How surf therapy can help overcome mental blocks and trauma

Try surfing, while breathing the sea air and enjoying the many virtues of the ocean. This is the idea behind surf therapy, a booming practice that involves getting to know the board in a meditative approach. Taming the wave and maintaining your balance, for example, requires intense concentration and helps you stay anchored in the present moment. But surf therapy goes further than “simple” lessons to learn how to stand up on a board.

As its name suggests, surf therapy aims at objectives closely linked to the health of the body and mind. This involves working on breathing, letting go or even surpassing oneself. For example, by questioning one’s fears or setting oneself personal challenges. But it can also be an opportunity to work on mental disorders, psychological injuries or trauma.

In France, one of the first surf therapy workshops took place in 2020 at the Amade clinic in Bayonne. Since then, the offer has grown significantly in other oceanic regions of France. In Charente-Maritime, for example, a surf therapy program was designed by clinical psychologist Fatima Le Griguer Atig to help victims of domestic violence, while in Quimper, a clinic offers surf therapy to combat addictions.

Combating self-stigma related to mental illness

Since September 2021, the Château Caradoc clinic (located in Bayonne) has been organizing, in partnership with Surf Health Associationsessions for patients suffering from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolarity or depression, in order to help them overcome their fears and blockages.These patients often have complexes related to their illness, including the fear that their condition will be seen. This is a phenomenon of self-stigmatization: patients who suffer from an illness that is stigmatized on a social level end up, in a certain way, integrating the social stigmas and self-excluding themselves.“, explains psychiatrist François Chevrier, Medical Director of the Château Caradoc Clinic, at the origin of an annual surf therapy program launched in September 2021. “Many patients told me that they wanted to try surfing, but that they didn’t dare because of their illness. Some were afraid to go into the water, and others hadn’t set foot on the beach for years even though they lived 200 meters away! That’s how I came up with the idea of ​​launching a surf therapy program.”

The aim is therefore to help patients with mental health problems regain self-confidence and reconnect with the outside world.The goal is not to become a pro on the board, but rather to be autonomous in a practice that allows you to be outdoors, in contact with nature, in harmony with the movement of the waves and which is also socially quite valued in the Basque country. This is part of the process of psychosocial rehabilitation, we fight against stigmatization. People choose life projects that have meaning for them and that can help change the way others look at their illness.“, explains François Chevrier, himself a fan of this board sport.

Surf therapy… to overcome grief

While surf therapy has emerged in France for a few years, it has been practiced for much longer in other countries. In the United Kingdom, it is even officially recognized by the public health system as an effective method for treating anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. In concrete terms, this means that children can be prescribed surfing sessions by their general practitioner. Surf therapy also has its origins in Vietnam War veterans, who discovered the benefits of waves to treat their post-traumatic stress disorder. But we now know that it can benefit a much wider spectrum of people. Several scientific studies published in recent years have shown that surf therapy can help reduce stress and depression or even increase the feeling of personal effectiveness.

In the United States, this form of therapy is even offered to help overcome grief. An initiative started by surfer Alex Gray, who lost his older brother at the age of 17 and created a support group around the practice of surfing. “I wanted to reach out to the public with my group on sibling grief by providing a platform to show that other people struggle like me. But I wanted to do it my way. At the beach, with surfing as a healthy outlet. It is in this environment that we create a safe and respectful circle to share with each other around a sad common ground. The results have been incredibly powerful and healing,” explains the surfer. on his website.

Good to know: you can benefit from the virtues of surf therapy through other water sports such as bodyboarding, paddle boarding or even longe-côte, a practice which consists of aquatic hiking by immersing yourself up to the chest.