Surfer to share ocean’s healing power
Woman to launch surf therapy program near Lawrencetown
Any surfer will tell you spending time in the water catching waves is therapeutic, and there’s an increasing amount of scientific evidence supporting that claim.
More than 50 programs around the world are using surfing as a tool to help groups such as veterans, youth with disabilities and first responders.
A growing body of research into surf therapy shows that it has a positive effect on people with mental health issues such as PTSD, anxiety and depression.
And Shelby Miller, 25, is starting her own surf therapy program in Nova Scotia in the Lawrencetown, Halifax County, area.
“It’s kind of weird. A kid from Stewiacke learns to surf and makes it their career,” said Miller, who holds a masters degree in counselling psychology.
Miller tried surfing on a whim four years ago and fell in love with the sport.
“It's a really therapeutic sort of activity, like being in the water and hearing all the different sounds. And then the feeling you get when you catch a wave is just indescribable,” she said.
Through working in psychiatric units and youth care homes, Miller realized she wanted a career in crisis counselling. She didn’t know she could combine her work in mental health with her love of surfing until she watched a documentary about a surf therapy program for veterans with PTSD.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, maybe that's something that I could make a reality here,’” she said. “In Canada, we have surfable waves, so why isn't it happening here?”
She hopes to show people the healing power of the ocean when her program, Sea Clear Therapeutics, launches in June.
WHAT IS SURF THERAPY?
As defined by the International Surf Therapy Organization, surf therapy combines the activity of surfing with targeted therapeutic structures, such as group discussions, to promote mental and physical health.
In other words, “we've traded in the couch for a surfboard,” said Kris Primacio, CEO of ISTO.
“It’s trying to sort of remove the traditional atmosphere … you really don't want to be clinical on the beach,” she said.
A typical surf therapy session begins with participants talking about their feelings on land before heading into the water. Creating that physical and emotional safe space with a sense of community and security for participants is what makes surf therapy different than just going surfing, Primacio said.
During Miller’s sessions, she’ll ask participants to describe how they feel in their bodies on the beach, in the water and after catching a wave. “It’s important to recognize different sensations in the body, because if you can recognize them, then you can learn to control them,” she said.
“It would be a gradual sort of introduction to starting to talk about their problems and starting to use what they’re learning in surfing as a metaphor for dealing with their own problems,” Miller said.
HOW DOES SURF THERAPY HELP?
Jamie Marshall is the first and only person in the world to complete a PHD focused on surf therapy. He’s worked with combat veterans in the U.S., young people with mental health struggles in the U.K., and ex-child soldiers in Somalia.
Marshall said a key benefit of surf therapy is that it builds self-efficacy. He said learning a difficult skill gives people the confidence to take on other challenges in their lives.
“The important thing is not that they learned to surf, but they learned that they're able to learn to surf,” he said. He gave an example of a marine he worked with who couldn’t go into supermarkets because they were overstimulating.
“(He said), ‘surfing is really difficult and I managed to achieve that. I can do this, I can go into the supermarket. … I'm going to do it just like I did with the surfing.'”
Marshall said surf therapy also helps people overcome social isolation, which is a symptom of PTSD. He said many participants with mental health issues described finding a “beach family” through their surf therapy programs.
“That social environment can be very daunting, but the focus is pulled by the surfing and the waves,” Marshall said. He calls surf therapy “mental health by stealth,” because the physical activity draws attention away from the more challenging aspects of therapy.
He also found surfing therapy participants experienced “flow states,” or being in the zone.
“When you're in (a flow state) and so present in the activity you're doing, there's no space for anxiety, for the depression, for the flashbacks for the things that that were really impacting negatively on people's day to day lives,” he said.
“If you can get those moments where you get a reprieve or respite from those negative feelings, from those intrusive thoughts, from those other sorts of negative symptoms, it can give you a whole lot of hope.”
WHAT DO THE STUDIES SAY?
Marshall said surf therapy research has grown exponentially in the past 10 years.
In 2020, the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice compiled a scoping review of the findings from 29 surf therapy studies around the world. They found surf therapy had positive impacts on the following groups:
■ Youth in need of social and emotional support: increases in self-concept, improved emotional regulation and social competencies, re-engagement with school, decreases in behavioral problems and increased social connections with surfing peers
■ Youth with disabilities: improvements in physical fitness, self-confidence, social development, behavior and sleep, and reduced levels of anxiety
■ Veteran and active duty service members: respite from the symptoms of PTSD, decreased levels of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and use of narcotics, increased affect and improvements in pain management
A 2015 study on surf therapy with at risk youth, participants self-reported reported feeling better (96 per cent), happier (98 per cent), had fun (99 per cent), made friends (89 per cent) and felt fitter (87 per cent). And in a 2014 study, youth reported a mean increase in confidence by 45.7 per cent.
Marshall emphasizes that the research on surf therapy is ongoing. “Surf therapy, as it exists at the moment, is not the finished product. And there's still lots of things we can do to make it even better. But it does seem to be having a remarkable impact on people's lives,” he said.
Randomized control trials are currently underway, which are the “final piece in the puzzle” to definitively prove that surf therapy works.
Surf therapists want doctors to start prescribing surf therapy if the control trials have good results. “To see it as a valued and integrated approach to health and social care, that's the dream for all of us. And that's why we're doing this research,” Marshall said.
WHO SHOULD TRY SEA CLEAR THERAPEUTICS?
Miller said her surf therapy program is geared toward first responders, such as firefighters, paramedics, police officers and dispatchers, who typically have higher rates of PTSD and are used to high adrenaline situations.
But Sea Clear Therapeutics can be for anyone, she said. “I think that anybody that's willing to give it a try, it would be beneficial for, because they're learning a new skill to cope regardless of what their symptoms are.”
And you don’t need to be a pro surfer to try surf therapy. “It’s a lot easier than it looks,” Miller said, “and if you fall off, you're falling into water and then you just stand up, so it's really not as scary as it sounds.”
She recommends her participants take a surfing lesson with East Coast Surf School before a session with Sea Clear Therapeutics. The surf school also offers discounted gear rentals for her clients.
Miller said Sea Clear will give participants a coping mechanism they can use throughout their lives.
“(Surfing) is just incredible. It has so many good characteristics that help people heal. It's also just really fun.”