Water Women provides trauma-informed surf therapy programmes for women who have experienced trauma. Through connection with the sea, movement, and community, we create opportunities for healing, confidence and empowerment.
Female-founded and female-led, Water Women is rooted in a growing body of research exploring the benefits of blue space health and intervention therapies. We create safe, supportive environments where women can reconnect with themselves, build confidence, develop new skills and experience the physical and emotional benefits of being in and around water.
We are honoured to partner with Next Link, a domestic abuse service supporting women and children across Bristol and the surrounding area. Through this partnership, women are referred directly to Water Women to take part in our programmes.
The need for services like Next Link is significant. In the past year alone, they have supported more than 8,000 adult survivors and 1,500 children. With 1 in 5 adults experiencing domestic abuse during their lifetime and more than 834,000 domestic abuse-related incidents reported in the last year, specialist support is vital within our communities.
Water Women exists to offer something alongside that essential support: a space where women can move beyond survival, reconnect with their bodies, discover their strength and experience what is possible when they are supported by the sea and by one another.
Founded by surfer Siona McClenaghan in 2026, the organisation draws on her years of professional experience as a Social Worker and Surf Coach, alongside her own lived experience as a trauma survivor who found healing through the water. While studying to become a Social Worker, she wrote her thesis on Blue Space Health & Intervention Therapies.
Siona and Sophie have been friends since they were 5 years old. Sophie is a civil servant with a background in the humanitarian aid sector working for the UN and international NGOs. Siona taught Sophie to surf in India. It then became a much-loved way to unwind whilst Sophie was living and working in Myanmar, and has been ever since.
