The Topsoil Garden operates a seasonal program with four intakes per year. Designed to bring change to the lives of South Australians experiencing marginalisation, disability and/or mental ill-health. We are dedicated to creating transformative, nature-based and therapeutic experiences, where individuals can receive compassionate care and engage with a supportive community through the joy of connection to nature.

What sets us apart:

Quality Support: We provide high-quality, naturalistic, and non-judgmental support work, mentorship, allied health assistance as well as psychological services that encourage collaborative and collective participation within groups and the community.

Experiential Therapy: Through our experiential, horticultural therapy programs, participants develop essential skills and capabilities that enhance their self-reliance, resilience, and overall personal well-being. Our programs integrate with the community, building real-world support networks that have a shared language of self-betterment and genuine care.

Personal Agency: Our aim is for participants to gain a sense of personal agency in their care journey, empowering them to take an active role in their own wellbeing and fostering a sustained connection with their community.

Holistic & Human Approach: We firmly believe in the profound therapeutic benefits that come from connecting with nature. Our aim is to innovate and embrace more humanistic approaches to providing care, with your needs and preferences at the heart of what we do. We're dedicated to creating new ways of accessing and delivering support, in partnership with you.

Passionate Experts: Our team is composed of dedicated support workers, health practitioners, and gardening experts, all driven by a shared commitment to foster connected and flourishing communities.

Seasonal Program: Our programs are seasonal in the truest sense of the word. There is always a beginning and an end. Many participants of the healthcare system report feeling trapped in a never-ending loop. Our aim is to empower participants to take breaks, and seek change, not foster ‘stuckness’. Participants can be onboarded during any one of our four seasonal intakes. Each program engenders change through its capacity to reflect the awesome power of nature back at you. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Each has a message and a lesson to teach us all, you only need to observe, and listen.

Group Therapy: We believe that people learn best from their peers, not stuffy therapists. Seeing themselves reflected in another increases self-awareness, motivation and decreases social isolation. Seasonally, we offer group therapy programs developed using evidence-based best practice such as Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Schema Therapy principals. Our groups are intentionally small (2-3 persons), and designed specifically at each intake point in order to match clients to successful peer groups. Participants have the option to add on individual 1:1 therapy with our psychology or speech pathology team as required.