Walk & Talk

The idea of the sessions is to spend time in nature connecting to your senses, being in a present moment state. Simply taking time to be in natural surroundings and fully engaged with your senses can help you de-stress and reconnect to yourself. I love this quote from the American naturalist, John Burroughs “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order”, because it sums up the healing power of being in nature. This is why I love the combination of counselling while walking in the natural elements.

Connecting to the natural world, is a beautiful way to reconnect with your inner self.

The lovely thing about walking while talking is because walking helps you to stay in the present moment. It enables you to be more fully in your body and less in your thinking head. This is a much more connected state to be in and can help you to more easily access your feelings and bring them into conscious awareness. During the sessions, everything in the environment is a potential reflection of your internal state which we can draw on as we walk and talk. Nature is a live and dynamic environment that is not under our control and so the wildness of nature becomes almost like a co-facilitator in our counselling session. 

Facing forward as we go can make it easier for you to be more open. 

Who can benefit

This way of counselling can hugely benefit anyone who finds eye contact difficult, or finds it hard to naturally open up. Walking in nature can help release trapped emotions and help bring you out of your head, where it’s easy to get stuck, churning thoughts around and around, and into your body and your sensory awareness, to a more heartfelt place of being.

We start the sessions with a body awareness exercise to bring you gently into a present moment state using the senses of hearing, touching and seeing. Being in the present moment helps you connect to your inner world and bodily sensations. Being fully engaged with your senses, being aware of your inner reality can give you deep insights and realizations about yourself. It is in these moments of being present and consciously aware of both your inner state and your outer environment that you can connect more deeply with your inner wisdom.

This way of working can especially benefit people with anxiety, depression or trauma as these intense feelings can cause a disconnect from your feeling state as a way of protecting against the intensity of emotions – to feel them might seem too painful or overwhelming. It can really help to be out in the open air and release that weight of emotion into the vast natural environment around you.

Cost

Walk and Talk sessions – £65.00  (approx. 1 + 1/4 hours)

Location

Our sessions take place in The John Muir Country Park near Dunbar, an area of beautiful woodland, grassland and coastline. We can amble along the shoreline or in the woods.