{"id":621342,"date":"2026-06-04T20:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621342\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:00:09","slug":"can-long-distance-hiking-support-trauma-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621342\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Long-Distance Hiking Support Trauma Recovery?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many long-distance hikers, the trail provides more than just a hike. Often, the trail represents a transformative opportunity, acting as a liminal space between who someone was and who they hope to become. And for those who have experienced trauma, time on the trail may offer meaningful therapeutic healing, at least in part, for some of the ways that traumatic<\/a> experiences have shaped them. Extended time in the wilderness offers space to process life experiences that might not otherwise have time to be fully digested, while also helping to reshape internal narratives about the self in therapeutic landscapes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walking off the war<\/p>\n

In 1948, World War II Veteran Earl Schaffer set out on the unmaintained Appalachian Trail in an attempt to \u201cwalk off the war.” While the diagnostic label of post-traumatic stress<\/a> disorder was not used at that time, Earl reported feeling \u201chopeless and broken-hearted\u201d (Ross, 2021). He wrote about his experience on the rugged trail and processed the journey in a journal that he carried with him. He believed that the hike saved his life, re-igniting him with a sense of purpose and mending at least some of his ability to trust others again, through acts of kindness from strangers whom he called \u201ctrail angels\u201d in small towns along the route (Ross, 2021). He is believed to have been the first to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, and his journey laid a foundation for others looking to take a similar path: healing trauma, at least in part, through long-distance hiking.<\/p>\n

The thru-hiking culture often associates the pursuit of long-distance trails with personal healing. Many hikers show up to the start of a long-distance hike following significant life thresholds like the death of a family member, a divorce<\/a>, burnout<\/a>, or addiction<\/a> recovery. In Cheryl Strayed\u2019s popular personal memoir, Wild, she faces a series of life events and sets out on the Pacific Crest Trail to process her grief<\/a> and rebuild her self-trust and identity<\/a> following significant upheavals.<\/p>\n

A vicarious expression of emotional pain<\/p>\n

Trauma often leaves people carrying invisible psychological pain that feels overwhelming. For some hikers, the trail becomes a place where this inner suffering can be translated into the language of the body; the physical suffering of the journey\u2014sore muscles, exhaustion, and discomfort\u2014can act as a tangible outlet for emotional suffering that may encounter barriers to being verbally expressed. Pilgrimage researcher Keith Egan observed that effort, fatigue, pain, and movement can become meaningful expressions of personal struggle. In this way, the trail can transform invisible wounds into something tangible. Hardship can become transformational because of the meaning behind it. <\/p>\n

But can long-distance hiking heal trauma?<\/p>\n

But can long-distance hiking actually help support trauma recovery? It may enhance trauma recovery, at least in part, by increasing self-efficacy<\/a>, creating opportunities for meaning-making, and providing space to process. But recovery from trauma requires appropriate conditions and the ability to rebuild a sense of safety, trust, agency, and connection to oneself and others. Research shows that long-distance hiking helps reduce trauma symptoms for many participants. Warrior Expeditions<\/a>, a veteran nonprofit outdoor therapy<\/a> program, finds a clinically significant decrease in PTSD<\/a> symptoms following combat veterans\u2019 long-term wilderness experiences.<\/p>\n

Rewriting the story of experiencing suffering<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Smith, also known by her trail name Unhinged Hiker, is a thru-hiker recovering from complex trauma who believes that time on the trail offers an opportunity to rewrite internal narratives in relation to enduring challenges and suffering. \u201cThere are many long-distance hikers who have experienced childhood<\/a> trauma. For some of us, the trail is more than an endurance sport; it becomes a way of reclaiming suffering itself. The challenge, exhaustion, and perseverance echo earlier hardships, but this time the struggle is chosen. This time, purpose and reward are waiting on the other side. In many ways, long-distance hiking can feel like rewriting the story of suffering\u2014transforming pain from something that once happened to you into something you move through with strength, agency, and intention. Re-writing the story of experiencing suffering is profoundly empowering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outdoor adventure research backs up this idea. When outdoor challenges and risks are chosen voluntarily, they can create opportunities for empowerment, self-efficacy, and the expansion of identity.<\/p>\n

Often, trauma leaves people feeling powerless and in doubt of their own capabilities. The trail provides opportunities to solve problems and adapt to the ever-changing natural environment, increasing a sense of self-efficacy. These experiential learning opportunities help rebuild trust in oneself and foster a sense of personal agency and embodied competence.<\/p>\n

Hiking can also become avoidance<\/p>\n

Occasionally, extensive time on the trail becomes a way for people to avoid their problems rather than a space to process or integrate resolution into their lives. Constant movement may serve as an attempt to outpace the emotions beneath the surface of difficult life circumstances as movement feels more manageable than stillness. When hiking serves to avoid people or vulnerability in the long term, it may be maladaptive rather than integrative and beneficial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that not everyone feels safe in the wilderness, and without a baseline of feeling safe, recovering from traumatic experiences can be difficult. The lived experiences that someone carries within them onto the trail, including aspects of their personal identity, will likely influence how they interpret the experience; what may feel therapeutic to one person may feel vulnerable or too far beyond the comfort zone of someone else.<\/p>\n

Spending time in the wilderness on a long-distance hike may not eliminate all the psychological impacts of trauma, but it does offer opportunities for healing at least some of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many long-distance hikers, the trail provides more than just a hike. Often, the trail represents a transformative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-621342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}