About RBT

About Rutland Bonsai and it’s owner.

The founder and Owner of Rutland Bonsai Therapy is Simon.

About the Owner.

Over 3 years experience working with Vulnerable adults with:

  • Autism.
  • Challenging behaviours.
  • Learning or Physical Disabilities.

Personal experience and knowledge of:

  • Agoraphobia.
  • Anxiety management.
  • Anxiety Adjustment Disorder.
  • Panic Attacks.
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
  • Stress Induced Fugues.

DBS checked and Checkable with Personal Liability Insurance.
Full Clean Driving Licence & Business Insurance.

Hourly sessions available – Home Visits by arrangement.

 

Management and Skills in the Workplace.

He spent over 3 years working in Rutland as a Care Officer and Senior Care Officer for a local Registered Charity and Trust working to support Vulnerable Adults in a Supported Living environment.

Supporting Adults who present Challenging Behaviour and have a Learning or Physical Disability.

This involved supporting people in their day-to-day lives, from morning through till night-time to live their lives to the full and achieve their potential.  Supporting people with everything that happens in your daily life, from personal care, to ensuring health and social appointments are made, through to cooking and ensuring medication were supported; as well as going on Holiday and Day trips and the other fun things in life with Service Users.

Personal development, Life Skill assistance and support when needed is what he was trained to do.

This experience and the comprehensive and extensive training required to work as a Carer translated well after he decided to combine 2 of the main passions in his life (Care giving and Gardening) and he decided to venture out on his own to create Rutland Bonsai Therapy.

Simon also has a Military background as he served in the British Armed Forces in the Army as a Frontline Infantry Soldier.

Serving in Cyprus & Northern Ireland as a Peacekeeper and an ambassador for the Army as part of his Battalions Regimental Recruiting Team and also working in the Tri Service Recruiting Offices helping potential Soldiers learn about the Military life to ensure it was for them.  While also helping to select those potential recruits who visited his unit or the Recruiting offices for fast tracking as they displayed the qualities sought after by the Armed Forces.

What skills and training does the owner have?

City & Guilds Diploma in Health and Social Care (Adult Learning Disabilities path.)
IOSH certification in Risk Assessment.

Other training packages taken in the last 3 years:

  • Common Induction Standards (Care).
  • Fire Safety & Awareness.
  • General Principles of Health & Safety.
  • Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults.
  • Person Centred Planning.
  • Non Violent Crisis Intervention (CPI).
  • Basic Emergency Aid.
  • Epilepsy Awareness.
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
  • Caring for People with Dementia.
  • Moving and Handling.
  • Foundation in Adults with Learning Disabilities.
  • Visual Impairment Training.

Team leader experience from being a Senior Care Officer.

 

Gardening & Horticulture.

Keen/Avid Gardener (Personally) Since 2012.

Previous Experience from Working as a Groundsman for Large Corporation on a Military Camp.

Previous Experience from Working as a Premises Officer for a Teaching Academy.

Has 4 Private Allotments.

Extensive Bonsai Tree Species Collection.

Self Employed Gardener and Gardening Services – Owner/Operator.

 

Hobbies and Previous Interests that may be in line with yours?

Bonsai trees & Gardening, Cycling (Road and Mountain Bike), Abseiling, Sailing, Canoeing, Offshore sailing, Surfing, Swimming, Arcade/Console/PC Gaming, Fast roping, Bungee jumping, Creative writing, Reading, Films & Music.


Personal thoughts, philosophy and Company ethos.

Rutland Bonsai Therapy firmly believe that Clients and their support workers need to have chemistry for anything beneficial to come from working together, one of the initial ways of forming this bond and working towards a synergy or symbiotic relationship is by having common ground and mutual interests to build a foundation.  Once that is established nature will take its course and good things usually come from that foundation.

A positive “can do attitude” and a good sense of humour is my core strength.  With a firm belief that something considered impossible is simply because the right approach to do it has not been voiced yet.  Someone knows how to do it and with the help of someone willing to try it; it’s just a puzzle waiting for someone to solve it.

I like puzzles, I also like “Out of the box thinking” or “Blue sky thinking”.

Coming at a puzzle or problem from a different angle is often all that is required to break or solve the puzzle.  Alan Turing didn’t crack the Enigma code by doing what everyone else had tried already, he came at the problem from a unique angle, and even though he met a lot of resistance to his ideas, eventually he broke the code; there is a big lesson in life to be gained from that.  In my personal opinion that is…

I’ve worked with Clients that present very Challenging behaviour on a day-to-day basis, my aim each day was to support them and give as much as I had to offer to enable them to do the things they wanted to do or needed to do.  Choice and Inclusion is something I firmly believe in, making things happen to enable that is part of who I am.

The initial seed of my business venture is to create a day opportunity to allow inclusion and offer therapy, from that seed I wish to offer an increasing range of activities and support people to gain life experience and learn life skills they may not currently have or is not yet available in Rutland.

Offering a choice of trying something different and hopefully unique, because of my life experiences and the trials and tribulations I have gone through I feel I have something different to offer and it is unique.


 

Why Horticultural Therapy?

With no formal Training in Horticultural Therapy I am only applying the Therapy I gained through spending time Learning Basic Horticulture.

I’ve started to repair my body and am now training to repair other parts of myself.

They Physical Demands of Gardening and Working in Horticulture are rigorous.

 

I tried Sports to get back into shape, and then had a Sporting Accident.  That cost me the use of an Arm for 6 Months and is something I am still rebuilding.

This left me again out of Shape and Condition.

Added to the Scar tally by a few also.

 

This is to explain the Scar on my Arm I often get asked about.

I suffered an inadvertent coming to a stand still; when I had a Mountain Bike Crash with a Traffic Island Bollard @ Approx 24 mph.

 

It took a Bone Graft from my Hip and a Metal Bar inside my Left Arm to rebuild the Humerus Bone over time.  That was after 6 weeks or so Without the Use of my Upper Arm and a Left Hand in a sling with protruding Metal Work holding it together.

Repetition and dead weight handling while Gardening and Doing DIY Home Landscaping Projects helped me build or work Muscles in my Left Arm more than Physio or Sports after the Accident ever did.  It’s Physical Therapy on a Personal level.

Planting and building things makes you feel better, gets you out in the Sun, Wind and Rain.

Watching Nature Take Her turn with the Seasons encourages you to look forward and only reflect back if you want.  There is where the Mental Therapy starts for me.

So I decided to try to Combine the Physical Recovery Elements along with the Physical.  As much as for the ranging abilities or needs to encourage inclusion as much as possible.

 

While I build my Own therapy Garden and rebuild myself in the process, I am cultivating Stock for a Public one eventually.  Learning more as I go and need.  Hoping to Pass On what I have Learned, Teach what I have been Taught, share what I know.

 

Share and Spread the Pool of Knowledge.

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