear journey of meditative walking through a series of interventions that induce the sense of a completed journey. Fusing the 'psychological, social and physical aims of holistic treatment' with the desensitising effects of eye movement, interventions will incorporate the 8 stages of 'Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing' [EMDR] therapy. Interventions include; visitor centre, contemplation lanes, reflection gardens, eye movement lanes and meditation pavilion.
