Information for prospective outdoor clients
The web page you are reading isn’t linked from my public pages. I don’t offer this to the public.
WHAT WILL WE TALK ABOUT?
This is conventional therapy despite the unconventional setting. I don’t usually have an agenda in therapy apart from making sure we address whatever is troubling you. I typically begin with some such question as “what brought you here today?” and the conversation builds from there.
HOW MANY SESSIONS WILL WE HAVE?
This is conventional therapy. After our first session, we can decide together whether we want to meet again. Because this will have been a long session, we may decide the work is complete, or at least to take a break of a few weeks. I’d be very surprised to find myself doing this sort of work every seven days with the same person.
IS THERE SOMETHING THE CLIENT HAS TO SIGN?
This is conventional therapy. We need all the usual documenation. There’s even a supplementary informed consent form, which says:
As a psychotherapist, I sometimes use the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains as an extension of my office. I do this because I believe in the therapeutic effects of exercise, because it offers many useful metaphors, because it allows me to observe clients dealing with real and partly unpredictable situations and because it encourages them to “get out of their heads.”
This isn’t the same as adventure therapy, wilderness therapy or even “outdoor therapy.” It’s simply doing therapy out of doors. Just as in my bricks-and-mortar office, it is a regular therapeutic relationship with the usual boundaries.
One thing I can’t control as well as I can in the office is confidentiality. People might notice us together. People might overhear us from behind rocks or trees. If these aren’t acceptable risks, we can just meet in the office as usual.
There are a variety of walks we can take together. They can be as short and as easy as we choose. I can and will suggest suitable routes, but I’m not in charge; in the physical part of our shared journey we are just companions.
All my hiking experience has been on the mountains of Scotland, where the hazards and skills are very different. I’m still learning how to adapt to Southern Californian conditions. I’m not ready to lead others! Clients must take responsibility for finding out what to wear, what to bring and how to take care of themselves. An important benefit from going into the hills is the experience of taking total responsibility.
WHAT ABOUT GROUP THERAPY?
I don’t think it’d be easy to have a useful conversation on the trail with more than one or two people. I prefer the idea of doing this work with individuals or couples. Later thought: so many people seem to have heard me talking about “groups,” when I thought I wasn’t, that I guess there must be some pent-up demand for me to talk about them. So ok then, let’s try it and find out for sure how it works. That’s sometimes how the best ideas start. I’ll offer groups at times and places of my choice, and we’ll see.
WHERE WILL WE DO THIS?
Nowhere adventurous. For our first walk together I shall suggest somewhere convenient and easy. If you think it is strenuous or unsafe, please say so.
WHEN CAN WE DO THIS?
Weekday mornings seem to be best for keeping cool, for avoiding crowds and for my office schedule. I reserve most Tuesday and Thursday mornings for this work. If we get an early start you could be done before 10am. A longer session would carry us into the afternoon.
Weekday afternoons may occasionally be possible. Weekend sessions are harder to fit into my schedule, but if weekends are what you have go ahead and ask me about it.
Just begin like any other client – with a phone message or an email, letting me know a few times that work for you. The fee is my usual “prelicensed” rate of $50 an hour and we have the choice of 2, 3 or 4 hours.
