Child therapy & counseling · Manhattan Beach
Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation
Free therapist-led talking circles and surfing at South Bay beaches for children and young adults with special needs and neurodivergent participants.
- Ages
- Up to age 21
- Price
- Free
- Where
- 2006 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach
Special Needs Ocean Therapy (surf therapy)
Free Ocean Therapy sessions for children and young adults with special needs and neurodivergent participants, held at South Bay beaches. Each session is led by licensed or associate therapists or clinicians, who guide a talking circle before and after surfing around a theme for the day. Certified, CPR-trained surf instructors teach surfing, and lifeguard safety coordinators watch the water. The aims are self-confidence, self-efficacy, trust and basic ocean safety, and participants go at their own pace. The special needs sessions started in 2022 with the Friendship Foundation and now also run with Mychal's Learning Place and families affected by Down Syndrome Regression Disorder. The foundation also runs an Ocean and Surf Therapy camp with Friendship Foundation. Sessions cost nothing for participants and are posted on the foundation's yearly sessions calendar.
- Ocean/surf therapy, Therapist-led talking circles, Adaptive surfing and Ocean safety
- Where care happens: Out in the community: parks, stores, playdates
- All Ocean Therapy sessions are free to participants.
About Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Manhattan Beach, created to honor South Bay waterman Jimmy Miller by sharing his love of the ocean and surfing with people living with mental, emotional and physical illness. It developed Ocean Therapy, which pairs therapist-led group discussion with surfing. The first program began in 2005 for underprivileged and abused children in Los Angeles, and it has since grown to serve military members and veterans, at-promise youth, healthcare workers, first responders, survivors and people with special needs. It is a founding member of the International Surf Therapy Organization.
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Founding member of the International Surf Therapy Organization
Where and how to reach them
2006 N. Sepulveda Blvd., #331Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Details from jimmymillerfoundation.org, checked October 12, 2026. Prices, dates and spaces change: check with Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation before you sign up. Something wrong or missing? Write to hello@summerground.com.
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