Many troubled teens and children report the transformative effects of surf therapy. According to Chanelle Catuogno, Key Healthcare Surf therapist, surfing helps troubled teens focus their minds on something unconnected with their problems. This positive experience allows them to feel joy. As we all know, water has a healing, soothing effect on our bodies –and usually, there are no plausible explanations as to why –we just feel it deep within. She notes that individualized learning helps teens appreciate the water while learning to surf. A good surf therapy program in LA can help manage teen mental health symptoms or even treat some mental health disorders.
What is Surf Therapy?
Surf therapy is a therapeutic approach that combines physical activity and structured therapeutic activities. Combining an active lifestyle with a surf therapy program promotes physical, psychological, and social well-being. When done correctly, a surf therapy program can be beneficial in improving and managing the mental health symptoms exhibited by your troubled teen.
Surf therapy may not be recommended as the first line of treating troubled teens. It is recommended in combination with traditional evidence-based approaches to ensure that all aspects of teen mental health disorders are taken care of.
Benefits of Surf Therapy for Troubled Adolescents
Surf therapy can be beneficial as a mental health treatment in many ways. Some benefits of surf therapy include the following:
Emotional Release and Processing
Nothing helps clear the mind like going surfing. Surf therapy offers escapism, which helps teens process and release complex emotions. Troubled teens often struggle with keeping their emotions calm, but surf therapy helps them achieve a healthy balance of emotions. During a surf session, teens need to keep their minds at ease to help them concentrate on the task.
Surf therapy requires intense concentration, which would not be possible when your teen struggles with emotional management. Surf therapy helps teens manage their emotions better while giving them a coping mechanism to deal with difficult or complex emotions. Troubled teens can connect with their feelings, process their emotions, and gain a new perspective on their struggles. Combining talk therapy and surfing offers valuable insight into how your teen may approach difficult situations as they recover from their troubles.
Community
When you think about surfing, you often imagine a group of beach-loving teens engaging in fun and playful activities. Teens interact with their peers during surf sessions and develop meaningful connections with them. Socialization can support teens since they develop a healthy sense of community. A closely-knit community is appropriate since it allows teens to feel like they can fall back on a certain group of people when they struggle with complicated situations.
Teens can share their struggles with others and receive advice on handling such situations. Surf therapy focuses on prioritizing social connection to encourage emotional well-being. A community also offers a feeling of safety and acts as a safety net to catch teens falling back into their old habits. Teens who engage in surf therapy also have improved social skills due to increased interaction with others.
Mindfulness
Surf therapy requires teens to be in the present moment. They need to observe and make quick decisions to ride the waves successfully. Mindfulness is taught in other forms of therapy, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy and wilderness therapy, to help teens connect with their emotions and process complex issues. Surfing helps teens practice mindfulness by encouraging them to be mindful of their actions and others. Mindfulness has been shown to increase gratitude, and appreciation of the present moment, reduce symptoms of depression, and encourage mental well-being.
Connection with Nature
Most people visit natural sceneries to reconnect with the natural environment whenever they want to relax. The natural environment is powerful in reducing stress and improving mental health problems. Engaging in activities near or in water bodies has also been shown to have a calming effect on people. Nature helps teens appreciate the environment and reconnect with their emotions. It also helps them process complex emotions and develop appropriate solutions.
Creation of New Neural Connections
The brain is a neuroplastic organ that can change and develop new connections throughout people’s lives. Surf therapy can help the brain develop new neural connections based on your teen’s experiences. Physical activity rewires the brain and can help teens replace maladaptive behaviors with new ones and improve their overall mental well-being. Surf therapy also helps build distress tolerance and increases the chances of sustained sobriety.
Physical Fitness
As with other physical activities, surfing is physically demanding and requires physical fitness. During surf therapy, teens exercise and build strength, muscle memory, and endurance. Exercising releases endorphins and dopamine, which have been shown to affect mood and emotions positively. Teens struggling with mental health may benefit from a surge of endorphins and dopamine in the bloodstream to elevate mood. Incorporating surf therapy for teens struggling with anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder may help in addiction recovery and overall mental well-being.
Boosted Confidence
Teens who surf often have increased confidence and self-esteem because they excel at it or feel good after surf therapy. A surge of neurotransmitters in the bloodstream can boost confidence and self-esteem. Confident teens have improved interpersonal and social skills.
Freedom
The ocean and surfing can make teens feel overwhelming freedom and joy. Riding a wave and gliding across the water helps teens feel in control of the situation and evokes a strong feeling of freedom. Surf therapy offers escapism and promotes physical and mental well-being. Engaging in surf therapy ensures that your teen gains valuable emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and many other positive psychological outcomes.
