……. And it’s all down to treading positivity, sports research implies
Research in goal setting and orientation from leading sports and exercise psychologists believe that this is the key psychological factor in rehabilitation research at the surface of success to recovery in PTSD and TBI
Scuba diving as an adaptive sport for war veterans and people with life-changing disabilities through traumatic injuries could well be the healing recreational therapy in reducing the symptoms caused by Post traumatic stress disorder and Traumatic brain injury. The sport has shown to elicit “exciting” and “fun” responses with the opportunity to “be challenged” and feel more “aware” and “in control” in a past motivation survey completed by disabled divers.
According to specific therapeutic recreation research (in the field of outcomes of adaptive sports and recreation participation amongst war veterans) this is exactly what Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists should structure their programmes around – positive thoughts and recognition of self-achievement!
Research in Adaptive sports and response among veterans has been sparse and underrated for years and has had little spotlight. Deptherapy and Deptherapy Education is the charity aimed at turning up the volume on this deserving cause by providing contacts and resources and offering training courses for scuba diving instructors to teach war veterans and the general public to achieve PADI OW diver status. Sponsors of this charity also include Miss Scuba UK – an annual pageant event fundraising and raising awareness.
A recent study in the Disability and Health Journal highlighted the success of adaptive sports in promoting higher quality of life scores and life satisfaction scores in disabled participants involved in the adaptive sports than disabled people who did not get involved.
Studies in sports therapy and rehabilitation have shouted out at the key successes in adherence to rehabilitation programmes centred on the three key principles of “positive self-talk, goal setting and healing imagery”.
Evidence has also shown that implicit processing of traumatic memories and fear conditioning are both mechanisms for the development of PTSD. Therefore it is vitally important that rehabilitation is set in a stress-controlled environment and is sensitive to supporting both “the invisible wounds of war” and give back the internal feeling of control. Deptherapy provides this avenue of support allowing a person to gain confidence and earn a strong sense of pride in the physical challenges they will overcome that they never thought could be possible.
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