En Psychiatrie de l’adulte, le Jardin de soins apparaît aujourd’hui comme une médiation innovante à visée thérapeutique susceptible de participer au rétablissement des patients hospitalisés. L’effet thérapeutique répondrait de plusieurs mécanismes liés, en rapport avec notre relation fondamentale à l’environnement naturel et à des effets sociorelationnels favorisés par un support non intrusif de faible complexité. Les travaux à caractère scientifique ont débuté en psychiatrie dans les troubles réactionnels. Nous voulons conforter les impressions cliniques accumulées en pratique de soins chez l’adulte hospitalisé souffrant d’une pathologie sévère, à travers une étude pilote de type qualitatif utilisant l’analyse de récit. Chez un petit groupe de patients, l’expérience vécue au Jardin de soins est enregistrée au cours d’un entretien semi-dirigé. La recherche porte sur l’identification des thèmes récurrents participant à la synthèse des éléments centraux des expériences décrites. Nous avons commencé l’investigation chez sept patients. Les premières données de l’observation qualitative confortent l’hypothèse d’un dispositif de soins susceptible de soutenir le rétablissement des patients hospitalisés pour des troubles sévères. Le bénéfice porte sur une réduction de la perception des symptômes de la maladie, l’impression de « reprendre pied » avec la réalité, l’intérêt d’une relation soignant–soigné différemment perçue, l’avantage d’une reprise du pouvoir d’agir et la reconnaissance de l’importance du soutien d’autrui, les patients regagnant la « vitalité » du contact avec la réalité. Cette construction d’un sens par la méthode qualitative conforte l’intérêt thérapeutique du Jardin de soins et propose de nouvelles dimensions pertinentes pour la recherche.

In Adult Psychiatry, the Healing Garden seems today an innovative therapeutic mediation aimed likely take part in the recovery of severe patients. The therapeutic effect would depend on several bound mechanisms, in keeping with our fundamental relation with the natural environment and socio-relational purposes supported by a nonintrusive support of low complexity. Formal scientific clinical studies began in psychiatry in reactive disorders. We want to consolidate the clinical impressions accumulated in practice care in the suffering hospitalized adult of a severe pathology, through a pilot study of a qualitative type using the content analysis of interviews in a short form. The method consists of exploring elements of their comments through a feedback of personal experiences within a small group of patients to identify recurring and shared issues. Then, a structural synthesis of central elements of described experience aims at understanding the patient unique experience meanwhile and perceive the meaning for them. We began the investigation with 7 patients. The clinical evaluation was based on a semi structured interview lasting 20–30minutes with the help of an interview guide collecting experience. The personal experience of the patient once re-written has been analyzed. The first step of qualitative data confirms the assumption of a device of care supporting the process of recovery, the benefit in a reduction of perception of symptoms of the disease, the impression to get back on their feet, the interest of a differently perceived relation with caregivers, the advantage of a resumption of the power to act, and the recognition of the importance of the support from others. Therefore patients state a re-start of their physical or psychic energy. It can be understood with the support of the group as well as the direct effects of the vegetal, or more, with discovering new possibilities to enable them to rebound back into daily life. Then, they can describe that whenever the caregiver goes to the same level as the patient in charge, and that he agrees to be taught and surprised by what the other knows, he restores on a making-together method a failing self-esteem. This feeling of self-efficiency, highlighted by human interaction with a newly renamed caregiver, enables people to get past feeling stigmatized even if this feeling is unfortunately deeply buried in the person. If the feeling of worthlessness and impossibility to change give way to a slightest action, a dynamic settles down. It enables the patient to get aware that it can act and influence on its environment, like the others. As a result, the feeling of inadequacy decreases and even the slightest result enable to recover self-confidence thanks to a positive environment. It doesn’t take much for them to realize they can act and widen their experience to other areas of their lives. The feeling of the ability to act by themselves comes back. Finally the relationship with others seems a key element in the Healing Garden. It can be shared between peers, between caregivers and patients, between the relationships of these people with the rest of society. The matter is the acceptance of its own abilities even if they are diminished. This perspective cannot be separated from the above mentioned elements: The achievement is team work and overtake individual boundaries. It allows the patient. It is the feedback of society over creation and work performed. The feeling of self-efficiency created by the pride they can feel is reward and may lead to other achievement. To conclude, we propose to consider the thematic emergence of the experience of the concept of vitality as spring action in the real in front of others as echo in a psychopathologic tradition dedicated to the existential comprehension of disorders. The implementation of a healing garden in the psychiatric fields comes as a response of our survey and sustains the patients differently. The originality is in that patients acquire resources from the environment, in a dynamic recovery. So we suggest offering this mediation as soon as possible to curb the spread of their illness. We would like to see this pilot survey taking part in structuring relevant dimensions and new researches.