Talk Trauma
in Scuba Diving
Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving
Welcome to "Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving," a course dedicated to enhancing your understanding of the psychological aspects of diving. This program is specifically designed to provide you with essential knowledge and familiarisation to practical skills to address the mental and emotional challenges encountered in scuba diving. By participating in this course, you will gain valuable insights into the psychological dynamics of diving, relevant to various situations with greater awareness and confidence.
This course is not just about acquiring knowledge; it's about empowering you to become a more resilient, aware, and skilled diver. Join us in this unique exploration to enhance your diving experience and contribute to a safer and more supportive diving community.
This is for you if ...
"Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving" is designed for a diverse range of participants within the diving community. Whether you're just starting your diving journey or you're a seasoned diver with many dives under your belt, this course offers valuable insights and skills that can enhance your diving experience. Here's who will benefit most from enrolling:
"Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving" is an opportunity to explore a side of diving rarely discussed yet fundamental to every diver's experience. Join us to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and the underwater world.
This unique program is tailored to enrich your diving experience, offering a blend of psychological insight and practical skills. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced diver, this course is designed to enhance your understanding of the mental and emotional aspects of diving, ensuring a more confident and fulfilling experience underwater. Here are the key benefits available:
ENHANCED DIVING SKILLS: Learn personal practices to refine and improve your scuba diving abilities.
STRESS MANAGEMENT: Develop skills to understand and handle stress both in and out of the water.
OVERCOMING MENTAL BLOCKS: Build awareness of psychological barriers that may affect your diving and learn how to overcome them.
BUDDY SUPPORT: Gain insights into supporting your diving partners effectively.
DISCOVERING STRESS BENEFITS: Uncover the hidden benefits of stress and when it can be a useful force.
BROADER WELLBEING: Apply the skills learned to contribute to your overall mental health and wellbeing.
COMMUNITY AWARENESS: Contribute to raising awareness about psychological trauma in the diving community.
PREVENTION OF FUTURE INCIDENTS: Understand the link between past trauma and potential future diving incidents, and how you can play a role in prevention.
SUPPORTING RESEARCH AND RESOURCES: Your participation helps support a resource center and a research project dedicated to divers' wellbeing.
Why This Course is Also For You
As a diving instructor or guide, your role extends beyond teaching technical skills; it's about creating a safe and supportive environment for your divers. "Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving" offers invaluable insights that can transform the way you teach and interact with your students. Here's why this course is essential for you:
Trauma-Informed Instruction: Enhance your teaching by understanding the impact of trauma and distress on divers. This knowledge allows you to create a more empathetic and responsive learning environment.
Improved Diver Retention: By understanding the psychological aspects of diving, you can help divers overcome fears and anxieties, leading to increased confidence and a higher likelihood of them continuing with the sport.
Enhanced Safety and Communication: Gain skills in identifying and addressing signs of distress in divers. This not only improves safety but also fosters a more open and trusting communication channel between you and your students.
This course equips you with the tools to not just be an instructor, but a guide who understands the deeper psychological needs of divers. Embrace this opportunity to elevate your teaching and make a lasting impact in the diving community.
Welcome Message
Before you begin the course...
How to join the discussions
Introductions
Things people say
REFLECTION | "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or does it?
AIMS | One
INTRO | What does trauma mean?
Trauma and Distress: Some basic definitions
PRESENTATION | What is the psychological impact after a diving-related accident?
DOODLE | Linking trauma and panic in scuba diving
NOTE | Impact of distressing or traumatic dives
Mind Ghosts in Scuba Diving Talk
FREE PREVIEWREADING | Social Reactions To Decompression Illness
PRESENTATION | How does addressing psychological trauma prevent future adverse events?
QUICK QUIZ | Bowtie Model
DISCUSSION | Prevention of, and recovery from psychological trauma
NOTE | Human Factors in Scuba Diving
STORIES | Meet Our Divers!
