A. Core proposition

Proposition: Coaching conversations conducted outdoors (in naturalistic environments, with movement) enhance coaching effectiveness (greater insight, creativity, behavioural change, sustained impact) because the physical and ambient environment augments key coaching mechanisms (attention, affect regulation, self‐reflection, embodiment, relational dynamics) which then feed into the usual coaching change processes.

B. Key environmental/ambient enablers (outdoor‐specific)

Drawing on ART and walking neuroscience, several elements unique to the outdoor context may act as enablers:

1. Attention Restoration / Soft Fascination
   • ART posits that certain natural environments allow “directed attention” to rest and recover, through “soft fascination”, “being away”, “extent” (sense of space) and “compatibility”.
   • In a coaching context, this may reduce cognitive load, mental fatigue and internal distraction, freeing up capacity for reflection, insight, sense‐making.
   • Furthermore the work I researched for my book suggests that movement combined with nature stimulates creative thinking, associative processing, divergent thought.
2. Movement & Embodiment
   • Being side‐by‐side while walking (vs face‐to‐face sitting) changes relational dynamics (less intensity of eye‐contact, more fluidity, more shared trajectory) as Passmore & Burn report in their qualitative themes: “being side-by-side”, “movement and pace”.
   • The bodily movement may support embodied cognition: the act of walking may facilitate idea generation, sensory‐motor integration, freeing inhibition and supporting reflection. 
   • Movement also modulates physiological states (heart rate variability, stress reduction) which may prime the coachee for openness, risk‐taking and reflection.
3. Ambient Sensory / Affective Modulation
   • Natural environments provide multisensory stimuli (e.g. sounds of nature, fractal views, smells) which may reduce stress (through the Stress Recovery Theory as well as ART) and enhance mood, thereby enhancing cognitive flexibility and readiness for change. 
   • The expansive, open environment outside may also shift self‐perspective (greater “distance” from everyday contexts), enabling deeper reflection, future‐oriented thinking.
4. Environmental Symbolism & Narrative Shift
   • The outdoor setting may symbolise “change”, “journey”, “exploration” – thereby helping the coachee to externalise issues, shift frames (less stuck in an indoor‐office mindset).
   • Weather, terrain, horizon may metaphorically support conversations about challenge, navigation, path, growth.
5. Relational & Spatial Re‐configuration
   • The coach–coachee relationship is altered: walking side by side encourages more equality, less power differential, informal tone, shared pace. Passmore’s themes include “being side-by-side” and “openness and expanse”.
   • Movement through outdoor spaces may mirror the coaching process itself (movement from old to new).

C. Mechanisms: How the outdoor environment interacts with coaching process

These environmental enablers feed into key coaching mechanisms which then enhance the standard coaching process:

• Cognitive capacity & clarity: Restored attention + reduced mental fatigue = greater mental bandwidth for reflection, insight, meta‐thinking.
• Creative & divergent thinking: Movement + nature = increased idea generation, new perspectives, lateral thinking.
• Emotional regulation & openness: Reduction in stress = increased psychological safety, openness to explore deeper issues.
• Embodied learning: Walking, movement lead to more dynamic discussions, enactment of metaphors, physical embodiment of ideas which then convert into concrete actions.
• Relational deepening: Side-by-side walking fosters more relaxed rapport, less formal power dynamic = deeper trust and candour.
• Metaphorical thinking: The outdoor setting provides natural metaphors (path, journey, terrain, horizon) that the coach and coachee can use for meaning‐making and transfer to real life.

Top-level theoretical reasons why coaching outdoors while moving can be more effective

1. Evolutionary Fit & Environmental Preference

• Humans appear to have deep-time biases toward natural settings that signal safety + information: the savanna hypothesis (preferences for open, savanna-like landscapes) and prospect–refuge theory (we want vistas to scout opportunity plus enclaves to feel safe). Such settings likely reduced vigilance costs and enabled higher-order deliberation and group planning. In coaching terms: environments that feel ancestrally safe down-regulate threat, freeing cognitive resources for reflective problem-solving.

2. 4E Cognition (Embodied, Embedded, Enactive, Extended)

• Cognition is not just “in the head”; it’s shaped by the body, the environment, and action. Outdoors, the terrain, vistas, and artifacts (paths, landmarks, weather) become cognitive scaffolds, literally extending working memory and cueing new perspectives. Walking makes thinking an enacted process rather than a seated, purely representational one, ideal for reframing and sense-making in coaching. 

3. Locomotion–Navigation Coupling in the Brain

• Movement recruits the hippocampal–entorhinal navigation network, a system that also supports episodic memory, scene construction, and future simulation, core to coaching tasks like perspective-taking and planning. In plain terms: walking through space primes the brain systems we use to imagine, remember, and plan.

4. Creativity Gains from Walking

• Repeated experiments show walking reliably boosts divergent thinking, both during and shortly after walking, and outdoor walking often yields the most novel analogies. For coaching, this increases idea fluency during options generation and reframing. 

5. Affective Modulation: Stress Recovery, DMN & Rumination

• Beyond ART, nature reduces rumination and reduces prefrontal activity linked to self-focused negative thought, supporting clearer thinking and emotional regulation in coaching sessions. This likely interacts with default mode network dynamics implicated in self-referential processing. Result: coachees are less caught in loops and more able to adopt new perspectives and commit to change.  

6. Social Brain & Interpersonal Synchrony

• We evolved for complex group coordination (the social brain hypothesis). Moving in synchrony – like walking side-by-side – measurably increases rapport, cooperation, and perceived affiliation; even imagined synchrony can shift attitudes. For coaching, synchrony subtly strengthens the alliance while the side-by-side stance reduces status threat from face-to-face scrutiny.  

7. Awe 

• Nature often elicits awe, which reduces self-focus and increases prosocial orientation. In coaching, brief awe moments can relax ego defensiveness, widen perspective, and facilitate values-level change.  

How this may form a Theory of Change 

• Premise: Human cognition evolved for moving in natural landscapes in small groups, making consequential decisions while navigating uncertainty.
• Mechanism: Outdoor locomotion re-engages this evolved suite (navigation networks, embodied cognition, social synchrony), producing neurocognitive states that favour the core mechanisms of coaching.
• Prediction: Relative to indoor seated coaching, outdoor walking coaching should yield (a) higher creativity/insight, (b) stronger alliance and willingness to disclose, (c) lower rumination and higher emotional regulation, and (d) better memory/transfer due to embodied practices

Where this fits with ART

• ART explains attentional replenishment.
• The proposed theory explains why once attention is replenished, thinking, relating, deciding, and committing all improve, via navigation/episodic systems, embodied practice, and awe effects.