MUDJIMBA: A woman has launched a surf therapy program designed for female veterans.

Many have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from their deployment, sexual assault or chronic exposure to stress.

It’s hoped the program can be expanded to help more ex-servicewomen across Australia.

As dawn breaks over Mudjimba Beach, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, a woman rallies the troops for their morning mission.

They are armed with surfboards and there is a nervous energy in the crisp autumn air.

Most of the women have just met, and the ocean did not get the memo that a bunch of beginners was about to hit the waves.

“The surf on day one was massive, like six to eight feet, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to host this?’,” Tammy Grant said.

Ms Grant, the event organiser, soldiered on knowing that if anyone could handle a challenge it would be a group of female veterans.

“We ended up getting them out on the boards and in the whitewash,” Ms Grant said.

“Just to see the very same people who were so depressed just two hours earlier have these massive smiles … let go of the ‘strong girl’ facade and enjoy the moment with a bunch of other bad-ass women — it was incredible.”

‘I’d felt nothing’

The surf therapy retreat, believed to be the first of its kind in Australia tailored specifically for female veterans, was held in March.

Ms Grant spent 14 years in the defence force, and the next seven years trying to recover from her experience.

“I came from quite a traumatic childhood, then I went on to join the army when I was about 19 years old, experiencing my first deployment to Afghanistan when I was 22, so it’s a bit of a shock,” she said.

Having initially served as a transport operator, she then became a nursing officer.

“I got diagnosed with PTSD as a result of my childhood, stuff that’s happened in my service in terms of deployment, and some sexual assault kind of stuff,” she said.

She tried all kinds of therapies until she finally found solace in the surf, through the Waves of Wellness program.

“When I was out in the water, I could feel my body responding — I could feel alive,” she said.

“I felt amazing when, the last six, seven years I’d felt just … nothing.”