Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Small.
Natalie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am by profession a Marriage and Family Therapist and have been practicing at schools and in the private practice setting for the last 7 years using experiential therapies, the arts, yoga, and mindfulness to build resiliency and healing. By passion, I am a water woman…my life revolves around mother ocean…I sail, surf, swim, and live plastic free to show her my love.
2 years ago, I decided it was time for me to go to Cuba, to explore a culture untouched by US consumerism, the neighbors we never got to know. Naturally, I started researching the opportunity to surf while there and quickly learned that surfing was at one point an illegal act in Cuba, that locals would surf plywood, refrigerator foam, and desk tops because they had no access to gear, and would have the police waiting for them when they paddled back to shore. I emailed the president of their secret surf club and he connected me with Yaya, the sole female surfer in Cuba! Yaya’s relationship with the ocean stretches beyond her surf board as she is a dolphin and seal trainer at the local Havana aquarium as well. She believes in the healing power of the ocean so much that she had given up her love for surfing and uses her long board to help disabled children float so they could interact with the sea animals. I emailed Yaya, and we instantly connected over our united passion to let the ocean heal, empower, and unite people. I was so pumped to be heading down to surf with her and support her work! As I started sharing the story of surfing in Cuba and my goals in my upcoming trip, I ended up having a whole crew of surf sisters itching to join me and local surf shops excited to donate gear to support the surf family in Cuba.
It was a beautiful 2 weeks of women from California and Cuba, with different languages, cultures, and stories, connecting through the universal language of Mother Ocean! As we spent time in the water together we shared stories of our struggles with depression, loneliness, loss, and anxiety and how the ocean had been that source of healing, empowerment, and now community! Now we weren’t alone! Now we had surfsisters! And now instead of feeling alone when we paddle out into an all-male line up, now, no matter what shore we jumped in the sea from, we are connected! Same ocean, same love!
Straight from this powerful connective time in Cuba I spent the next 2 months on the sea, part of it with an all-female sailing crew, EXXpedition, conducting ocean plastic research in the Caribbean. Once again, a crew of women with from all different professions, cultures, ages, languages, and stories… But, united by Mother Ocean and our desire to save her!
I left on this 3-month adventure planning on coming back to my boat and waves in San Diego and continue with life as usual…. but as always…when you go out to change the world, you come back changed! I couldn’t ignore the itch in my heart to give women everywhere the opportunity to explore and find healing, empowerment, and community in mother ocean’s waves like yaya had, like my sailing sisters had, like I had. Over the next year I took my therapy practice to the ocean and started facilitating small group women’s therapeutic surf programs. Women overcoming abuse, addiction, sex trafficking, displacement, depression, and trauma were coming together, leaving those labels and self depleting stories on the shore and diving deep into themselves and the ocean to discover the unique beauty and strength that flows out of them when they are given permission to just play and be themselves!
More, and more women wanted to take part in these small group surf therapy programs and more and more Surf Sisters wanted to volunteer to share their stories and stoke for how the ocean had transformed them! I was being encouraged from multiple directions to let these programs grow and make it an official non-profit.
But being a psy major and masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, I had never taken a business class in my life. had no idea what starting a non-profit entailed or even how to begin. But with the support and guidance from the community, Groundswell Community Project became an official non-profit last summer (2016)! The mission: to heal, empower, and unite women in the waves. The 8-week programs not only teach the basics of surfing, water safety, and ocean conservation but gives women the opportunity to absorb what Mother Ocean teaches them through mindfulness and presence practices and apply it to their daily lives…and then…I think the most important part…we share our stoke! Healing and happiness doesn’t stop within ourselves; The highest level of happiness, according to Martin Seligman’s research in Positive Psychology, is when we find live in altruism giving our life meaning and purpose. So at the end of each 8 weeks we share our stoke! We volunteer together with local organizations that teach disabled children and vets how to surf and save the ocean. We went from 1 program serving 10 women in San Diego for the summer of 2016 to 5 programs from San Diego to San Francisco, Peru, and Cuba serving 50 women with over 50 surf sister volunteers and we are still growing and more and more women are reaching out looking to restore the beauty and strength of themselves and the sea!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the things we explore and play with in the Groundswell therapeutic surf programs is the idea of failure. We fail forward! If the ocean were smooth we couldn’t surf it. 🙂 So we celebrate challenges and what culture would call failure we call growth!
I have learned a lot in my new role as a non-profit founder. Lessons in life balance when running a project that is your passion. Learning how to simplify my life so I can financially survive while I pursue my passion. Learning that its ok to ask for help. Learning that I can’t do everything by myself. Learning that time for me to work on my own healing, self growth, relationships, and self love is still and will always be important.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Groundswell Community Project story. Tell us more about the business.
Groundswell Community Project is unique in that:
-We are run by therapists trained in experiential art therapies and mindfulness practices being directly translated into ocean experience. Taking therapeutic healing out of the office and into the sea! Where talk therapy falls short experiential therapy steps in and builds resiliency, healing, and new neurological pathways to positive self love.
-We teach surfing in a manner that connects you to your body, breath, and mother ocean rather than just the how to surf.
-We provide 1-to-1 mentorships in the water by Surf Sister Volunteers who are trained in how to create safe and brave spaces for trauma recovery.
-We serve all women. each group is a masterpiece of women from different addiction and abuse recovery programs, sex trafficking safe houses, refugee communities, and those struggling with depression, anxiety, and negative self talk…no one knows who’s from what program or what labels they normally walk around the world with. We are all just women coming together in the Sea.
-We believe the healing process and true happiness at the deepest level stretches beyond the confines of our own self. So we provide opportunities for women to come together to share their stoke in the community through ocean conservation projects and volunteer opportunities teaching surfing to disabled and underprivileged children from SD to Baja, Peru, and Cuba.
-We are not just an 8 week therapeutic surf program, we are a community of women being making the change the world and waves need!
-For each woman that pays to participate in the 8 week program a woman in need gets scholarship so she too can participate in the same program. None of the women know who paid and who was scholarshiped…all are equal and embraced by mother ocean.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I feel like when you are listening to your heart and living out your truest path things flow. not to say it’s been all easy peasy but it’s almost like I can’t not do this work. Every time I’ve tried to say no, I can’t do that, I’m not a business woman, I don’t know how to run a non-profit, I’m not smart enough, good enough, financially capable enough…. the world makes it so I can’t give up, it always works out. Opportunities and support comes just when we need it…I am enough 🙂 and I’m not alone in this passion project. I’ve had such an amazing community of supporters that haven’t allowed me to give up because they see the powerful impact Groundswell is having on the lives of individual women and the community.
So, I don’t believe in good or bad luck. I believe in passion, checking my ego at the door and letting the powerful transformative work of mother ocean do her thang!
Pricing:
- $500 for the 8 week Summer Surf Sister Program (donate and give surf!)
Contact Info:
- Address: 1220 rosecrans st, San Diego, CA 92106
- Website: groundswellcommunity.org
- Phone: 3107496289
- Email: natalie@groundswellcommunity.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groundswellcommunityproject/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groundswellsd/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLITn6crlXYwHX__xFyt_yQ
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
