Of Inner Depths
The Science
Inner Depths provides comprehensive freediving education using the Freediving Instructors International (FII) Level 1 course while also teaching nervous system regulation, distress tolerance, and how to reconnect to your body in a safe, supported environment. Freediving is the vessel we use to build community and teach skills that can be incorporated in trauma recovery.
Why Freediving?
By engaging with controlled discomfort while learning freediving, such as breath holding, participants have the opportunity to practice bodily awareness, self-reflection, and resilience. The ocean’s natural therapeutic qualities support emotional wellbeing, offering both a calming environment and a unique space for connection to the ocean, oneself, and others.
Why it works:
a nervous system approach
When we experience a traumatic event, the nervous system can get stuck in survival mode - fight, flight, freeze. While this response is our body’s natural way of protecting us during a stressful event, these symptoms can linger long after the trauma and impair day to day life. Freediving, when practiced in a supportive and controlled environment, allows us to participate in practices that can help the body re-learn safety through slow exposure, breath regulation, and physical self-awareness. Our trauma-informed approach teaches participants to return to a state of regulation, using mindfulness to operate within their “Window of Tolerance.” Through breathwork, safety practices, and community support, participants can learn to expand that window - leading them to feel better attuned to the present and that they have the opportunity to choose their reactions when faced with stressors.
Neuroscience and Mental Health Support
By using cutting-edge technologies including EEGs, neurofeedback, and VR exposure therapy run by our on site psychiatrist, we help participants better understand what is happening in their brain and body as they dive. Inner Depths also provides daily opportunities for supported processing, personalized check-ins, and psychoeducation with the mental health team - our courses are rooted in science and compassion.