That human beings could walk barefoot across hot coals would seem to defy common sense, but for Tony Simons, a certified firewalk instructor who regularly holds workshops on firewalking, it is a way to break down psychological barriers and bring out people's inner strengths.

"Firewalking can be extremely transformative for people," said Simons. "It can really change your life."

A typical firewalk workshop starts off with Simons giving some empowerment exercises that are designed to help participants conquer their fear. One such exercise, Simons said, involves writing down bad habits on a board, such as laziness or procrastination, and then breaking the board in two. It's all in line with the overall purpose of the fire walk, which Simons said is to raise people's courage.

"This isn't so much about giving you courage, as helping you realize the courage you already have," said Simons. "Firewalking helps people overcome their fear and self-doubt. And later in life, when you're overcoming other challenges, you can think, 'I can do this, because I walked through fire.'"

Simons told a story of how the fire walk recently helped a young woman who needed, as he put it, a "shot of courage."

"This woman is a single mom, and she was facing an operation, and she was understandably scared about it," said Simons. "She was incapacitated, where she had this fear and couldn't change her circumstances. But the fire walk helped her to realize that she had courage."

Simons is a certified firewalk instructor, and he was trained at the Firewalk Institute for Research and Education, which is the same group that trained self-help guru Tony Robbins, another big firewalking aficionado. Simons also said that he draws quite a bit on the teachings of Tolly Burkan, the father of the modern firewalk movement, such as the idea that the firewalk is a metaphor for principles that can be applied vividly and directly to one's life.