Tag: dive psychology

Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA, Uncategorized

Scuba diving PTSD: how common is it, why does it matter and what may be done?

Experiencing some lingering distress , mental or emotional issues after a traumatic experience is relatively common. Mostly, the person heals and the problem resolves naturally. However, for a proportion of people this reaction may develop into psychological stress injury or post-traumatic stress (disorder, i.e. PTSD). Divers do occasionally face challenging incidents or circumstances, such as decompression illness, barotrauma, entrapment/entanglement, lost gas events and rapid ascents. … Continue reading Scuba diving PTSD: how common is it, why does it matter and what may be done?

Dr Laura Walton
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, NEWS, Personal reflections and guest posts, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA, Uncategorized

Review of 2022

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

Dr Laura Walton
Standing outside DDRC
Events, NEWS

Presenting at the British Hyperbaric Association Annual Conference 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

Dr Laura Walton
PRO

Turning teaching scuba divers inside out

The neutral buoyancy teaching debate focuses on how skills are introduced.  Do you start your students off by kneeling on the floor of a pool and gradually work towards neutral skills? Would having them lie prone on the bottom be a better start? Or should we go the other way and start from the surface and work our way down, learning everything without touching the … Continue reading Turning teaching scuba divers inside out

Dr Laura Walton
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, Diver panic and anxiety

The Dive Psychology Iceberg

It’s the beginning of a new year and a new decade. I’ve had the iceberg metaphor in mind since the end of December. Fueled by the excitement of what is there to explore and the frustration of communicating it sometimes. This post is simply a wander through some of that and a reflection on dive psychology. The iceberg dive How deep does it go? Where … Continue reading The Dive Psychology Iceberg

Dr Laura Walton
ASK, Diver panic and anxiety, Uncategorized

Why do I feel panicky when descending underwater?

You know that you want to go scuba diving, and put a lot of time and effort into getting ready for the dive. You were excited about getting back under the water and looking forward to what you might see. But, when you see the thumbs down signal and go to press your deflate button, you suddenly find it really hard to let yourself slip … Continue reading Why do I feel panicky when descending underwater?

Dr Laura Walton