Matthew Wichrowski is a Senior Horticultural Therapist and Clinical Assistant Professor at Rusk. His primary responsibility at the Medical Center is as a clinician where he provides horticultural therapy services to patients in a cardiac/medically complex unit, a psychiatry unit, and an Epilepsy unit. His research interests center around the effects of nature on human health and wellness. He has completed performance improvement projects assessing the benefits that patients perceived as a result of participating in horticultural therapy sessions, as an inpatient, and then post discharge. His study assessing the effects of horticultural therapy on mood and heart rate in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation patients was published in the Journal of Cardiac Rehabilitation. He also has been involved with environmental improvement projects. He has been teaching in the Horticultural Therapy Certificate Program at New York Botanical Garden for 20 years and is Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture. His bachelor’s degree is from SUNY Stony Brook and he has a master’s degree in social work from that institution.
