Prior to working at The Therapy Garden (TTG), Katrina worked as a tutor on the Horticulture Study Programme with Waverly Council. Despite her long career in horticulture, Katrina had not experienced Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (STH) before and was introduced to it and The Therapy Garden while accompanying a learner on their work experience.
“I'd never heard of STH before. One of my learner’s needs required me to support him during his work experience which I really enjoyed. The Therapy Garden happened to need a qualified assessor. The timing was right and here I am now,” said Katrina.
Having no previous qualifications in STH, Katrina wanted to formalise her knowledge and learning, but the cost of high level courses made them unattainable on her own or with support from the small charity that she works for. The bursary has enabled Katrina to continue her professional development.
“I could never have done the Diploma without the bursary. I'm a single person with a mortgage, working two jobs. There's no way I've got spare money to pay for a course like this. As it’s a blended course I can study in my own time, which is brilliant. It's really helped me and I’m so grateful, I wouldn't be here otherwise.”
With a smile Katrina told us that she is “really enjoying the course. The tutors are supportive and inclusive and the other people on the course are accepting and kind. It's lovely environment to learn in. The pace of the course is just right, and the information is nicely put across. It's interesting to see horticulture from an STH perspective and I'm enjoying learning the models and theories as well as about the occupational therapy side of it. I've not done that before and it’s exciting. I'm looking forward to delving into this more in my second year and understanding more about formalising session planning and outcomes.”
Going forward Katrina would like to use her learning to support service users at TTG. She is already putting her learning into practice to good effect and knows just how impactful these improvements are on the wellbeing and support of the clients at TTG.
Katrina manages the undercover areas and growing at TTG. This area is her favourite place to work with clients.
“We're always looking to better our practice and programmes and there’s a lot that I could build into my work like the outcomes measurements and formalised personal development plans. Having this knowledge, will really help us be able to personalise people’s journeys and to formally plan, review and measure their goals and outcomes following a professional graded process.”
In the long term, Katrina’s goal is to have her own horticultural therapy garden or practice, and to teach STH to practitioners.