Healing Adventure Trauma: Julia Yanker on How Adventurers Can Get Back Into the Activities They Love

For Episode #6 of A Beginner’s Guide to Packrafing & Bikerafing, we did interview with Julia Yanker, a long-time packrafter, life coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, aka trauma resolution specialist. My primary goal with chatting with Julia was to really find out what can be done for adventurers who experienced trauma that now affects the other adventures they partake in. 

I had a terrible climbing accident 6 years ago that increased my levels of anxiety exponentially, no matter the activity I’m doing, but primarily in regards to packrafting. This manifests in an irrational fear of whitewater. For example, I’ve done the Grand Canyon twice. But despite that I have an unreasonablefear of the big waves, though I’ve swam a few dozen times on the Colorado, and I have always been fine. But still, when I even just think about the Grand Canyon

now, my heart beats faster, my palms sweat, and I get a constriction in my chest.  No joke! I wanted to talk with Julia to see if there was anything I could do about this seemingly irrational fear. And she told me, yes, there is, in fact, a way to deal with it. So in addition to delving into her personal background and packrafting history, we talk about how to alleviate trauma experienced while adventuring. I hope you enjoy this podcast!

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