Juric , with a friend, in Stanley Park; he often holds his sessions during walks there
Walk-and-talk therapy, then, is a third way that seems ideally suited to this moment—a means of providing in-person service while harnessing the therapeutic benefits of nature trails or paved promenades. But it remains a niche offering in Canadian counselling that is not taught in university psychology departments. And each of its few practitioners appears to have stumbled on the idea in their own novel way.
He often takes patients through majestic Stanley Park—two metres apart, with masks on. Something about moving in tandem with another person and being in a different environment, Juric says, helps people open up and stop dwelling on things. He likes, as he puts it, to get people out of their heads and into their bodies. There’s some science underpinning it, too, with studies showing that time spent in nature can reduce cortisol, the primary stress hormone.
Hope Schreiber, a nurse practitioner in Victoria who receives walking therapy from Segal, has found she can work through issues in a less cluttered way in her brain when outside. She’s done it for five years, and during the pandemic it’s been one of the few parts of her life that has seemed normal and consistent. “Particularly since we’re all burned out with yet another Zoom call, actually seeing somebody is better than just talking on the phone,” she says.
It’s not a choice for everybody, he acknowledges. For practitioners, it requires more energy and time—beyond the hours of daily exercise or the commutes to walking sites. Because they can’t take notes mid-session, they must commit observations to memory and jot them down immediately afterward. And while many clients benefit from the shifted power dynamic of walking alongside their therapist, some find it disorienting.
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