THE DIVERS | Kai's dive course failure
QUICK QUIZ | End of Section One
BRIEF FEEDBACK | One
REFERENCES & RESOURCES | One
AIMS | Two
INTRO | What is trauma?
NOTE | Words used to describe physical trauma response
DOWNLOAD | Sources of Trauma
Process what?
DOODLE | Feelings wave and Trauma
QUICK QUIZ | Feelings Wave and Trauma
NOTE | 90 seconds, is that really true?
PRESENTATION | All the F's
DOWNLOAD | All the F's
QUICK QUIZ | All the F's
PRESENTATION | How bad experiences can affect what we tell ourselves
NOTE | Psychological Trauma is Physical Too
What is PTSD?
The Psychology of PTSD
DOWNLOAD | Diagnosis of PTSD*
DISCUSSION | Understanding Trauma and Distress
BRIEF FEEDBACK | Two
REFERENCES & RESOURCES | Two
AIMS | Three
INTRO | Advice for this section
NOTE | What does the research say?
NOTE | Accidents and Incidents
THE DIVERS | Simon's Incident
NOTE | Secondary Victims and Vicarious Trauma
THE DIVERS | Lena's experience
PRESENTATION | Diving-Trauma Stories
NOTE | Defining drowning
PRESENTATION | Power and Water
DISCUSSION | Diving-Related Trauma
NOTE | Primer on the Swiss Cheese model
QUICK QUIZ | Swiss Cheese
DOODLE | Developing Trauma
DISCUSSION | Applying the Swiss Cheese Model to trauma
BRIEF FEEDBACK | Three
REFERENCES & RESOURCES | Three
AIMS | Four
INTRO | Impact of bad experiences in diving
NOTE | Wide-ranging impact of trauma
DOWNLOAD | Impacts of Trauma
THE DIVERS | Lena struggles after the rescue attempt
PRESENTATION | WATER-AIR BARRIER
PRESENTATION | How diving is impacted after diving-related trauma
NOTES | Overview of Impact of Trauma In Diving
NOTES | Panic and Trauma, Again
DOODLE | The Panic Triangle Model: What triggers panic in scuba divers?
NOTES | Regulation of emotion and attention
NOTES | The Window of Tolerance
DOWNLOAD | The Window of Tolerance
QUICK QUIZ | Window of Tolerance
NOTES | A bit about behaviour
NOTES | Trauma and Learning
THE DIVERS | Alex is learning to dive
NOTES | Trauma and persisting helplessness
NOTES | Trauma and Ego
DOWNLOAD | Phobias that may impact diving
DISCUSSION | Your Takeaways?
BRIEF FEEDBACK | Four
REFERENCES & RESOURCES | Four
AIMS | Five
INTRO | Conditions and processes for healing
DOODLE | Natural Processing
QUICK QUIZ | Processing after trauma (Computer Data Analogy)
DISCUSSION | Conditions for healing
NOTES | Loss, Bereavement and Grief
DOWNLOAD | Healing After Trauma
TALK | Healing Blue Spaces
NOTES | Healing Blue Spaces
THE DIVERS | Kai reflects and makes changes
NOTES | The Role of Psychological Safety in Recovery After Trauma
QUICK QUIZ | Psychological Safety and Recovery After Trauma
NOTES | Talking can Help, or Harm
Supporting a buddy
PRESENTATION | Debrief or No Debrief?
NOTES | Trauma-Focused Debriefs
DISCUSSION | Debriefs after traumatic/distressing adverse events in diving
NOTES | Returning to diving
DOODLE | Facing fear
DISCUSSION | Returning to diving
THE DIVERS | Simon reflects and returns to diving
BRIEF FEEDBACK | Five
REFERENCES & RESOURCES | Five
Who is making & teaching the course?
