Emily Greaves looks like someone she’s had her whole life with. She’s a former military officer who speaks her mind without hesitation and has a laugh like a car alarm. If you were looking around a sinking ship for someone who might know the location of a life raft, she would probably be your first choice.
So when she tells me about a friend who took his own life and begins to cry at the memory, it’s an unexpected and moving moment, and one that makes learning the story of Greaves’ work all the more fascinating. It will be something like that.
Comley Croft
Greaves is part of the mountain bike skills and coaching team at Comrie Croft in Scotland. This is a series of trails on private land that feels a world away from publicly funded forest facilities elsewhere in the country. There are no active committee approved signs. There are no digital parking meters or state-mandated fencing.
This cozy, handcrafted enclave features over 13 miles of private trails, from family-friendly blues to serious technical blacks, a skills area, full-service bike shop, and instruction or guided tours for individuals and groups. Comes with a ride. You can also eat great organic food. Shop at our fully stocked store, which carries everything from vegan chocolates to locally knitted hats. Camp either in your car, in a tent, or in Kata, Norway. Take a sauna… You can also have your wedding here. It feels like a reflection of how Greaves and her husband feel about fellow riders and outdoor enthusiasts. It’s warm, friendly and clearly a labor of love.
Perhaps this is why this location and Greaves were initially chosen to launch a unique mental health experiment with mountain biking at its heart.
headset
As riders, we all know that getting out on your bike is not only good for your body, but also for your mind. Is it an argument at home, a hard day at work, or a need for a little space and time? Go for a ride. It doesn’t make your problems go away, but the combination of adrenaline, fresh air, contact with nature, and the unparalleled focus required when you’re on the trail can put them into perspective.
This vague, often unspoken spiritual high turned out to be real. It was so real that it inspired Scottish riders, mental health professionals and academics to create a program prescribing mountain biking as therapy. Greaves was one of the first mountain bike guides and coaches to be trained as a trail therapy practitioner in Scotland, and local patients now receive self-recommendations for the program from doctors, nurses and mental health practitioners. It can be recommended. Once you’ve secured a spot, you’ll pick up a real mountain bike from a rental vehicle, be taught how to use it, and then head out with a group of other riders for two hours a week for eight weeks.
All costs will be paid by the Scottish National Health Service.
We reported on this program in 2019 and 2021, including its launch and how it was funded, but we recently had the opportunity to spend some real time with Greaves on the trail and talk about her experience delivering this program. I got it. We do therapy with real people and ask them what they think is going on in the heads of the people in the car with them.
Risk brings reward
We all know that mountain biking can be dangerous. That’s why we ride mountain bikes. Our impatience is palpable when we go against the warning signals from our brains and bodies. At the heart of the trail therapy project is a strong physical and mental response to risk, and Greaves believes that taking risks as opposed to simply being outdoors or exercising in general We want to highlight the tangible benefits of riding.
Greaves believes the healing magic of trail riding lies in the little moments, the moments that literally pass by as you ride. “This therapy involves riding an actual mountain bike, not just riding a bike, because there are aspects of it that are difficult to actually do on a real trail.” Greaves says. In other words, it has to be a really “dangerous” outdoor ride to make a real difference.
Most of us take risky moments for granted and don’t think much about what’s going on. Therefore, it is useful to approach the therapeutic benefits of dangerous features and analyze what is happening step by step, as if watching a skill video.
- When we hit a difficult surface, such as a fall or a steep roll, our brains and bodies begin to react.
- As we anticipate danger, experience fear, and our brains and bodies work at lightning speed to decide what to do, adrenaline, cortisol, and many other stress-related chemicals are in our It floods the system.
- If we are experienced riders and confident in our skills, we will use our body to navigate its features and continue to rotate. This intense feeling of pleasure that comes immediately after pulling off a tricky move is essentially the same warning system that rewards you for doing it even though you’re scared of it.
The process is wonderful How to help people with mental health problems. Learning how to ride a mountain bike on a real trail with all its bumps, drops, rocks and rolls will strengthen your ability to recognize, face and overcome stressful emotions.
In fact, Greaves believes that intentionally selecting, confronting, and managing the technical features of a trail is central to why trail therapy works. “Having that fear is really important because then you can manage your cortisol and do breathing exercises to calm yourself down and get you into a state where you can perform,” Greaves said. Ta. “Then you can see the dopamine release. You get to the bottom of a great trail and you love it and everyone’s pumped up and you’re on your feet. And it’s felt by everyone. It’s an emotion.”
Unlike talk therapy or medication, being out on the mountain bike trail and facing frequent difficult moments requires the body and mind to work together to overcome fear, resulting in participants experiencing strong positive emotions. experience. Exposure to risk gives participants like Corey Davis* the mental and physical tools to face similar emotions in other aspects of life. She’s using the lessons she learned on the trail in ways she never expected.
“Emotional control, decision-making, that helps,” Davis said. “When you feel stressed or scared, you can replace it with going to an interview, calling the gas company, or doing whatever else you need to do.”
do work
This isn’t just a whimsical experiment. The Scottish Trail Therapy Program was founded by occupational therapist Niamh Allen, herself a keen rider, who believed that cycling in the mountains had a measurable effect on all kinds of mental health issues. This is the result of collaboration with Mountain Biking Development and other local stakeholders. To find funding to train Greaves and his colleague Scott Murray as the first official practitioners. Since the program began in 2018, inquiries have been received from all over the world. It is cheaper than individual therapy sessions, takes advantage of existing trail resources during quieter weekday hours, and does not conflict with or add to other therapies people may be receiving, such as counseling or drug treatment. There’s nothing to fight against.
It’s worth it.
Ms Greaves emphasized that the significant benefits she has seen come from the group itself. She watched them bond over the stress and success of working on the dreaded function, building mutual support in the weeks they shared. The group signs up to rent bikes for two hours a week, but they often end up riding longer, and by the third week they’ve joined in on their own purchased bikes, or on a larger scale without her help. Sometimes I plan long rides.
Greaves is the last person in the world to seek honor for the work he does. But she always mentions the intimate conversations she had with John Hollingdon, an early participant and cheerleader in the program, as one of her fondest memories of working on the project.
“He said trail therapy had worked for him better than any medical intervention, tablets etc. he had ever tried. That’s really important to me because my friend Gareth has been working for 2 years. I had committed suicide before, and it was horrible. I said, ‘If only I could stop other people from doing something like that…’ John looked at me and said, ‘You do that. “I guess so.”
*Some names have been changed to protect the anonymity of participants.
