Mountain Bike Therapy for Trauma and Anxiety
Outdoor adventures for individuals and families
Outdoor adventure changed my life. I believe in the power of facing challenge at the right pace and how putting ourselves in vulnerable situations helps us build confidence, resilience, and expands our ability to work with stress and fear. Through mountain biking you can learn to work with and relate to fear and the threat response in your nervous system in a new way. Connecting with nature can also help us feel grounded and more present than we usually are in the hustle of daily life.
I take individuals and families on mountain biking adventures in conjunction with 'office-based therapy' in order to work through their struggles with trauma and anxiety. Along with being a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, I am a Professional Mountain Bike Instructor (PMBIA Level 1). In these sessions I teach you mountain biking skills at the pace that works for you, and incorporate therapeutic activities into these experiences utilizing the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) and somatic techniques such as resourcing, titration, and pendulation while out on the trail.
Adventure therapy experiences are crafted for you and your needs. During these sessions you will learn new outdoor and therapeutic skills slowly, use nature as a metaphor for healing, practice grounding techniques to calm your central nervous system, and reflect on the experience of being vulnerable and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone in a safe way. We will talk about transference and how these experiences can relate to and be utilized in your daily life.
Mountain Bike Therapy can also be for mountain bikers that have been through a crash or accident on their bike and are struggling to ride again due to anxiety and fear. You can learn to work with your fear and shift your relationship to the threat response that shows up in your body after this kind of trauma. You can learn to identify the differences between perceived and actual threat, learn how to connect to your body and regulate your nervous system, orient to safety, and eventually shift your relationship to fear in a way that no longer feels limiting.