We had the good fortune of connecting with natalie small and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I actually tride everything possible to not start my own business. As my surf therapy practice was developing, deepening, and enriching and more and more community was asking for it as a resource and support, i was hoping to find an already developed business, surf school, non-profit, clinic that was doing something similar so I could add to, support, and deepen their programs rather than having to start my own. After research and not finding any org doing what I was up to, plus the support of family and community speaking into how important the work was that I was doing, I set my fears of failure aside and took the leap of faith and trust to start groundswell community project as a 5013c non-profit. It felt like a birthing and mothering process…denial, fear, feeling completely out of my comfort zone and alone…to feeling the support and love of the community coming together to raise my baby, learning to ask for help, and letting Groundswell be my continual teacher. Owning my own business has stretched me, humbled me, broken me and empowered me in ways I would have never imagined.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The therapy industry, surf industry and surf therapy industry has taken front and center since the impact of the pandemic where people reorganized their life to center mental health and accessing the outdoors. From 2016, when I started groundswell to now, the international surf therapy org has grown from 6 orgs to over 200 orgs and clinicians around the world. It is the wild west with so many different ways, practices, and ideas of what it is and can be. As groundswell grows, I am constantly listening in to the community to see what is truly needed. To tune to the need of the community, we became the first accredited surf therapy training program and are actively developing more trainings and opportunities to best support the growing number of orgs and facilitators in trauma informed awareness and practices to support both the communities they serve and themselves in this work. We are a training facility and internship site for future therapists and am excited to continue deepening our trainings and even get into universities and conferences to help expand access to this work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
we’d load up coolers and floatation devices and paddle out to humphreys to enjoy their summer concert series!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It truly takes a village! there have been so many people, cultures, places, and experiences in nature that have birthed me to where I am today. Shannon, founder of Shakit Rising, unleashed new and ancient ways of business through feminine embodied leadership, transformation, and re-membering what non-profit work and healing work can truly be when moving from a space of being and a balance between the feminine and masculine. Garciella Botoni, the president of International Experiential Art Therapy Association, planted my first seeds in utilizing the arts and nature for therapy and welcoming the body back into the healing process. The town and community of women in Huanchaco, Peru embodied the lived experience of what true community connected to and honoring our ancestors and nature as our great teacher, medicine, and ally can look like and feel like. Easkey Britton for paving the way as a female surfer that surfs the waves of life in full expression of her feminine and masculine in balance, seeing surfing as not just a sport but an art and access point to deep community connection and healing. Each womxn that has said yes to surf therapy as a space to reclaim their healing, power, and belonging…each time i hold surf therapy spaces each client teaches me something new about life, myself, and ways of being in these wild waves of life together.

 

Website: https://www.groundswellcommunity.org/ , https://www.nataliesmalllmft.com/

Instagram: @groundswellcommunityproject , @captsmall

Facebook: groundswell community project

Email: lmftnataliesmall@gmail.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzAgTjj7_IZ-32fQ64A3T1g

Other: additional website for my private practice: https://www.nataliesmalllmft.com/

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