Delray Beach is home to one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens in the United States — the Morikami. RECO Intensive's Morikami excursions are clinician-led contemplative walks through the gardens, designed as somatic mindfulness practice in one of the most settling environments in South Florida.
What the Morikami excursion looks like at RECO Intensive
A small group, a clinician, a 90-minute slow walk through the gardens. Phones away. Conversation kept to a minimum. The walk itself is the practice — noticing the koi, the wind through the bamboo, the stone path, the way attention narrows when the rest of the world is quiet. Afterward, a 30-minute group reflection in a quiet spot on the grounds.
For clients early in recovery whose nervous systems have been on alert for years, the Morikami gardens are a literal physical reset.
What the excursion includes
- Clinician-led 90-minute contemplative walk
- Brief grounding/mindfulness instruction at the start
- Phones away, conversation minimized
- 30-minute structured reflection session afterward
- Optional journaling prompts for back-on-campus work
What clients describe afterward
Most clients describe a quality of attentional rest they haven't felt in months or years. Some clients have profound emotional moments — grief, gratitude, the sudden noticing of how loud their internal world has been. The clinician is present for those moments and the group reflection holds them.
Who benefits most
Clients new to mindfulness practice. Clients with severe anxiety or hypervigilance. Clients in their 30s-50s whose adult lives have been go-go-go and who haven't practiced rest. Trauma-history clients for whom external safety is a precondition to internal safety. Anyone whose recovery includes learning how to be still.
How the Morikami ties to the rest of treatment
The practice connects directly to RECO's Mindfulness and Heart Regulation therapy tracks. Observations from the excursion feed individual therapy. Clients often begin a sustained mindfulness practice after the experience.
Why the RECO approach is different
Many programs talk about mindfulness; we take clients to one of the most mindfulness-conducive environments in South Florida and let the place do part of the work. It is one of the most-requested experiential modalities clients ask to repeat.