Let's Go Adventuring

Fun fact about me: Sometimes I get lost on purpose. Our family has moved five times in twelve years, and reliably, when I find myself in a new city, I turn off my map and just drive. It started out as curiosity: “I wonder where this road goes.” Over time, I realized that this process stems from my desire to learn new routes, to uncover fun stores, sites, or restaurants that I would have otherwise missed, and to gain a sense of comfort with and understanding of my locality. 

Now, I simply call this activity “adventuring”.

Adventuring is growth. In our brains, exploring new sites offers a symbiosis of cognitive resourcing and experiential discovery: we get to use our powers of observation and problem-solving, while simultaneously feeling the satisfaction and adrenaline of uncovering something new, releasing a mixture of norepinephrine and dopamine, which are vital for experiencing happiness and excitement. To seek novelty is to expand our capabilities and, ultimately, our resilience. As we move further into our adult lives, our opportunities for novelty seem to decrease- or maybe our attention to it does. We find ourselves in ruts at work or in relationships and forget that ways outside of “the usual” exist.

I want to shake up the ruts I see in myself, in my clients, and in our larger society, and I decided that it’s time to take therapy outside to reconnect with our sense of adventure. I want to expand my practice into the beauty of nature to foster discovery, growth, and the inevitable grounding that comes with being amongst the wilderness. By adventuring as we process together, we are not only engaging in deep, therapeutic inner work, but we are also utilizing natural resources and our own physicality to signal to our brains that we are going on a journey. Similar to exploring new locales, these outdoor therapy intensives offer our neural pathways the chance to learn new routes, to uncover truths that we might have otherwise missed, and to gain comfort with and a better understanding of ourselves. My hope is that this trek will prove to be (literally and figuratively) a breath of fresh air, breathing new life into the routines that keep you unwell, and that it will both remind you that you are connected to something bigger than yourself and teach you how to find solace in the natural environment.

Are you ready to go on a journey together? Let’s get lost.

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And always remember: You’ve got this.

#TrailTherapy #OptOutside #HikingTherapy #NatureBasedCounseling #ForestTherapy #WalkAndTalkTherapy #Ecotherapy #WAnaturetherapy