Cultivating Personal Growth: Designing a Social-Emotional Learning Experience Through Group Gardening

Many children and adolescents face increasing mental, emotional, and behavioral concerns, underscoring the need for preventive, developmentally responsive support. Social-emotional learning (SEL), informed by the CASEL framework, promotes skills such as emotional regulation, personal growth, and positive peer relationships. This article introduces a Social-Emotional Gardening Group Curriculum grounded in Adlerian theory and organized using the SAFE model. Although designed as a 14-week program, the curriculum’s core elements have been shaped through ongoing youth programs at Elevated Earth, a rural nonprofit. Observations from these groups show how gardening naturally supports SEL themes, demonstrating the curriculum’s flexibility across educational, counseling, and community settings.