A couple of months a go, my therapist and I discussed possibly going on a walk for some of our sessions. I liked the idea as I felt it would take some of the intense pressure off of me that I feel sitting staring face to face and also help me to connect to him in a different way, which I think I need. We left it that he would look more in to it and once he had done so we would then talk about the logistics.
He hasn’t mentioned it since so I brought it up in today’s session. He said that it is something we might still be able to consider but he would need to complete a training course first and therefore it’s not something that would be happening anytime soon. I’m really disappointed. I’m aware lots of therapists do walking sessions and as far as I’m aware it’s not necessary for any training to be completed. We talked about what considerations needed to be thought about, such as confidentiality, route planning, health and safety, risk assessments etc but so much information on this can be found on the Internet. He said he needed to really understand how the sessions would be contained so that he can be sure I’m physically and psychologically safe, but I don’t see how that is much different to a session in a room.
For those of you who do walking or outdoor sessions did your therapist undertake specialist training to do so? I’m UK based so it might be different here to other places.