Stuff happening with Fit To Dive.
Every year I pick a theme for Fit To Dive’s work. There are so many ways psychology can improve diving, and vice versa, it’s easy to get lost while chasing ideas. It helps to have a little bit of a path to keep coming back to. I use one word. Since the middle of last year, I thought that I had decided the word. Yet, … Continue reading Intentions for 2023
In December 2021 I asked: …is it okay if we talk about what happens when dives go wrong? Is that something you would talk about with your buddies, or instructors? The rest of the newsletter read: Diving Psychology can help scuba divers in all sorts of ways, but there’s only one of me so next year I’m focusing on psychological trauma in diving. That’s stress injuries, or post-traumatic stress … Continue reading Review of 2022
This month I was honored to be invited to the British Hyperbaric Association (BHA) annual meeting, and conference hosted by DDRC Healthcare (was Diving Diseases Research Centre). I was delighted to have the opportunity to talk about my work and share the ways that Diving Psychology can help divers. I presented a recent case, where the diver was helped to recover from a distressing diving experience … Continue reading Presenting at the British Hyperbaric Association Annual Conference 2022
Do you think there is enough information and support for scuba divers after diving goes wrong? Not the immediate rescue, aftermath and medical assistance, but resources for mental and emotional impact. What about when there was no need for rescue and support, yet the diver is struggling to make sense of what happened or experiencing post-trauma issues. Would you be aware of options in this … Continue reading New page to inform divers of support and self-help when a dive goes badly wrong
If you’ve been following my work in diving psychology, you’ll know one of the topics of interest is panic and anxiety in scuba diving. You may also have noticed that the handful of surveys I tend to quote are rather old! That’s not because I do not look, it’s because there just is not a lot of research on this issue. Something to also note: … Continue reading Diver Panic: new survey & in depth article
Are there any scuba diving skills you struggle with, or feel nervous about? It’s natural to find ways to try to avoid the anxiety, but moving away from an emotion tends to increase its hold, and can lead to blockages in the learning process. On the Psychology for Scuba Divers course, there is a place to reflect on what we need to learn effectively. One … Continue reading Building comfort with scuba mask skills with psychology
You may have noticed a few changes on scubapsyche.com in the last few days. I want to let you in on what is going on. The major change is that I’ve officially set up a company to be the place I offer services and courses for divers: FIT TO DIVE LTD. I want to make that a space that divers can find information, create inspiration … Continue reading FIT TO DIVE: Time to let you know what is going on!
Knowing (or rather not knowing) the risks around Covid 19 and it’s potential implications for scuba diving, like a lot of divers I’ve been pretty cautious about going out for a dive. So, following all the advice to stay home and protect each other, I focused on my work and offering PADI Psychological Diver online. This has been an incredible experience and I’ve very much … Continue reading The first post-lockdown dives of summer 2020
“Are you a scuba diver? Fancy a brew?” was essentially the message I got from Andy. He’d noticed my Instagram name was laura_scubapsychologist and thought we might be interested in talking about the same things. The focus of Andy’s podcast is mental resilience and wellbeing in scuba diving – whether that’s how diving helps us with that, or how we can work on ourselves to … Continue reading First podcast interview about dive psychology
Have you been affected by things other divers do? Or forget to do! Do you make mistakes when diving? I’d be very surprised if you said no. I know I’ve made plenty of mistakes as a diver, I don’t know a diver who hasn’t! In reality, most of the time we are lucky. Whether it’s jumping in with the wrong weight belt, descending while breathing … Continue reading “If Only … “
