Between Breath and Stride

sometimes therapy happens in an office. sometimes it happens on a trail.

Recently I’ve begun incorporating walk-and-talk therapy into my practice, and I’ve noticed how regulating it can be, especially for clients struggling with anxiety, depression, or intense trauma histories.

Something shifts when we step outside and begin moving. The rhythm of walking, inhale, exhale, left foot, right, helps calm the nervous system, much like EMDR does through bilateral movement. Talking about the most vulnerable parts of ourselves suddenly becomes easier. We become unstuck.

On one such walk recently, I found myself contemplating the rhythm of breath and footsteps. This is what it felt like.

Between Breath and Stride

Inhale, exhale

left foot, right

We walk softly

through the light

Branches stretch

across the sky

shadows drifting

slowly by

See the trees

Smell the grass

The noise of the world

drifts away at last

Here in the woods

I simply am

anger, fear

joy, or tears

Step by step

through breath and stride

Grounded again

in the quiet

Walk-and-talk therapy also allows me to join clients where they are. For many people struggling with depression, even getting started with movement can feel overwhelming, and yet the movement itself can be incredibly healing. Walking together gives them a chance to feel the shift in their own bodies.

Sometimes that one walk a week becomes the momentum they need to do it themselves.

And somewhere between breath and stride, between the weight we carry and the things we release, people often began to find themselves again.