ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1613418
Wave of Change: Assessing Surf Therapy's Psychological and Physiological Benefits for Military Veterans Using Wearable Technology
Provisionally accepted
- San Diego State University, San Diego, United States
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Mental health issues, particularly among military veterans, are a growing concern.Veterans disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, and PTSD, often exacerbated by combat-related stressors. While pharmacological treatments yield mixed outcomes, interest in nonpharmacological interventions like surf therapy is increasing; however, empirical evidence remains limited.This study offers critical new evidence supporting ocean surf therapy as a promising complementary intervention for military veterans with PTSD. Statistically and clinically significant reductions were observed across anxiety (up to 59% reduction), depression (up to 44% reduction), and PTSD symptoms (up to 38% reduction), with benefits maintained at 30 days post-intervention. Wearable technology provided objective data on sleep and heart rate variability, adding physiological context to self-reported psychological outcomes. While this study did not assess cost-effectiveness or stigma directly, the findings help expand the empirical base for nature-based therapies and support the case for further evaluation of scalable, community-based mental health strategies for underserved populations.
Keywords: flow1, surf therapy2, alternative therapy3, technology4, mental health5
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ossie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jonathan Edward Ossie, San Diego State University, San Diego, United States
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