(From left) Counselor Carolyn Sharff and client Sam Luckett climb together at Peak Experiences in Midlothian.
Sam Luckett is a numbers guy. A love of the quantifiable, as well as a newfound love of indoor climbing, keeps him sober after a multiyear battle with alcohol use disorder. The 64-year-old Bon Air resident tracks his sobriety to the second with a mobile app. Just a couple of weeks ago, he clocked in at well over 135 days. The occasion was marked by a jubilant phone notification.
“My next milestone will be six months,” he says, showing off the ticker on his phone screen with a hopeful smile.
As part of his recovery, Luckett has enlisted the help of Carolyn Sharff, a counselor and licensed clinical social worker. Through Beyond the Crux Counseling in Midlothian and in collaboration with instructors at Peak Experiences climbing gym, she offers therapeutic climbing group sessions. Luckett says learning how to perfect his movements on the wall and honing the rope management skills needed to keep himself and other climbers safe has given him greater patience with the recovery process.
“[I] slowed down [when] I normally would have given up [on the wall],” he says. “Now, I’m learning that I can hang out there a minute and shake my arms out.”
Sharff leverages the experiential learning aspects of rock climbing to treat substance use disorders and codependency and to foster women’s empowerment. Her clients develop goal-setting and achievement strategies; build self-confidence, trust and problem-solving skills; and practice mindfulness.
“I want for them to be able to develop and gain a different perspective of themselves, because I think they often come into counseling with a certain thought about who they are, or what they can achieve,” Sharff says.
She adds that when her climbers arrive at Peak Experiences feeling depressed or inadequate, they often leave with a sense of accomplishment just by putting on their climbing harnesses, tying into the rope and getting on the wall. Frequently, they surpass their own expectations.
“They get further than they thought they were going to get and helped someone else achieve their goals,” she says.
Sharff started climbing two decades ago to deal with health problems.
Sharff, 60, turned to climbing 20 years ago after health problems led to a series of collapsed lungs, threatened her life and sidelined her from exercise. Climbing allowed her to gain confidence in her body’s ability to rehabilitate as she conquered routes indoors and outdoors.
“Climbing helped me wrestle with some of my demons,” she says. “Climbing helped me trust myself and trust by body’s ability to do.”
Sharff started Beyond the Crux Counseling a year and a half ago to grant others the same transformative experiences. She traveled to Austria to study at the Institute of Climbing Therapy and was certified as an outdoor educator by the National Outdoor Leadership School in the U.S.
Climbing is inherently mindful, Sharff says. Moving on the wall requires mental focus, especially when sticking moves at the crux of a problem or a climbing route.
“When you’re [on the wall], you’re just facing the next problem,” she says. “On a route you just have one problem after another, and that’s what life is about. So, really helping people look at what’s right in front of them, because our tendency is, if we’re anxious, is to be fearful of the future.”
Climbing may be as effective, if not more, than traditional cognitive therapies to alleviate symptoms of depression, according to a 2017 study by researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. The study compared two groups of patients being treated at two psychiatric hospitals in Erlangen, Germany, over eight weeks. One group immediately worked with facilitators to learn bouldering, a form of ropeless climbing on low walls. The control group waited to start bouldering, and both groups attended classes on mindfulness. Additionally, the climbers talked about how they felt after being on the wall and how they might incorporate lessons learned while bouldering into their lives, which is similar to Sharff’s approach. Those who started bouldering earlier showed significant improvement in numerical scores of levels of depression in comparison with the control group.
When Luckett and two other participants gather every Thursday at Peak Experience’s Midlothian location, the social aspect of climbing seems to lift moods as they ascend the brightly colored foot- and handholds. The men encourage each other and share laughs. The climbers learn to trust their foot placements and each other as they practice catching each other by belaying, a technique that depends on a braking device to provide halting friction to the rope.
Climbing is an effective deterrent of the rumination that can often lead to problem drinking and depression, says John, a 59-year-old Beyond the Crux climber recovering from alcohol use disorder. He declined to give his full name due to the stigma of substance abuse.
For John, the greatest benefit when he takes off his climbing shoes and harness is that he feels lighter and more determined to stay sober.
“You just don’t have time to think about the ex-girlfriend you’ve lost or the family that won’t speak to you or the employer who got rid of you,” he says. “It just takes your mind away, so you go home and you feel good.”
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