Natalie Small: The surf sisterhood turning the tide on women's mental health

When I first spoke to Natalie Small two years ago, she dreamt of owning a sailboat. A perfect microcosm of her life’s greatest passions. "A sacred space for women to hang out, learn to sail, swim and surf Mother Ocean."

A year later, the sailboat was a reality. “A woman donated her sloop to us. I’m stoked! You’ll have to come for a sail with us!” she enthused. 

Natalie is a marriage and family therapist and founder of the Groundswell Community Project. With roots in San Diego and branches from Peru to Scotland, Groundswell offers surf therapy to women and girls from age four to 90 who face challenges in their life due to abuse, addiction, racial trauma, displacement or depression.

A baby is born

Let's go back to the start. It's 2016, Natalie is a social worker in a homeless shelter. She also volunteers her time providing art-based therapy for women survivors of sexual trauma. 

When she’s not working or volunteering, she’s surfing. "Surfing has always been so much more than a sport for me. It’s an expressive art form and a huge source of healing," she says.

When Natalie’s art therapy group hear about the healing power of surf, they want in. The next week, they swapped their paints for surfboards for their first session in the waves. 

Natalie took what she'd learned in art therapy and applied it to surfing. In the water, she noticed the women opening up. They were interacting with each other, sharing their experiences. Laughing. She noticed the weight of the trauma they had suffered lifting.

This was the moment Natalie's 'baby', as she affectionately describes Groundswell, was born.

Rebirthing resilience in the waves

"Once we're in the water, everyone is the same. Nothing else matters but enjoying ourselves," Natalie says.

Surf therapy encourages women to experience their bodies as strong, capable and fun, far from the sexualisation and abuse of their past. It's a chance to play, to escape normal life. Each session in the ocean, women were achieving things they never thought they could, building their self-confidence.

Then Natalie received reports from the women's therapists. Reduced psychiatric medication. Notable improvements in mental wellbeing. Increased interpersonal skills. Healthy relationship building. Positive relationships with their bodies. Huge progress on the road to recovery. 

It was time to share the secret.

From just four or five women in San Diego in the early days, Groundswell now runs sessions and retreats for more than 100 women and girls a year.

Former participants help run the sessions, receiving trauma-informed training. "The women are always so eager to share their stoke with new sisters!" Natalie says. "It’s a chance to connect in a non-judgemental space, make friends who welcome you just as you are. To cry, laugh, and be heard. It's so powerful." 

The community ethos has remained strong, no matter where they're catching waves. "We're a surf sisterhood. We’re family with the ocean as our bloodline.”

Groundswell’s commitment to mental health extends beyond the water, especially important during a year where lockdowns made it more difficult to gather and surf. The community holds Waves of Grief circles and virtual support meetups, bringing together the global community.

Beyond supporting each other, Natalie’s aim is to spread awareness of the connection between surf and mental health. In association with the International Surf Therapy Organization and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Natalie offers Surf Therapy for Trauma Recovery and Surf Therapy Facilitator training to the growing global community of surf therapy non-profits, surf schools and surf retreats.

Meeting resistance

Groundswell’s growth has not been without its challenges. At first, Natalie faced scepticism. Local surf schools and county officials struggled to see the difference between a surf class and a surf therapy session. They feared the competition.  

"When you're making waves, there will always be resistance. Don't let it keep you from your direction," Natalie says.

"Slowly but surely the local government came round to the idea. And wellness-minded  surf schools now help us pioneer surf therapy as an accepted mental health service." 

Research from the International Surf Therapy Organization and the University of California San Diego supports the powerful impact of surf therapy. "These aren't only lessons, they're therapy. If anything, we're bringing the schools new clients. We’re holding a welcoming space that breaks down cultural, racial, financial, and gender barriers allowing women of all different cultures, body types, and ages to know that they too belong surfing Mother Ocean’s waves!”

The adventure gene

When things get tough, Natalie thinks of her grandmother, Ida. A strong, resilient woman, she railed against the racial segregation of the south and always found a way to accomplish her goals and dreams even when the world made them seem impossible.

Like Natalie, Ida loved adventure. "She travelled with purpose. It was about connecting with local communities, especially women," says Natalie. Grandma Ida also shared Natalie's resourcefulness. She made her own clothes, built her own home, and loved spending time in nature. Separated from the man she loved by war, she expressed herself with cookies and romantic letters mailed back and forth from India to South Carolina in a bamboo shoot. Before the war ended, he proposed by telegram. They became the first couple in the US to marry by telegram, with newspaper headlines proclaiming, “War can’t stop love”.

"She weathered life's unpredictability," says Natalie. "In my dreams, meditations and times of stillness in nature, she guides me and reminds me of who I am and the resilience that flows in my blood.”

Natalie also finds inspiration in the women she works with. The way they show up despite self-doubt, racial, economic, gender and cultural barriers to overcome their fears and embrace play.

From them, Natalie has learned to ask for help. "I realised I don't have to be the expert in everything," she says. Groundswell relies on the support of people willing to donate their skills and time, whether that's legal advice or website building.

And this is Natalie’s top tip for making a difference in our own backyards. Whether it's volunteering as a first-aider or offering to fix the plumbing for free. Somebody out there needs your skills. "It feels amazing knowing you have something to offer the world," Natalie says.

For those who have dreams of starting their own community, Natalie is enthusiastic. "You're not alone! Reach out to me, or others. It's helpful to talk to people doing similar things. Be vulnerable and you’ll be amazed at the community that will form around you."

But most importantly, do what you can whilst taking care of yourself. "Give yourself love. It naturally overflows into giving love to others."

Giving back to Mother Ocean

Natalie's mantra doesn't just apply to people. "It's impossible to spend so much time with Mother Ocean and not want to show Her love." Everywhere the sisters surf, they witness the environmental crises we're all familiar with. Water toxicity, run-off and plastic pollution make it unsafe to surf some days. 

“The ocean has healed us and it is our responsibility to help heal Her!” As well as teaching ocean conservation in their programmes, Natalie and her team take a practical and creative approach to tackling the problem.

They run a No-Plastic November campaign, inviting people to take part and raise money for surf scholarships. Most participants carry on their plastic-free living long after November ends. "Once you've been plastic-free for 30 days, it becomes a habit. It’s hard to go back," says Natalie.

In Peru, the girls and their mums make jewellery from used plastic ice cream spoons found on the beach. They sell the moon-shaped charms to fundraise for the clubhouse and board repairs.

Their other big project involves making eco-bricks from plastic beach trash for local artists to use in statues. These art installations raise awareness and inspire action to end the plastic pollution problem. 

“We tackle the ocean’s plastic pollution trauma like we do our own trauma: with creativity, community and joy!” Natalie says.

The future is female

This year, Natalie is working with local mums to establish the first female-run surf school in Huanchaco, Peru, creating financial stability as well as setting an example of what women are capable of.

Beyond that, with the swell of support received from all over the world, Natalie's goal is to create sustainable safe spaces for women on all coasts to have access to the transformational power of surf therapy.  

And she hopes to spend plenty of time on that dream-turned-reality sailboat. 

You can find out more about Natalie and the Groundswell team on their website or follow them on Instagram.