Surf Therapy for Chronic Pain
“I view most issues from a grief perspective. Loss of body. Loss of the life you’d imagined, loss of the childhood you wish you had. Once we can see things in terms of loss, we can grieve and move forward.” said by one of Wave of Excellent partners, Tracey Chester with the Pain Trauma Institute.
Grief is something we all experience. Grief from the loss of a loved one to loss of our bodies after giving birth to loss of self after changing careers to the end of a relationship with a partner. Especially for those experiencing chronic pain, grief is something you experience every day. Grief from what your body could do before your chronic pain, changes in your diet, your lifestyle and can have larger impacts on your future. This could be from an illness or an injury, which is all too common with surfers. . “In essence, tracey says, The traumatized hypervigilant brain is wired to pick up negative feelings and the pain lingers past the expected time for an injury or illness to heal”
First, if you are someone who experiences chronic pain or illness, you are not alone. According to the CDC, 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Today, an estimated 133 million Americans – nearly half the population – suffer from at least one chronic illness, such as hypertension, heart disease and arthritis. That figure is 15 million higher than just a decade ago, and by 2030, this number is expected to reach 170 million. According to Tracey, this does not even take into account many other debilitating autoimmune and chronic illnesses that tend to accompany trauma and pain. She believes there is a larger percentage of people than some estimates. Either way, this is a huge population, and very often something that we don’t talk about or something you can’t see. Tracey says “ For each of these persons, there is a family member, or two, friends and jobs affected. Chronic Pain costs the economy more than any other diseases combined.” Chronic pain is invisible, meaning that by looking at a person, you cannot see how they really feel, same as mental illness. . You might view the person as hopeful and active, yet inside, every day, they might be experiencing pain that can be impacting how they show up.
I met Tracey at one of her first surf therapy groups for chronic pain. We immediately connected in that we both survive every day with one condition (Interstitial Cystitis, or IC) , a rare autoimmune disease that affects the bladder . Tracey has had multiple cervical spine surgeries, amongst others, but is happy to report that most of that pain went away. “Lucky for IC, she says, or I might actually feel well, imagine that!” Our bodies do not work the same as they used to and pain and discomfort can often hold us back from our day to day. And because our illness is in an area that people don’t like to talk about, we keep it inside. The best way to describe this disease is that it feels like a severe UTI infection during flares, with spasms that mimic even a kidney stone, and feeling generally unwell, achy, sick and tired.
Between flares, she says, we are the person you see, feeling well, socializing, surfing. During a flare we are often curled up in a ball of pain and thanking god for zoom. To others who don’t see how we feel, It can look like missing events, showing up late or needing to cancel last minute due to your pain. Or just needing to take a break. “I play pickleball with retired people many 20 years older who ask me why I am taking a break!”. . Other ways that people may see us as “flakey” or always late. It can present symptoms of anxiety or depression, compounded by Isolation, hopelessness and uncertainty. It can, and does have large impacts on your day to day and long term life plans.
For Tracey, this has led to her work being a personal mission to help patients struggling with chronic pain or illness to achieve a full meaningful life, despite their health struggles. Personally experiencing the devastating effects of living with chronic pain have informed Tracey’s approach to working with clients and founding the San Diego Pain Trauma Institute. San Diego Pain Trauma Institute is a place where you can feel connected to others grieving the loss and connecting with the meaning of the new.
US Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, with Tracey and Kelsey M. Elis at a Groundswell Waves of Grief program for the general and his staff in San Fransisco, CA. (2022)
This summer, starting in June, the Pain Trauma Institute will be offering a 4 week session for those who experience chronic pain. Groundswell Community Project and the Pain Trauma Institute will be teaming up with Dr. Jason Kutch at the University of Southern California to offer this partnership and study. Dr. Kutch states “We are motivated by recent insights into how the immersive environment of ocean wave surfing appears to give a profound respite from the symptoms of disorders of neural function, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Our prior work has extensively characterized the patterns of neural dysfunction in patients with multiple Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions (COPCs) and has related these patterns to stress and trauma.”
In this pilot project, we aim to build a multidisciplinary team that can use neuroscience and engineering approaches to understand and develop these therapeutic effects. We will approach this work with two complementary Specific Aims. In Aim 1a, we will address the question of whether 6 weeks of surfing therapy reduces pain and neural dysfunction in patients with COPCs. In Aim 1b, we will address how a single surfing session affects well-being and neural connectivity in skilled surfers, to better understand if this approach can continue to promote healthy brain activity. And in Aim 2, we will re-create surfing in an engineered virtual environment, to develop a scientific testbed to identify the source of the therapeutic benefits. Aim 2 directly addresses the emphasis of this call for applications, by identifying lack of ocean access as a barrier to implementation of surfing therapy and testing of a solution to address this problem.
taken at the SDTI Groundswell Surf Therapy session to pilot the research modalities and tools with USC students and team (march, 2023)
However, if research isn’t for you, there is also an additional session offering starting May 18 as another 4 week session. This will be a Chronic Pain/Illness Support on Thursdays 1:00pm- 2:30pm. Hurry, we only have two spots left. You can sign up for both of these sessions here: https://www.paintraumainstitute.com/store.
For myself, as a chronic pain survivor with Interstitial cystitis, finding meaning is my way to push through the day to day, connecting with Tracey and PTI allowed me to create community, process through my pain and now be a support lead in running these programs. If any of this piece stood out to you, if you identify as someone who might meet the criteria for the study, join us! Join us in finding community, making meaning and processing through this grief. Isolation is all too common and adds to feelings of being like the only person suffering. This is where the power of group surf therapy lies. It can change the narrative, from “I can’t” to “I can”. Our days with pain and doctors appointments keep us focused internally. We are hyper-aware, programmed by evolution to do so, especially in the reproductive area, which needs protection. We can go very inward, very fast. Our world can and does become very small.
Tracey is currently in the beginning stages of developing a curriculum with Holly Beck for surf therapy for injured athletes, and is approaching the WSL to start a program. Fingers Crossed...
If you’d like more information, Tracey is also an educator and provides CAMFT-Approved Trainings in Grief, Chronic Pain and Ecotherapy. These are all available on the Mighty Network and can be accessed there or via https://www.paintraumainstitute.com/trainingcourses .
Written by Meg Martin (AMFT), Groundswell Community Project Community Partnership Manager and Surf Therapy Facilitator
