OUtdoor therapy

What is it?

Outdoor therapy are exactly what it sounds like. Using the experience of “walk and talk” and being outdoors as a space to explore your thoughts and feelings while also being in the beauty of nature. Our provider Kristine Pfau meets people outside at different nature based locations in the metro area and either walks, sits or even hikes, while conducting therapy. Being outdoors can provide more space to talk freely while experiencing the spring air, fall colors or the crisp fresh snow. Even if you don’t want to walk or hike, sitting at a park bench can be just as therapeutic. Imagine sitting outside talking about thoughts and feelings, all while surrounded by the beauty of nature. This is the purpose of therapy outdoors, to give you more experiential space to talk without being in an office. Granted- we also like our offices, and our indoor therapists are awesome too.

Why?

As a society, more and more, we find ourselves on our phones, watching shows or doom scrolling social media. This isn’t striking news, but this is why we think there might be a hidden benefit of being outdoors in nature while talking about your feelings with a therapist.

How it works:

Introspect provides outdoor therapy/ walk and talk therapy in local parks. We currently have a location at White Bear Lake, Minnehaha and Eden Prairie parks. Most ages are welcome to experience outdoor therapy, pending agreement to our rules and expectations. These are all weather contingent. If the weather is out of your interest or outside of our provider’s comfort we switch the appointments to telehealth or office based. We too have limits on how cold or hot we want to get.

Our therapy conducted outdoors is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Adlerian Therapy, Existential Psychotherapy and a few others. Learn more about our current provider Kristine Pfau and more about therapy outdoors.

What it isn’t:

Our nature experience/ outdoor therapy does not include building fires, team building activities or teaching structure and rules to kids and their families. Our therapeutic experience being outdoors involves, walking and talking, hiking and sitting in the beauty of nature. Physical limitations are respected.

Let us know if you have any questions or want to see what it’s all about!