About
What we do...
At ENTITY Eco Therapy we specialise in nature-based recreation activities combined with everyday community access and everyday living sessions to support our NDIS participants to live a happy, healthy life and go for their goals.
There are so many different ways to reap the benefits of time in nature and at ENTITY Eco Therapy we sit with the participant and create a plan based on what they love to do.
Our service area is within Central Victoria, around the Greater Bendigo area and extending to Castlemaine and surrounding towns.
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At ENTITY Eco Therapy we genuinely care about our NDIS Participants and in every interaction with our business, we want our Participants to know we accept them exactly as they are, that they are important and that we genuinely care about them as people.
We offer 1:1 social and community support every day of the week and our nature based therapy philosophy is that we promote nature based recreation and therapy activities accessing the ever present calming, healing and nurturing and growth power of nature with all our participants. Our philosophy is that the inspiring healing power of nature can be accessed anywhere by anyone, no matter your level of disability or where you are at emotionally in ones life. We are here to ignite the spark in people using our inspiring natural world as a catalyst for healing, growth and blooming.
“In every interaction with our business, we want our customers to feel accepted exactly as they are, that they are important and that we genuinely care about them as people.”
The story so far...
ENTITY was originally inspired by a love and wonder of the natural world in 2000 whilst our founder, Adam Smolak, was at university studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Nature Tourism.
Adam studied the essence of Outdoor Education and learned that time in, and interaction with nature can set our minds, bodies, and spirits free from the chains of society. Adam also believed in the urgent need for humanity to connect with mother nature in symbiosis and halt the degradation of our environment.
In 2005, Adam disbanded the business for family reasons and always believed in his heart that he would recreate ENTITY one day.
That day came in October 2019 after a personal crisis of a marriage breakdown and the loss of the love of his wife and family unit. He was so devastated that he decided then and there that he needed something to do with his life that was extremely meaningful to make up for such personal loss and that he was going to start ENTITY again and attach a Foundation to it.
Andy from the Shawshank Redemption spoke to Red just before he broke out of prison and explained his dreams of living in Zihuantanejo Mexico and running a hotel, fixing up an old boat and taking his guests fishing. He said the Mexicans say the Pacific has no memory…Red responded by saying ‘it’s just shitty pipe dreams, Andy. You’re in here and Mexico’s all the way down there.” Andy’s response was: Whatever mistakes I made, I paid for them and then some. That hotel, that boat, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
Adam’s Zihuantanejo is ENTITY, and as it turns out, he now takes his NDIS clients out fishing…
A STORY OF THE BEST DAYS OF OUR BUSINESS SO FAR…
Brad is a client who suffers from a significant mental illness and the social stigma attached to it. Brad and Adam were in a local café having lunch when an older lady came in and requested she needed two strong men to help lift her husband in a wheelchair up the steps into the café. We got up and assisted the elderly gentlemen into the café where we proceeded to have a chat with the man about AFL football and about his favourite players. As we said goodbye and sat down, Brad said to Adam that he felt his luck was about to change from doing a good deed. Within seconds the café owner, Kayla, who had witnessed the act of goodwill came in with money in her hand and gave our money back for lunch.
Brad and Adam were astounded, and he said the café owner’s kind gesture had restored his faith in the world. Brad’s words had a profound effect on Adam with how such small acts of kindness can restore hope in people, and it got Adam thinking of all the possibilities ENTITY has to restore hope and inspire people.
A STORY OF THE SPIRIT OF ENTITY…
The Moulamein Fishing Contest – March 2021. Adam’s childhood holidays were spent in this small country NSW town on the Edward River where his grandparents lived. This place was a magical place for Adam as a young man, full of adventures fishing and camping and being in nature. His sense of wonder and love of nature and fishing was born here.
One of ENTITY’s young, 13-year-old clients with behaviours, Will, has a love of fishing, and Adam took him to the contest which was also Adam’s first Moulamein Fishing Contest. Will had an amazing time at the contest. They both won prizes, and Will interacted with the public in a relaxed manner that Adam had not seen before.
Adam’s dream for ENTITY had come full circle by taking a young person on a fishing adventure to his childhood magical place which had amazing therapeutic benefits for Will and Adam and paid ENTITY very well. It was a win-win in a big way for the business and Will.
Adam encourages his staff and clients to champion The Entity Orchids Foundation that has been founded by Adam and integrates practical healing programs for major social issues including mental health, homelessness and reconciliation by connecting with our natural world and planting trees for Climate Change and Conservation and most importantly giving people hope and a cause to believe in.