Where to Find Surf Therapy Programs in LA
At Key Healthcare, we offer surf therapy programs to help your troubled teen overcome their struggles. Our treatment facility offers various approaches to help troubled teens learn emotional regulation, ensure consistent sobriety, and recover from teen mental health issues. Our staff is highly trained and qualified to deal with issues unique to teens. We aim to give hope to teens dealing with addiction and other mental health issues.
How Key Healthcare Surf Therapy Works
A surf therapy program is done differently at every institution. It can be done during individual or group sessions or weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Key Healthcare surf therapy is done in the following steps:
Warm-Ups
During a warm-up, your teen will perform various activities, including stretches, to ensure their muscles are ready for an intense surf therapy session. Warming up their muscles reduces the chances of cramping during the session and promotes physical health.
Safety Guidelines And Instructions
Key Healthcare is committed to providing safe surf therapy sessions. Our instructors ensure that they give a comprehensive safety discussion to ensure your teen is well versed with what they are allowed and not allowed to do. Following safety instructions is important to ensure your teen does not find themselves in dangerous situations. Surf therapy also requires safety protocols and risk assessment to ensure teens are kept safe during the session.
Demonstrations
After completing the safety guidelines, instructors demonstrate how to surf on the beach. They will show essential body positioning on the surfboard and how to ride the waves on firm ground. A demonstration instills confidence in teens and encourages them to give surfing a chance.
Learning Surfing At Their Own Pace
Teens who enrolled in tour surf program then learn to surf at their own pace. Instructors ensure that all teens are taught at their own pace to ensure safety. Instructors take the lead and do not push teens to do uncomfortable things. Surf therapy students get to improve their physical health and manage symptoms of mental health problems.
Talk Session
After a surf session, teens are encouraged to sit as a group and talk about their issues. These sessions are led by a coordinator who guides the teens on the topics to discuss. This talk may also be done in one-on-one sessions with a registered therapist to ensure that they can address the issues more comprehensively and in private.
There is no need to worry if your teen has no surfing experience. Instructors tailor the experience of each teen differently to ensure all of them receive the benefits of surf therapy.
Real-Life Transformations
Many teens and children report the transformative effects of Key Healthcare surf therapy.
One of Our students, Pearl, notes that surfing has helped her feel proud of herself. She noted that her social skills had improved and she felt better when engaging in surf therapy.
“I feel proud because I like myself catching waves,” she said.
Our surf therapist noted that Pearl’s confidence and self-esteem have grown because of the consistent positive talk that she experiences at surf therapy.
Pearl’s mum, Paige Fryer, notes that surf therapy has helped her family become more interconnected and appreciative. She notes that Pearl has achieved major therapeutic goals, such as emotional balance, confidence, improved social skills, and positivity.
Charlotte Banfield, another success story of surf therapy, noted how she felt like herself during surf therapy. She had the opportunity to ride the waves and noted the positivity she got from the experience. Charlotte said she felt free, and her mind became clearer as she rode the waves in surf therapy. Charlotte said that her confidence skyrocketed since she learned how to surf and felt “cooler.”
A case study was conducted on surf therapy’s qualitative and organizational structure. The case study analyzed the program requirements, demands, and expectations of staff, noting the importance of this therapeutic approach. The case study has been used to develop new strategies since it offers a new perspective on how surf therapy should be conducted.
Surf therapy has had many other success stories. It has enabled a more informal form of therapy beneficial to teens struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, inadequate social skills, ADHD, and other mental health conditions. Future research is needed to ensure the effectiveness of surf therapy.
Conclusion
Surf therapy combines physical activity and talk therapy. It is done in stages to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the therapy. These stages include warm-ups, safety briefings, demonstration on land, active teaching, and unwinding with talk therapy. Some benefits of surf therapy include strengthening community ties, distress tolerance, stress relief, emotional regulation, boosting self-esteem and confidence, and a great sense of freedom. Surf therapy is effective in the real-life transformations reported by many teens.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The key ways in which surf therapy is important include emotional regulation and stress relief. When teens engage in surf therapy, they can be carefree and enjoy themselves. Surf therapy allows them to feel free and joyful during and after the session. During surfing, teens disconnect from their problems and focus on the present. Furthermore, surfing builds confidence and encourages physical fitness in teens.
Surf therapy helps teens interact with their peers and develop meaningful connections with them. Socialization can be a strong support system for teens since they develop a healthy sense of community. A closely-knit community is appropriate since it allows teens to feel like they can fall back on a certain group of people when they struggle with complicated situations.
Yes, surf therapy helps in emotional regulation and mindfulness, which can be used to reduce lingering thoughts about trauma.
Surf therapy can benefit people of all ages, from kids as young as 5 to adults as old as 50.
The initial stages of surf therapy can be challenging for many teens. Their main problem is the ability to open up about their emotions. Since teens are often closed off and only talk to their peers, a therapist, instructor, or coordinator may find it difficult to get through to the teen’s emotions.
