Meet the Neuropsychologist Who Turned Surf Therapy Into a Way of Life
Interview by Dreamsea

What happens when a neuropsychologist decides the therapy room isn’t cutting it anymore?

You get Djai: a Dutch therapist who swapped the office for the ocean and now leads life-changing retreats that blend surfing, yoga, psychotherapy, and mindfulness training. Think surfboards instead of couches, yoga mats instead of clipboards and a salty way of looking at what really matters.

We caught up with him to talk about why wiping out can be more healing than talking between four walls, how the ocean brings your inner world to the surface, and what it truly means to meet yourself out there in the waves.

An interview with Djai, founder of Ripple Surf Therapy

Dreamsea: Let’s start with the obvious: Why surfing? Why not just stick to traditional therapy?

Surfing is the sport I love most, and probably the one that challenges me the most too. It’s pure joy one moment, and complete chaos the next. It connects me to nature, to my body, and provides me with that elusive state of flow. But at the same time, it also brings up everything I usually prefer to keep hidden, like my perfectionism, impatience, need for control, and even competitiveness.

And that’s precisely why I learned so much from it.

Because while I was out there, doing something that was supposed to bring me joy, I kept on being confronted by all these internal struggles. It was there, more than ever before, that I started applying what I knew as a psychologist to myself. The ocean and the surfing became a mirror, and it helped me tremendously in being a better version of myself.

Once I experienced that kind of insight in my body, not just in my head, I knew I couldn’t keep my work as a therapist confined to four walls anymore.

Dreamsea: So what exactly does surfing do for someone’s mental health?

There’s multiple lines through which this works.

Firstly, there is presence. When you’re in the ocean, there’s no room to ruminate or plan ahead. You’re focused on the wave right in front of you. We call that flow, a full immersion in what you’re doing. That kind of forced mindfulness is powerful, it gets you out of your head and into the here and now and that has real cognitive and emotional benefits. We know from research that it enhances mood, creativity, and helps quiet that constant inner commentary.

Then there’s the physical activity. Our bodies are made to move, and we don’t move nearly enough if you ask me. Add to that the fact that emotions, and in particular stress, also create this tension, or locked up energy, we’re a ticking bomb. Energy that gets stuck in the body has its effect on the head. Movement is the way to loosen that up and help you calm your mind, and only from a calm mind are you able to have proper reflections.

And last but not least, there’s the deep shift that happens when someone realises: “I can do hard things.” Surfing is not an easy sport at all! Falling, paddling back out, trying again, it becomes this metaphor for life. There is no better feeling than to overcome some kind of obstacle. You need a ‘win’ every now and again, and when we go surfing you will get that. 100% guaranteed. People start to reconnect with their own strength, their resilience. It’s not abstract. It’s in their body. It’s real.

Dreamsea: That sounds like a healing experience in itself. What would someone need the therapy for then?

Great question! The way I see it is that surfing helps bring your inner world to the surface, and the therapy helps you really work with it.

The ocean has a way of bringing up whatever’s there. Fear, control, frustration, even joy, they are all part of the patterns we have on land too. The therapeutic work introduces new concepts that helps people understand what those reactions are really about. Together, we create a space to reflect, to look at old patterns with fresh eyes, and to learn how to change some of those habits that don’t serve us.

Now it’s one thing to understand your patterns. It’s another thing to meet them head-on in a wave, then come back to shore and unpack what happened, with the support of your therapist and with tools you can actually use.

That’s the power of combining surfing with therapy. First comes understanding, then experience, then integration.

Dreamsea: You mentioned people face the same struggles in the ocean that they do on land. What kind of patterns come up most often during the retreats?

The most common things are also the most human. Stress, anxiety, overwhelm, feeling stuck, or just feeling a bit lost. A general feeling of unhappiness, or knowing that you’re not making the most out of this life… But while the surface reasons vary, like burnout, relationship struggles, feeling lost, the general reason why people feel the way they do is often the same: rigidity.

Rigidity in how they relate to their thoughts, to their emotions, but also in their identity, regarding the roles they think they have to fulfill in life. People try to control the uncontrollable, avoiding what’s painful, and somewhere along the way they’ve forgotten to move towards what actually matters to them.

So that’s where we begin. For us, the goal of therapy is to help people move again. To create more psychological flexibility. More room. Because the moment you stop fighting your experience, and start turning toward what matters, everything begins to shift.

Dreamsea: And you’re the one guiding people through all this?

Not just me! I co-lead the retreats alongside a small team of experienced surf coaches, yoga instructors, and fellow psychologists. It’s very much a collaborative effort. Everyone brings their own strengths, and together we create the container that holds the week.

Our role as therapists is to guide the deeper inner process, to create a space where people feel safe enough to open up, supported enough to explore what’s happening, and to get to a level of skill that is enough to take what they discover back into their daily lives.

Every element of the retreat, the surfing, therapy, yoga, mindfulness, community, all of it, is designed to support growth and connection. And it works! People arrive carrying tension and uncertainty. By the end of the week, they’re more grounded, more open, more in tune with themselves and their direction.

After the retreat is done there is a 6-week online aftercare, where we check in, share updates, and continue to support one another. What’s beautiful is what happens after. People go home and start making changes they’ve been putting off for years. They begin to choose for themselves again. They reconnect with joy, clarity, purpose. That sense of being stuck or disconnected starts to dissolve. They begin to remember: I am the captain of my ship.

Dreamsea: Is there a moment from one of the retreats that really stuck with you? Something that sums up what this is all about?

One that really stayed with me was from a woman in her early 30s. She came on retreat feeling completely burnt out. She had a good job in the city, a full social calendar, everything that looks “right” from the outside. But at the same time she was exhausted. She told me during out intake, “I don’t know what I’m doing all this for anymore.”

In the beginning of the week, you could clearly see how her patterns showed up in the water. Pushing herself hard, getting frustrated when she didn’t get it right, constantly comparing herself to others in the group. It was like she just couldn’t relax .

But as the days went on, she started letting go of that need to control everything. She began to enjoy the learning process, even the falling. She opened up more in the group sessions, and you could see the shift! It wasn’t huge or dramatic, just honest. She had this epiphany and said “I’m realizing how far I’ve drifted from what actually matters to me.”

A few weeks later, she messaged me. She’d asked for time off from work. Booked a trip she’d been putting off for years. Started volunteering at a place that she loved and incorporated alone time in her weekly schedule. In her words: “I’m not saying everything’s solved, but I finally feel like I’m the one making the calls again. Like I’m steering my life instead of being steered.”

That’s what these retreats do. You should be the captain of your ship, and we intend to get you there again.

And honestly, as a therapist, that kind of shift in just one week? That’s something you don’t see in a regular setting. This is like 6 months of therapy condensed into 7 days. This combination—the ocean, the therapy, the space, the group—it creates momentum. People remember who they are, and they start choosing for themselves again.