“Why don’t you try dusking?” my therapist asked in the middle of our session, as we discussed ways to cope with my phone addiction. I was soon travelling to Bali, a destination that ranked high on the Global Dusking Index released by eSIM company, Holafly. She explained that the new trend encourages travellers to put their phones down and watch the sun set as a way to reconnect with nature. Its sensory benefits could offer an antidote to digital overstimulation, she said, and suggested I try it as a small exercise.
Similarly, Preethi Parthasarathy, a Mumbai-based travel content creator, was struggling with burnout when her therapist helped her realise that the pressure to constantly create content was contributing to it. That insight ended up shaping where she travelled next. “As a result, I returned to Chiang Mai. Since it was a destination I had already visited and documented, I didn’t feel the pressure to film it again. Instead, it gave me a chance to slow down, be present and use the holiday to recover from burnout.”
First, we asked travel agents to plan our holidays. Then came recommendations from Instagram. Now, even AI. But there’s a new travel advisor guiding people on how to holiday: your therapist.
Modern travellers are turning to their shrinks not just for emotional support, but for advice on how to travel, depending on what they’re going through. Dr Charlotte Russell, a Manchester-based clinical psychologist and founder of the website The Travel Psychologist, has observed that her clientele (mostly millennials) increasingly ask how travel, alongside therapy, can support their personal growth or help them process challenges such as trauma, break-ups and grief.
The pandemic is a big reason behind this, says Binita Modi, a trauma-focused psychotherapist. “COVID reminded us that tomorrow is not guaranteed, so suddenly, we’re feeling a sense of urgency to travel as a way to take care of ourselves.” She adds that she has noticed not only more of her clients travelling for their mental health, but more fellow therapists doing so too, making the latter better equipped to help clients navigate different travel experiences.
In this unconventional form of travel planning, however, itineraries aren’t always built around bucket lists; they are shaped by a traveller’s psychological or emotional needs. For instance, as a small step towards sobriety, Jason Ramanan*, a product manager and travel enthusiast from Hyderabad, was encouraged by his therapist to try the dry tourism trend, where holiday-goers steer clear of booze. Ramanan was asked to pick any destination; the only catch was that alcohol shouldn’t be ubiquitous. He chose Oman. His therapist also advised him to travel with teetotallers to avoid the social pressure to drink and to curate an itinerary around physical activities that genuinely excited him. “Being the adventure junkie that I am, I chose to snorkel on Daymaniyat Island and swim in Wadi Shab.” Ironically, this gave him a sense of ‘high’ without drinking and sobriety didn’t feel like as much of a struggle. “Perhaps it was because alcohol was replaced with everything else that I loved: travelling, adventure and spending quality time with loved ones.”
Shikha Prakash, a CA from Bengaluru, was in therapy for social anxiety when her therapist suggested attending a supper club while on holiday in London, an experience she had mentioned wanting to try. She was also given small but effective tips to navigate the experience more comfortably: arrive before the other guests to avoid the overwhelm of walking into a room full of strangers and keep a trusted friend on text whom she could reach out to for support. What especially helped was her therapist’s suggestion to choose a supper club serving Indian cuisine. “Since I knew Indian food well, far more than other guests who were non-Indians, I could help the host teach them a thing or two about our cuisine. This made me feel more confident to socialise in an unfamiliar setting.”
