ClimbWell

ClimbWell

Wellbeing Through Climbing

At ClimbWell, we provide an innovative alternative to conventional face-to-face therapy. Whether it’s indoors on a climbing wall, or outdoors at a crag, climbing therapy is an expanding field, with a substantial clinical and academic evidence base.

This innovative method combines the advantages of talking therapy with climbing. If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or self-criticism, climbing therapy sessions can provide a transformative experience.

Get in touch

Group course or individualised 1:1 support

ClimbWell - Therapeutic Climbing

We deliver bouldering therapy through or our facilitated ClimbWell group, or as 1:1 sessions. Both can help you acquire the skills to navigate personal challenges or help you with your difficulties and provide an opportunity for reflection and growth.

Climbing provides a safe space for real-context interventions, helping individuals manage social comparison, self-criticism, fear, and reframing internal difficulties.

The approach combines skills from various psychological modalities such as Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Narrative Therapy, Person Centred Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

All of our psychotherapists are registered with professional bodies such as Social Work England or the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and all climbing instructors are qualified with Mountain Training England.

Community Group

Our first Bouldering Beyond Borders Group has come to an end.

The Bouldering Beyond Borders Group utilised climbing to support the mental health of individuals in Carlisle seeking international protection due to war, persecution, or human rights violations. This also included those under Ukrainian visa schemes. Our 19-week pilot project aimed to build a supportive community where participants could benefit from climbing and psychoeducational interventions provided by experienced psychotherapists at ClimbWell.

In addition to developing climbing skills, the project focused on enhancing mental health skills, including coping strategies and resilience-building. As the project concluded, participants walked away as climbers, equipped with new skills in both climbing and mental wellness, gaining a sense of achievement and confidence. Climbing taught technical skills while also fostering teamwork and perseverance, empowering individuals to identify as climbers. They will carry these valuable lessons into their daily lives, aiding their wellbeing and onward journey.

Workshops

Creating Psychological Safety in the Outdoors

Creating Psychological Safety in the Outdoors | 1-Day CPD Workshop

Earlier this year we delivered the pilot of this workshop with the team at Hampshire Outdoors and we're now ready to roll it out.

If you work in outdoor education, therapy, or wellbeing, this one's worth your attention.

The day brings together experiential climbing activities and therapeutic theory to explore what it really means to create psychological safety in outdoor settings. Not as a concept, but as something you feel, notice, and learn to work with in real time.

You'll be on the wall. The climbing activities provide situations that naturally surface threat responses, vulnerability, and self-protective strategies, which become the material we work within, reflect on and explore. Through guided discussions, we will also explore how this manifests in our clients and how we can support them to gain the most from your sessions, whether a multi-activity instructor, a Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor or a Performance Paddle Sport Coach, this course is for you.

CFT Old Brain / New Brain & the Three Emotion Regulation Systems — Paul Gilbert's model helps us understand why challenge activates the responses it does. The threat system, wired for protection, can fire hard in outdoor settings, even when there's no real danger. The drive system pushes for achievement, performance, and getting to the top. But without the soothe system, the one that regulates, connects, and creates genuine felt safety, neither threat nor drive leads anywhere particularly useful. Learning to recognise which system is running, and how to work with that rather than against it, changes everything about how we support people outdoors.

Person Centred Configurations of Self — Mearns & Thorne's framework gives practitioners language and tools to recognise and work with the different parts of self that show up when things feel uncertain or exposed.

The pilot landed well. We're now looking to bring this to other organisations and outdoor practitioners.

If you're interested in hosting or attending, get in touch.

News

BACP Article: Climbing out of the therapy room

Andy, who also works full-time in the Mental Health Team within Student Services at the University of Cumbria, has written an insightful article for The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP). This article appears in the March 2025 issue of the University & College Counselling journal, a publication renowned for its focus on innovative counselling practices in further and higher educational settings.

In his article, Andy delves into the Climbing for Wellbeing project, an initiative he developed to enhance the mental health and well-being of students studying at the University of Cumbria. The 5-week project combines bouldering with therapeutic practices, aiming to provide students with a unique set of skills and help participants to manage their mental health and wellbeing. Through a thorough exploration of experiences setting up the project, he also explores the project's outcomes, highlighting the positive impacts on students' mental health, resilience, and sense of community within the university environment as well as his.

First project launched

We are proud to announce the launch of our first project aimed at supporting individuals with refugee status or those seeking asylum.

In partnership with Multicultural Cumbria, we extend our gratitude to the Cumbria Community Foundation for awarding us a total of £5,000, which will has been divided between the New Balance Get Active Fund and the Beeby Family Fund.

New climbing group launched in Whitehaven

Big news out of Whitehaven.

We're thrilled to be partnering with The Outdoor Partnership to launch Reach Women, a free 12-week climbing and wellbeing group for women living with gynaecological and hormonal health conditions, including endometriosis, PCOS, adenomyosis, fibroids, peri-menopause and more.

Sessions started this month at the Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project, combining indoor climbing with therapeutic space — roped climbing, bouldering, and time to just be with people who get it.

No experience needed. No pressure to perform. If you're not feeling like climbing one week, that's okay too. This is a soft, slow-paced programme — not skills, skills, skills.

Fully funded by Sport England. Free to attend. Open to women 18+ of all fitness levels.

We're proud to be part of something that takes the realities of women's health seriously. 💙

To help illustrate how the ClimbWell group works, here’s a short film about the therapeutic group Climb for Wellness, designed and delivered by Andy at the University of Cumbria.

Meet the team

  • Jess

    Lead Therapist

    Climbing and outdoor activities have been a lifelong interest for Jess, with a focus on bouldering over the past eight years. She is a qualified Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) and has been a coach for six of those years, working with individuals of various ages and skill levels.

    Jess is a registered person-centred counsellor from Cumbria, in addition to her climbing expertise. She is particularly interested in the role that self-compassion plays in our overall wellbeing, both in a therapeutic context and in its influence on climbing performance. Jess is passionate about integrating these two aspects of her professional skill set.

    "It never fails to surprise me how often people connect the movement and challenge of bouldering to their mental wellbeing. It's the mind and the body working together and it's a pleasure to create the space for people to explore that for themselves"

  • Andy Cross

    Operations Manager and DSL

    Andy is a Registered Social Worker and a Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) who began his career in outdoor education in 1999, delivering youth programs using outdoor activities as a psychosocial tool for development. After qualifying as a social worker, he worked in various community NHS mental health settings, including Substance Misuse, Adult Community Treatment Teams and a Community Eating Disorder Service.

    Currently, he is part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Team at the University of Cumbria and is completing a PGDip in Psychotherapy and Person-Centred Counselling. Additionally, he leads a therapeutic climbing group, "Climbing for Wellbeing," helping students manage their mental health.

    “I love climbing because it’s the most honest teacher I’ve ever had. It shows my strengths, my fears, the moments where I doubt myself, and the times when I surprise myself with what I’m capable of. There’s something raw and real about it that I haven’t found anywhere else. In this respect, climbing can serve as a mirror, reflecting the real you, and that's where we learn more about ourselves and grow.

    That’s what inspired us to create ClimbWell. I wanted to share these experiences with others and help them find their own sense of growth and discovery through climbing"