“Sometimes it’s hard to sit in a room and have somebody staring at you, waiting for you to say something. Riding alongside next to somebody, it’s amazing what it will bring up.”

>>> It’s time to talk about mountain biking and mental health

Everyone who rides a bike knows that cycling is good for the mood. It’s virtually impossible to come back from a bike ride in a worse mood than the one you started with.

For some people, bikes are more than just modest mood improvers. They can be vital lifelines away from serious problems and destructive issues.

The video above features Heather Russell from Sacred Cycle, an organisation that helps survivors of sexual trauma. Sacred Cycle uses mountain bikes and mountain biking as an essential part of therapy; to help people heal on wheels. It’s partly used as a way of getting trauma survivors to re-connect in a positive way with the bodies.

“I started Sacred Cycle because I was broken-hearted by the suffering I witnessed as a mental health therapist. I wanted people who have not experienced sexual trauma to understand the magnitude of the pain this type of trauma causes, the prevalence of sexual violence, and I wanted to offer hope and healing to as many survivors as possible. I think the scale in which we’ve been able to reach and impact has been small, but I’ve noticed significant changes in our supporters, board members, and people who come to our fundraising events.”

“I think bicycles work for trauma recovery in endless ways that I’ve discovered through personal experience, and now that I’ve been working on Sacred Cycle, I’ve had countless people reach out about how bikes have changed their outlook on life for the better.”