When Abbie Hausermann, a licensed clinical social worker tells clients to take a hike, she means it. Hausermann makes her office in the great outdoors, sometimes a forest, a park or a nature trail in Massachusetts
Her practice, which she opened in May, is named High Peaks Therapeutic Mentoring. She offers walk-and-talk therapy and daylong or overnight “wilderness quests” for students, and will also do traditional psychotherapy
Client Lara Andrews turned to Hausermann after seeing another therapist in an office setting for grief counseling in the wake of her boyfriend’s death last year in a car crash. “That wasn’t working for me, and a friend found Abbie for me,” says Andrews. The friend knew that Andrews loves hiking and the outdoors.
“I felt very connected the first session,” she says. “I just love the movement, being outside, and not being confined.”
From Monday through Thursday, Hausermann is a therapist in a family medicine clinic at Boston Medical Center. She concentrates on her High Peaks practice on late afternoons and weekends.
“I think it’s an innovative, great model,” says Cindy Gordon, her supervisor at BMC. “Natural sunlight and fresh air does a lot for one’s mental health. Some of the clinics are very sterile environments.”
Hausermann says her experience at BMC has made her realize that traditional therapy isn’t for everyone. One population she believes can particularly benefit from walk-and-talk sessions are adolescents – “especially kids who have hyperactivity and find it hard to sit still for an hour,” she says. “This is a much more active, engaging way to make progress.”
Leading outdoor talk-therapy sessions for both individuals and groups, Hausermann believes “being outside in general helps people relax. It’s less of a formal environment, people feel more comfortable. They’re not as stigmatized as going into an office to see someone.”
And, there’s the literal process of walking: moving forward. “It helps people to be active and feel they’re progressing and not so on-the-spot where someone is facing them in a chair asking questions.
November 9, 2015