Horticultural Therapist at Stanford Hall

I qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1992 at St Loye’s School of Occupational Therapy, Exeter and have since had a varied career as an Occupational Therapist in the health service. During my early career I worked in adult mental health services and have more recently worked in the community with adults with long term conditions.

I come from a family of gardeners which sparked my interest in horticulture and my passion for gardening has continued to grow. Keen to develop my knowledge I completed a City & Guilds in Horticulture at evening class and worked as a garden volunteer at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. I enrolled on the Work and Re-train as a Gardener Scheme with the Women’s Farm and Garden Association completing a placement at Norwell Nurseries and Gardens. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and found the advice and guidance provided by Dr Andrew Ward
and the other staff invaluable in giving me the confidence to start my own gardening business.

Last year I completed an RHS Level 2 Theory & Principles of Horticulture to consolidate and further develop my horticultural knowledge as well as meeting like-minded individuals with a similar passion for horticulture.

The benefits of horticulture are far and wide-ranging and I believe can be really helpful to people of all ages to improve mental and physical health. Having personal experience of the benefits of horticulture and a love of the subject I welcome the opportunity to use what I have learned to guide others in the process of discovering the benefits for themselves.