Education (not therapy & not dive training)
Please note that "Talk Trauma in Scuba Diving" is an educational resource designed to provide information and insights into the psychological aspects of scuba diving. This course is not a substitute for professional psychological therapy or scuba diving instruction. It is intended to enhance awareness and knowledge for divers, diving instructors, and guides, but it does not provide therapeutic intervention or diving certification.
Participants are responsible for ensuring they are medically fit to dive and dive within the limits of their qualification and training. If you are currently experiencing psychological trauma or distress, we recommend seeking professional support. For resources and assistance, please visit our resource center at Fit to Dive.
By enrolling in this course, you acknowledge and agree that the course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute psychological therapy or professional diving instruction.
This course is addressing a sensitive issue. Care will be taken to ensure content is appropriately presented. The focus will be on key theory concepts on stress, trauma, mental health and diving performance. There will be mention of incidents in diving, through case studies and links. These will be presented respectfully and with limits on level of detail. The case studies created for the course are fictional. If there is any resemblance to an event that occurred in reality, this is coincidental and only reflects the fact that divers do experience such things occasionally. If you are currently struggling with something difficult, it may be that this is not the right time for you to take this course. If you find the content distressing, you are advised to stop and contact the author.
Contributing to Diver Wellbeing and Research
This work is not externally funded, and your enrollment in the course directly contributes to these efforts, helping to offer useful resources and support to the diving community. By joining the course, you're not only investing in your own growth and understanding but also supporting a small, independent project, that aims to support diver wellbeing.
The primary goal of this course is to help divers. The course fees are set to make the course accessible to divers and support the project. Although the value of the course is certainly higher that fees shown (in terms of content and interaction) fees are set relatively low. You get to choose what you pay: the set fee, bring-a-buddy and split the fee or show your support by contributing more.
Course Fee
Generous Supporter
Bring-a-buddy
Reviews from other courses (because Talk Trauma is too new to have reviews yet)
Lots to relate to here and a great overall look at the way panic manifests itself and how to manage it. This is relevant to all divers irrespective of experi...
Read MoreLots to relate to here and a great overall look at the way panic manifests itself and how to manage it. This is relevant to all divers irrespective of experience and has some very important lessons and tools. All divers should take this course!
Read LessI liked the course a lot! Very informative, complex psychology topics broken down into small learning units, great videos, easy to understand, huge relevance...
Read MoreI liked the course a lot! Very informative, complex psychology topics broken down into small learning units, great videos, easy to understand, huge relevance for enhancing diving know how, great for reflection your own scuber diver life and learning about yourself. Personally I think this course should be mandatory to all dive professionals (already within the IDC) but maybe it is already. During the time I made my IDC it was not. Why? Because the course showed me, that I experienced all the topics covered during my active OWSI time with students, but also as a fun diver but the course offered the possibility to put all of the experiences into great frame work. But also for fun diving it is a great course as it gives you the possibility to get insights and consciousness of yourself and your scuba diver life.
Read LessThe second of Laura’s courses I have done. Very interesting, useful and accessible.
The second of Laura’s courses I have done. Very interesting, useful and accessible.
Read LessAs scuba divers we venture into a whole different world. It can be full of wonder, but it can also lead to stressful situations. This course, "Prevent Panic ...
Read MoreAs scuba divers we venture into a whole different world. It can be full of wonder, but it can also lead to stressful situations. This course, "Prevent Panic in Scuba Diving", is a practical and eye opening study that gets to the cause and effect of how to recognize and prevent panic while diving. I highly recommend this course for any diver skill level!
Read LessLaura is a fantastic instructor and has developed a well-structured and enlightening course. Loved it!
Laura is a fantastic instructor and has developed a well-structured and enlightening course. Loved it!
Read LessYes, the course is self-paced and you may complete lessons any time.
The lessons are a mix of slides, audio, video, quizzes, discussion boards, reflective exercises, case studies etc. These are mostly made to be accessed independently, and not live recorded, because this enables clearer and more concise presentation of concepts.