After traumatic loss, many people describe feeling stuck.
Stuck in memories. Stuck in fear. Stuck in survival mode. Stuck in a nervous system that no longer feels safe in the world.
Even everyday life can begin to feel heavy, effortful, and disconnected. Over the years, through my work as a counselling psychologist and EMDR therapist, I have come to understand that healing does not always happen sitting still. Sometimes, healing begins in movement.
This is part of why we created Flow-Traverse — our bespoke EMDR skiing retreat in the Italian Alps.
The name Flow-Traverse came from two ideas that sit at the heart of the retreat. Flow refers to the psychological state where we become fully absorbed in the present moment. Traverse is the act of moving across difficult terrain. Together, they represent something many grieving people are trying to do every single day: move through something incredibly difficult whilst slowly finding moments of presence, confidence, and freedom again.
From 17th–23rd March 2027, we will bring together skiing, EMDR, trauma-informed support, and time in the mountains in a way that feels steady, supportive, and deeply human.
Skiing is often thought of as simply a sport of the mountains, but in reality, skiing is just as much a sport of the mind.
Whether someone is learning a snowplough for the first time or confidently navigating steeper terrain, skiing asks us to stay present. To regulate fear. To trust our body again. To focus on what is directly in front of us. And for many people after traumatic loss, that becomes surprisingly therapeutic.
Because trauma pulls us backwards into memories, fear, hypervigilance, and overwhelm. Skiing gently asks something different: be here, notice your breath, stay with this moment, trust yourself one turn at a time.
This is where flow state begins to emerge.
Flow state is a deeply focused state of presence where attention becomes fully absorbed in an activity. Many people experience it through movement — skiing, surfing, running, motorcycling, art, music, or creativity. During flow state, the mind quiets. The constant looping thoughts and emotional intensity that often accompany grief can soften, even temporarily.
Not because grief disappears, but because the nervous system experiences something different: presence, movement, challenge, safety, mastery, confidence, and embodiment all at once.
After sudden or traumatic loss, many people also lose confidence in themselves and in life. Learning or advancing a skill like skiing can gently begin to rebuild self-trust, resilience, confidence, and a feeling of agency again.
Alongside the skiing experience, participants will also take part in EMDR-informed sessions each afternoon.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based trauma therapy designed to help the brain process distressing experiences that feel “stuck.” Trauma can overwhelm the nervous system’s ability to fully process what has happened, leaving people carrying flashbacks, guilt, fear, shame, or body tension long after the event itself.
EMDR helps the brain begin to integrate these experiences more adaptively.
At Flow-Traverse, EMDR is not used in isolation. It is combined with movement, fresh air, nervous system regulation, challenge, connection, co-regulation, rest, and support. Because many people do not process trauma purely through talking. Sometimes the body needs movement too.
One of the things that makes this retreat different is the level of support throughout the experience. This is not a typical ski holiday where a lesson ends and participants are left to navigate the rest of the day alone. Instead, the ski instructors and support team remain alongside the group throughout the day – on the lifts, during lunch, between runs, and in the quieter moments too.
The retreat will remain intentionally small and carefully held, with a maximum of 20 participants and skiing groups of no more than six people. Whether someone is completely new to skiing or highly experienced, the aim is to create an environment where people feel both supported and gently challenged in the right way.
Interestingly, this retreat is stretching me too.
I have recently bought my very first pair of ski boots and will be learning and practising more myself over the coming months ahead of the retreat. I’ll also be blogging honestly about that journey – what it feels like to learn something new later in life, to surrender to being a beginner again, and to discover how movement, challenge, fear, confidence, and healing often intertwine more than we realise.
Over the past few years, I’ve learnt to ride a motorbike, learnt to surf, and now skiing is becoming another part of that journey for me personally. Each experience has reminded me that healing can sometimes come through reconnecting with ourselves in motion – not just in stillness.
One of the most powerful things we witnessed during our first EMDR retreat was this: people laughed again.
Not because they had forgotten their person, and not because the grief disappeared. But because, for moments at a time, they felt safe enough to reconnect with themselves, with others, and with life.
That is part of what Flow-Traverse hopes to offer too.
Not a quick fix. Not forced positivity. Not escaping grief. But an opportunity to move with it differently.
To discover that grief and joy really can co-exist. And that life can still hold movement, connection, confidence, and meaning after traumatic loss.
If you would like to join our exclusive group at the first ever skiing retreat for grief in the world, please go to EMDR Traumatic Grief Skiing Retreat | Italy | March 2027 for more information.
With Love
Dr Sue