Surf and Turf Therapy

Committed to bettering lives through nontraditional therapeutic activities, including surfing and horseback riding.

Surf and turf therapy was founded in 2018 by Dr. Jillian Stewart, a physical therapist and hippotherapy clinical specialist, who saw a need for additional opportunities for people with disabilities and their families to participate in activities within the community. Surf and Turf Therapy provides physical, occupational and speech therapy services to people with disabilities, targeting traditional, functional goals through non-traditional approaches, including surfing and horseback riding. These unique approaches offer unparalleled opportunities to address deficits in strength, stability, body awareness, coordination, safety awareness, tone management, flexibility, attention and sensory integration. The focus of treatment is to improve daily life skills, such as walking, postural alignment, talking, and writing, rather than simply teaching individuals how to surf or ride. Siblings and parents are also invited to join in treatment sessions, with therapy emphasizing fun, function and inclusion.

Our goal is to serve everyone in need, regardless of their ability to pay. We get new inquiries from interested participants on a weekly basis and have been experiencing consistent growth in demand for our services since forming in 2018.

1. Last year we were able to provide scholarships for 35% of our participants, valued at over $180,000, while also continuing to build our reserves and ensure sustainability as a young organization.
2. We grew to serve up to 90 individuals each week, while operating year round, in our traditional programs while also building additional community based opportunities based on interest from those we serve.

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Current Goals

1. Secure a property for an integrated health center, offering a forever home for our equine programming, while expanding clinical access and adding aquatic therapy programming.
2. Begin offering both private and group mental health programming, with equine-facilitated psychotherapy, to support families of people with disabilites, as well as those facing various mental health diagnoses.
3. Find a dedicated volunteer or hire a part time office assistant to support daily operations, as our current assistant will be heading mental health operations post graduation.

Due to the consistent increase in request for services from the community, we are looking to raise funds to purchase a purchase a property to support both sustainability and growth. A property has already been identified and a loan secured to make this possible. The total need for aquisition and phase one development to allow transition of the equine programming is $6,500,000. Additionally, a volunteer office manager available 15 hours per week would be welcomed, lowering our salary budget while maintaining necessary operational support.

We are also looking to add board or committee members who are passionate about our mission with skills in any of the following areas - human resources, accounting, fundraising, event planning, and law.

We operate the Turf (hippotherapy) side of our program in San Juan Capistrano and the Surf (surf therapy) in Dana Point. We have partipants from all over Orange County, with large reach - especially on the surf side, as there are no other local organizations providing medically based physical, occupational and speech therapy services using surfing as a primary treatment tool for the special needs community.

We are in our third year offering a summer surf opportunity in West Michigan, enjoying the fresh water waves of the great lakes. While the primary programming is in Orange County, we are well known on a national and international scale, with doctor of physical therapy students coming from across the country, and Executive Director providing lectures at universities in the United States and on a global scale at the International Surf Therapy Organization.

At Surf and Turf Therapy we value quality over quantity and inclusion over exclusivity. Our goal has always been to meet the needs of the community, with high standards for the quality of care we provide, whether that is for 1 patient or 100 patients. We value inclusion and collaboration, partnering with other organizations to ensure the needs of the entire family are met, including supporting neurotypical siblings, who are encouraged to participate alongside their sibling(s) with a disability, both in the surf and on the turf. Additionally, in 2022 we began offering free horsemanship classes to children from the low income neighborhood adjacent to our current facility. These kids see horses through a fence daily but are limited financially in their ability to access them. Through this program we have identified children with additional needs, who are now a part of our therapy program and had some participants return as volunteers, with a spark of passion for horses and giving back that was ignited during their free programming with us.

Though our hippotherapy and surf programming are almost equal in terms of the number we have served. We have have gained international recognition for our work - including a featured image in the New York Times, a feature in the E! News article "Meet 13 heroes who are inspiring America with their selfless work," nomination's for awards such a "Women Making a Difference" and "The Aloha Award," and local news coverage, as well as referrals from therapists abroad for collaboration in research projects, as well as observation of our work and mentorship.

Surf and Turf Therapy has grown from passion with an enormous desire to fill a niche with which humanity seemed to be overlooking. The original passion comes to us from our Founder, Dr. Jillian Stewart, which led her to step out into the role of leader, creator, horse wrangler, water walker and above all a compassionate and knowledgeable therapist. It was the true grit of this woman that also inspired the passion of a strong circle of supporters, confidants and fellow humanitarians that has seen our organization grow from an idea in late 2018 to an organization that provides over 3000 service hours annually. Surf and Turf Therapy pushed through its infancy during one of the most challenging times for organizations that rely on the goodwill of others to exist.

The successes of our organization in these first fives years were not only founding and running a high quality hippotherapy campus but driving an industry first, of a national standard, for surfing as a treatment technique in the physical therapy sector. We rose to meet the need of our community, increasing from 6 weekly treatment hours to 45 weekly hours in just two years, with continued growth ever since.

The objective of any founding organization should be a high standard of care and consistent performance of its mission paired with operational soundness and constant visionary development. We have grown from a circle of friends and volunteers to advisors, advocates and stewards of that vision.

Like any institution growing from the ground up, the challenges are surrounding the ability to sustain the level of care we are providing, while growing to meet the need of the community. There is a constant need for more supporters and members emeritus to grow with us. Whether it be addressing the complexities of sharing the message in media, human resources and operations, navigating the legal landscape or grant writing, we have risen to the occasion, but look to add true experts to our team as growth continues.

Thank you for your consideration and support!