Take Therapy Outside: Healing While You Walk or Run

Picture a comfy chair or couch, noise machines buzzing, maybe some tea or coffee, and a caring therapist across from you. Or maybe you are conveniently in the comfort of your own home. This is a wonderful way to receive therapy, and therapists are increasingly thinking of ways to do it differently. Engaging in therapy outside while moving in nature is becoming a trend in the therapy space, and this could spark an interest in people who would not typically engage in therapy. It also means that people seeking traditional therapy in an office or virtually have an opportunity to experience the therapeutic alliance and treatment differently.

I am often asked how I came up with the idea to do walk/run therapy outside. My response is: “I am not that original.” The idea did come to me on a run when my own neurons were firing, but when I went to research the idea in 2017, I found that this type of therapy already existed, albeit rarely. This therapy has more than one name to describe similar work, too: walk and talk therapy, run walk talk® , Walk-N- Talk™ . Some of the early therapists doing this work whom I came across were Sepideh Saremi,  Kjersti Nelson, Clay Cockrell, and William Pullen. I read about a researcher, Thaddeus Kostrobula, who emerged in the 1980s and studied running therapy as he ran with his clients. There is also wisdom within the indigenous community, such as the Tarahumara (Rarámuri), who have been in touch with nature and movement as a lifestyle, as it is a unifying form of prayer and connection to each other, the land, and their ancestors. In 2024, the New York Times wrote a big piece on how various therapists are doing similar work outside. This therapy is getting traction, no pun intended.

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and we were all forced to think about our time differently, it felt like starting a practice that prioritizes outdoor movement based therapy was what people needed in my corner of the world. It felt like people everywhere were trying to find a community outside where it felt safer and I needed a career change after working in public service for about a decade. I imagined therapy where your therapist is walking side by side with you instead of directly across from you, which can feel uncomfortable and sets up a power dynamic in the space. I dreamed of using nature to promote mindfulness and education about the more than human world. I read about how your brain can work more creatively when you are moving and how a session that takes place while moving could yield an entirely different conversation compared to remaining still. I recognized this therapy as an opportunity to learn body appreciation and neutrality, as your body is a vessel that can experience the world. I considered how moving together metaphorically feels like you are moving forward with your therapist and emphasizes the importance of the relationship. After all, a therapist and client are really just two humans working toward the same goals, and moving outside together shows just how human you both are (sweating, getting out of breath up a hill, jumping over small streams, getting distracted by a noise, bug, or animal, and relishing in the beauty outdoors). 

This all became real for me in 2022 when I launched my practice. Over the last four years, clients have been reporting back that they feel differently and better when talking outside. They see me as a real person alongside them as they learn more about using nature to relax or how they can use movement to shift their mood and thought process. They learn tools while moving in nature that can apply to real world situations when they feel emotionally dysregulated. Some people, like those with ADHD, just do better moving instead of being still and this therapy is like the ultimate fidget spinner. As we inch more and more into an AI world, people have told me they crave real life experiences. AI could never replicate what happens out in nature with your therapist, and this has been described to me as a relief. 

Just like any therapy modality or intervention, the individual therapist will bring their own unique lens and specializations. Finding the right match for you is still important, and ensuring that your therapist takes this work seriously and follows ethical guidelines is equally important. There is a directory of those who have been trained under Sepideh Saremi at runwalktalk.com. I also offer professional consultation for therapists using my own lens. You can find more information about the therapists who are practicing walk/run therapy at IART, as well as the research many therapists are using to inform their work.