Walking therapy in Richmond Park
For those it suits, counselling on foot, side by side, in the open air.
A different kind of session
Some people find it easier to talk while walking, side by side, than sitting face to face in a room. For those who do, I offer counselling sessions on foot in Richmond Park. We meet at Kingston Gate or Ham Gate, whichever is easier for you to reach, and walk from there.
It isn’t a walk with some talking added, and it isn’t quite the same as sitting together indoors. Walking changes things. The pace, the weather, the space around us, all become part of the hour. Many people find it loosens something: it can feel less exposing to say a hard thing while looking ahead rather than across, and the moving and the open air can make room for what’s difficult to reach sitting still.
What it’s like
We agree a quiet route in advance and keep to a gentle pace, with room to slow down, stop, or sit on a bench when that’s what’s needed. Sessions run to the usual length. If the weather turns genuinely difficult, we can move the session online or rearrange, and we’ll have agreed how to handle that beforehand.
Both gates are a short way from Kingston upon Thames, and there is parking inside the park at each. If walking turns out not to suit you, the same work can happen indoors in Kingston upon Thames or online.
The park is a shared, public place, and that is the honest limit of working this way. We might pass other people, and now and then that means pausing a conversation or lowering our voices. I can’t promise the same enclosed privacy as a room, and for some people that matters enough that indoors is the better choice. We’d talk all of this through before starting, and you’re free to decide it isn’t for you.
Whether it suits you
Walking therapy asks a little more of the setting, so it’s worth thinking about together. It tends to suit people who feel physically able to walk and talk for the session, who are comfortable enough being outdoors, and for whom the openness of the park feels freeing rather than exposing. It’s less suited to some kinds of work, and there’s no expectation either way. The free first conversation is a good place to weigh it up, and we can always start indoors and see.
The outdoors is increasingly valued in counselling, and there’s a growing body of research on the wellbeing that comes from time spent walking in green spaces. I offer it not as a treatment in itself, but as another way of doing the work, for those it suits.
Richmond Park sessions are weather permitting and depend on your being able to walk comfortably for the session. We’ll cover practicalities, confidentiality and what to do if plans change before we begin.
The first conversation is free. About twenty minutes, no obligation, and nothing is booked or paid for until after we’ve spoken.