Walking Therapy
How Would I Describe Walking Therapy As A Therapeutic Model?
Also known as walk and talk counseling, walking therapy is a holistic, somatic-based form of psychotherapy that gives clients a way to move their bodies as they process pain, trauma, and stress. Think of it as psychotherapy in motion.
Rather than sitting face to face talking, I walk alongside you, listening to your story and offering therapy as we move together. This parallel way of being near one another enables you and me to sync up better, which may make the therapeutic process less intense.
Walking psychotherapy may appeal to folks who are uncomfortable with prolonged eye contact or find it unpleasant to sit still. In addition, therapy in motion may put some people more at ease than working in a traditional office setting because while we are doing the same work, we’re just doing it within a different context—and walking therapy is a great way to get out into nature and experience its innate healing powers.
Part of walk and talk counseling is about checking in with your physical Self, cultivating a sense of safety, and finding neutrality within your body. Other aspects of somatic awareness—such as learning what feels good and right for the Self and listening to what the body wants—are huge parts of the healing process. These concepts are especially important when navigating issues related to trauma, boundary-setting, and people-pleasing.
What Are The Origins And Benefits Of Walk And Talk Therapy?
Walking therapy is a somatic-based form of psychotherapy, a healing model largely developed and refined by Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich in the early 20th century (though its origins are a few years older). Since then, somatic therapy has flourished into many different forms of effective therapeutic models.
For instance, the principle behind EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy was created by a psychologist as she was walking through a park. Dr. Francine Shapiro discovered that while walking outside and taking in her surroundings, she actually experienced a quantifiable reduction in stress and negative thinking. Building upon that realization, Dr. Shapiro developed EMDR, which has become a primary modality for treating trauma and PTSD.
Play therapy, dance and the expressive arts, yoga, jogging, martial arts, and breathwork—they all have roots in somatic modalities. There are also many books published that detail just how deeply our mental health is intertwined with exercise, such as The Joy Of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage by Kelly McGonigal PhD; and Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by Dr. John Ratey.
In addition to its obvious physical benefits, recent research indicates that exercise can improve a broad range of mental wellness challenges.* Moreover, walking in therapy can also act as a metaphor for moving through pain and trauma, where we use that physical movement to build psychological momentum.
Who Can Benefit The Most From Walk And Talk Therapy?
I specialize in treating couples and individuals who are having trouble navigating stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and any combination of those obstacles. Walking psychotherapy is an effective, gentle way of addressing all of these issues.
Walk and talk therapy focuses on mindfulness, body awareness, and honoring the nervous system. So, if your body says you want to pace, stretch, or stomp your feet, then we want to care for that instinct instead of overriding it. Walking therapy also allows you to track sensations and identify what feels tolerable versus what doesn’t, which enables you to distance yourself from feelings of overwhelm—all through physical movement.
Whether you need to release nervous energy, or you feel trapped being inside an office, or you just want to get outside while achieving your healing goals, this form of therapy is perfect for you.
How Can Walking Therapy Help You?
We can conceptualize all the benefits of traditional counseling (safety, compassion, attachment theory, healthy boundaries, and unconditional positive regard) with the addition of movement. You can use this time to regulate and modulate the overwhelm or underwhelm in your life while being comforted by nature. We can discuss challenging topics in parallel within a less confined space while sharing a common focal perspective.
Walking psychotherapy can even help you embody the completion of a trauma response through sprinting or stomping or jumping up and down. It’s all about listening to your body and responding to what it wants while we are doing the important work of exploring and healing that would otherwise take place in an office.
For many people, early trauma, bad childhood experiences, flawed parenting, and a lack of psychoeducation are central to their adult challenges. So, as in a traditional setting, we would explore those aspects of who you are and work together to heal that inner child.
Being outside can spark spontaneous corrective reparenting moments, such as helping with an untied shoe, checking in with each other about rest, or pointing out how fun the outdoors can be and how beautiful the surrounding settings are while being safe and cared for. In addition, there’s a lot of playfulness built into sessions because we end up encountering wildlife, children, families, and opportunities to cut loose and be free. In essence, walking psychotherapy can go anywhere.
During our walks, I will introduce you to effective grounding and self-regulation techniques as well as strategies for placing healthy boundaries in and outside of walking therapy sessions. You can set your own pace (both literally and figuratively) for working through trauma and painful experiences. And you may rediscover yourself, break out of any cycles you’re stuck in, and simply start to feel better.
At every point in life, people need an outlet for moving: kids and young adults have sports teams; adults turn to gyms or athletic clubs. Seniors join walking or exercise groups. We do this because we know that movement and health are intrinsically linked, so walking therapy utilizes that relationship to promote healing and change in a new and revolutionary way.
A Little About My Background In Walking Psychotherapy
Years ago, I began to understand the importance of movement in healing while providing teens and adolescents with pro-social, exercise, and other out-of-office therapies. Working under a service grant, I was afforded the opportunity to bring those young people out into the world and expose them to joyful activities to help with depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders.
At the same time, I found walking to be very healing for me, so it naturally began to inform my approach to therapy. Although I have been walking with clients since 2018, in March 2023, I became a certified RUN WALK TALK® THERAPIST
Over the years, I have been working as a somatic (body-based) therapist, helping clients attend to trauma and historical hurts. I’ve supported couples dealing with communication and parenting issues. And I provide basic psychotherapeutic services with all the trimmings.
Prerequisites For Walking Therapy:
I can only offer walking therapy to people who have received clearance from their primary care doctor.
I also require that clients sign a waiver acknowledging some of the challenges to confidentiality that are inherent in working together outside of an office setting. While I’m here to cheer you on and encourage you to express yourself, it’s important to understand that this is not a form of personal training. Rather, it’s psychotherapy in motion.
In the beginning stages of walking therapy, I meet with the client several times over Zoom to discuss therapeutic goals and concepts. Once we have developed rapport and discussed boundaries and therapeutic intentions, we meet at my designated spot for our sessions. Therapy sessions are still 50 minutes in duration.
Let’s Take Your First Step Toward Healing Together
If you would like to try something new that gets you outside, motivated, and ready to change, I think I can help. Please call 323 539 7717 for your free, 15-minute consultation to see how my somatic-based approach to walk and talk therapy may be able to help you discover a new path toward healing, and perhaps a bit of joy and happiness.
*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470658/