‘There’s no labels here’: Therapy mixed with boxing to build key life skills in St. Augustine

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Two local organizations have teamed up to create a therapeutic approach to boxing.

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It’s called the Core Boxing Program, and the goal is to provide an outlet for teens and adults to build key life skills.

The program is led by Ride the Waves Therapy Services owner Jana Sanford-Heller and Saint Augustine Boxing owner Mike Sharman.

“There’s no labels here,” Sharman said. “There’s no nonsense. It’s a place where anyone can be just anyone.”

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The Core Boxing Program kicked off last year and was originally designed for teenagers on the spectrum, those with anxiety and depression disorders, trauma, PTSD and sensory processing issues.

They later realized that the adult population in drug and alcohol rehab centers also could benefit from it, as well as at-risk youth.

“If you remove a behavior from someone’s life they’re using to address things like mental health, you have to replace it with something,” Sanford-Heller said. “What the program is aiming to do for them is prevent going home and isolating and not being social. We want to get ahead of all those behaviors.”

This comes after program leaders say many kids, teens and adults have missed out on a healthy outlet over the past two years.

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Action News Jax is told those who can benefit include individuals in in-patient and behavioral health units, group homes, rehab centers, after-school programs and other outpatient facilities.

Sharman described what he has noticed about the participants’ demeanor after being in the boxing ring.

“The confidence is awesome,” Sharman said. “To give a kid that spends all day in school where he knows he’s different and where everyone treats him different, and then to see him walk out with confidence and say I’m ringer, I’m the nuclear bomb.”

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The first step to joining the program is a referral and then a screening by Ride the Wave Therapy Services. Insurance can be run for patients with Ride the Wave Therapy Services for a lower cost, but Sanford-Heller said private pay rates are relatively affordable. The goal is to make the services accessible to everyone.

“It’s that healthy outlet that everybody needs,” Sanford-Heller said. “It’s a social skills building activity that a lot of people struggle with. When you leave here, you’re gonna feel great.”

You can contact Ride the Wave Therapy Services for more information.

“Boxing is coined the loneliest sport, but in actuality, it’s the sport you actually truly find yourself,” Sharman said.

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