Walking therapy combines the guidance, of a trained Counsellor with the powerful benefits of walking. Allowing you to reap the positive benefits of Counselling and physical activity.
Research suggests that walking creates improvements in both mood and attention and can reduce feelings of fatigue and stress. After walking, 71% of people experience decreased depression and felt less tense, while 90% felt their self-esteem had increased after a Walking Therapy session.
Walking and talking therapy – creating the right kind of space
Some people feel too confined in a typical Counselling environment to open themselves up to therapy. Being outside and active provides them with the space they need to genuinely engage. Others take pleasure in the stimulus that walking provides, and reap the benefits of the gentle exercise as it works to regulate the nervous and immune systems.
Spending time outdoors in nature promotes feelings of peace and increased levels of mindfulness for many people. Combine these mental benefits with the therapeutic impact of talking therapy and double the impact of your therapy sessions.
How can walking therapy help you feel better?
- When you walk at your own pace you are experiencing the world more slowly and deliberately. This can help soothe the unrest of the mind.
- Gentle exercise promotes deep breathing, creating deep relaxation.
- Enjoy the simplicity of nature as a sensory experience and start to feel calmer.
- Exercise releases feel-good hormones that reduce stress, depression and anxiety. Resulting in a calming effect on the mind and body.
- Walking therapy helps ground us in the physical world and can reduce our stress response.
- We can be supported to reflect on a wider, transpersonal view that connects us to something vaster and more meaningful than the day to day of our lives.
It’s about more than words.
The combination of walking and talking therapy is about more than words. Through physical movement as well as through the spoken word it creates a space where you can take a pause from daily life with a view to recharge your emotional battery. Since 90 percent of communication is non-verbal, walking therapy can help you to exist as you are in the present moment while in the presence of a supportive professional. It can also support a rekindling of your sense of self through developing conscious self awareness.
What previous clients say about Walking Therapy:
The feedback from clients is that the combination of walking and talking therapies works particularly well with stress, anxiety, depression. It enables a more embodied experience. It also allows for a greater understanding of their situation in a more holistic sense rather than a purely cognitive approach. One of the common subjects that comes up is around how we make meaning of our lives.
What happens in a Walking Therapy ?
Walking therapy can be a whole hour session or it can just be part of one.
There is often time put aside before or after to check in, both to decide what best suits you for the session and to reflect afterwards.
At the start, we decide together what best works for your individual circumstances and what physical terrain best suits your fitness level and therapy goals.
We also discuss what our focus will be:
- We might put all our attention on breathing or exploring our sensory experience.
- Alternatively, we might explore the best way to process an issue or focus on aspects of a personal nature.
- Sometimes we just walk or sit together mindfully and look at what is around us, alive in the presence of each other and the world.
After a session, we pause and I support you to reflect on the experience.
Interested in experiencing walking therapy?
Contact me HERE to book your first Walk Therapy session today.