Waterpeople

Holly Beck: Simplicity + Therapy

Aug 10, 2025 · 1 hr 29 min · Season 7 · Episode 6 · 129.4 MBExplicit
0:00-1:29:49

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Is there a particular fear that's still holding you back? 

Holistic surf therapist and coach Holly Beck talks us through the way she sees terrestrial life play out in the water -  in terms of how we behave and how we engage with others and with the ocean. 

Holly spent 10 years as a professional surfer, where she pioneered new pathways for women in the industry as a competitor, savvy freesurfer and as president of International Women's Surfing, a largely forgotten union to push for equal pay and opportunity in the early 2000s. 

In the year 2000, Holly took home the Teen Choice award for Female Extreme Athlete. She was also one of surfing’s first reality TV stars: as one of seven pro surfers filmed and followed on Oahu’s North Shore during the 2002 Triple Crown of Surfing.

Holly moved to Central America at age 30, eventually building a tiny off-grid home that pulled focus on her values. 

Holly has a degree in psychology, an MBA, and a master’s in counselling. She is the founder Surf With Amigas – an all-inclusive surf and yoga retreat for adventurous women – which she’s run for the last 15 years from her homebase in Central America. 

Today she is part of innovating the space of therapeutic surf coaching – a modality that combines experiential and talk therapy with surf coaching to elucidate clients mental wellbeing, while also improving their surfing.

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Co-Hosts + Production: Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich

Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander

Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll

Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray   + Ben J Alexander 

Closing track: 'Sunseekers' by Andysixstring

Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast 

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Thanks to our generous sponsors this season:

Patagonia Australia: in business to save our home planet

Ngalung Kalla Eco Retreat: surf adventure paradise 

The Sunglass Fix: give your favourite sunglasses new life

Sodii: hydration for salty humans

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