Natalie Small
Natalie Small is a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist, sailing captain and founder of Groundswell Surf Therapy a non-profit community that is paving the way for surf therapy to become a recognized and honored healing modality that welcomes all to reclaiming their healing, power, and belonging in the waves. Natalie was born in North Carolina, moved to LA and learned to surf once she could drive, and from that point on surfing and sailing the ocean guided her life's journey impacting and inspiring everything from her career, to her play, to her marriage to semi pro Peru surfer and founder of LDC surf board bags Javier Larco Ganoza. During her studies she got the privilege to be mentored by Graciella Botoni, the South American president of International Expressive Arts Therapy Association which shifted her therapy practice from talk therapy to somatic and art therapies. Her work lead her to training care takers and providing art and somatic based therapy for women trauma survivors of sexual, gender, and racial violence from the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, and the United States. Natalie adventured to waves between each training and program and noticed a huge lack of local women and girls surfers at the breaks she surfed and began exploring what the barriers where and how she could use her privilege as a white woman to increase access and elevate the voices of local women as they reclaim their belonging in mother ocean.
