Virtual ACT Group Therapy for Runners in New York
An 8-week virtual ACT group therapy for runners in NY who want a healthier relationship with training, rest, pressure, and themselves.
Planned for Fall 2026: This virtual ACT group therapy program for runners is expected to begin after Labor Day. You’re welcome to reach out now to learn more.
What brings runners here?
Running may be one of the places where you feel strongest, clearest, or most like yourself. But, it may also be one of the places where anxiety, perfectionism, guilt, and self-criticism show up most intensely.
Many of the runners who are drawn to this group are high-achieving in several parts of their lives. They may use running to cope, feel strong, stay grounded, or create a sense of order. Over time, the same discipline that helps them train consistently can also turn into pressure, rigidity, and harsh self-critical thoughts.
If you relate to this, you might:
Feel guilty taking rest days, even when your body needs recovery.
Feel anxious when you miss a workout, cut a run short, or have an imperfect training week.
Worry that you’ll lose fitness, lose momentum, or lose part of who you are if you pull back.
Try to make up missed runs, overcompensate after an off week, or view every training disruption as evidence that you’re not doing enough.
Notice that your mood depends too much on how your run went, what your pace was, or whether your body cooperated that day.
Feel frustrated by injury or fatigue, not only because it disrupts training, but because it shakes your sense of identity.
Know how to push through discomfort, but find it much harder to listen when your body, mind, or life is asking you to adjust.
Running may have started as something that helped you feel free. But now, it feels like one more place where you feel the need to prove yourself.
This virtual ACT group therapy program is for runners who want to understand these patterns and practice responding to them differently in a structured, supportive group setting.
How we’ll work
Virtual ACT group therapy for performance anxiety, perfectionism, running burnout, and rest-day guilt in runners
This is an 8-week ACT group therapy program for runners. ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, helps you relate differently to difficult thoughts and feelings so you can make choices based on your values rather than by fear, guilt, or pressure.
In this group, we’ll use ACT skills to help running feel more grounded, flexible, and sustainable, without asking you to stop caring about it.
My approach is warm, structured, and practical. The group will include discussion, reflection, skills practice, and between-session exercises to help you apply what we talk about to your actual training and daily life.
What you’ll practice in this group
In this ACT group therapy program, we’ll practice how to:
Notice when pushing harder is no longer helping.
Stay more present with your body, breath, and surroundings during training, racing, and recovery.
Create distance from thoughts like “I’m falling behind” or “I’m not doing enough.”
Make room for discomfort, uncertainty, nerves, and guilt without immediately overcompensating.
Notice self-critical thoughts without letting them run the show.
Remember that you’re more than your training log, race results, or current level of fitness.
Clarify what you want running to stand for in your life.
Take values-based action around training, rest, recovery, and setbacks.
How things begin to change
At the beginning
You may enter the group feeling guilty when you rest, anxious when training changes, or frustrated when your body doesn’t cooperate.
You may feel like missed runs mean more than they need to mean.
You may notice that running helps you manage stress, but also creates stress when it becomes tied to achievement, control, or proving yourself.
You may be hard on yourself when your schedule, body, work, family, or life gets in the way of the plan.
Over 8 weeks
✔️ You may begin to catch yourself “going down a rabbit hole” earlier when you miss a run, have an off day, or feel behind.
✔️ You may learn how to notice thoughts like “I’m losing fitness” without automatically treating them like facts.
✔️ You may feel more able to pause before overcorrecting after a disrupted week.
✔️ You may practice taking rest more seriously, not as a reward for doing enough, but as part of a sustainable relationship with running.
✔️ You may feel less alone when you hear other runners name the same pressure, guilt, comparison, and self-criticism that you thought you were supposed to handle by yourself.
By the end of group
🏅 You may feel less controlled by urgency, guilt, and fear within the context of running.
🏅 You may have more tools for responding to rest-day guilt, training disruptions, race anxiety, comparison, and self-critical thoughts.
🏅 You may begin to trust yourself more when deciding when to push, when to pull back, and when to adjust based on your values and goals.
🏅 You may start to experience running as one meaningful part of your life, rather than the place where all of your worth gets decided.
Group details
When
Tuesdays from 12:00 to 1:15 PM Eastern Time
Planned for Fall 2026 (after Labor Day)
Where
Virtual group therapy available to adults located in New York State
Who this is for
Adult runners located in New York who struggle with performance anxiety, perfectionism, running burnout, rest-day guilt, and pressure around training or racing
Other details
8 weekly sessions
75 minutes per session
Time-limited group with limited spots and between session practice
Investment
Optional free 15-minute phone consultation
One-time $225 screening appointment to help determine whether the group fits your needs and goals
$150 per group session
$1,200 total for the full 8-week group
Payment in full before the group begins is preferred. A two-payment plan may be available if needed.
Why there’s a screening appointment
Before joining the group, each participant completes a one-time 45-minute individual screening appointment. This helps us talk through what you’re hoping to work on, whether the group is clinically appropriate for your needs, and whether group therapy or individual therapy may be the better fit.
This step also helps protect your investment. Rather than asking you to commit to the full 8-week group right away, the screening gives us time to decide whether this group is the right next step.
Individual therapy for runners is also available
If you’re looking for more personalized support, individual therapy for runners may be a better fit. One-on-one therapy gives us more room to focus on your specific patterns around performance anxiety, perfectionism, running burnout, rest-day guilt, injury stress, or self-worth.
If you’re not sure whether group or individual therapy makes more sense, we can talk through that during a free 15-minute phone consultation.
Group therapy for runners FAQs
-
No. This group is for runners who relate to the anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, pressure, or rest-day guilt side of running. You may be recreational, ambitious, or competitive. What matters most is not your pace or race history. What matters is whether the emotional patterns described here feel familiar.
-
No. You can be training for a race, returning from injury, rebuilding consistency, taking a break, or trying to understand why running has started to feel more pressured than supportive.
-
You may still be a good fit, especially if injury has brought up anxiety, identity stress, fear of losing fitness, guilt, or difficulty resting. This group will not provide medical advice, physical therapy, or return-to-running guidance. If you are injured, it is important to also work with appropriate medical or rehabilitation providers.
-
That’s a very common question. If you’re not sure, you can start with a free 15-minute consultation. We can talk through whether group therapy, individual therapy, or another type of support seems like the best fit.
-
If the group does not seem like the right fit after the screening appointment, we will talk through other options. That may include individual therapy, a different type of group, or a referral if another resource would better match your needs. You would not be asked to commit to the 8-week group unless the group seems clinically appropriate and you decide you want to move forward.
-
Because this is a closed, time-limited therapy group, your spot is reserved for the full 8 weeks. Missed sessions are not refunded or credited.
If you miss one or two sessions, I will generally send you the materials from the week you missed so you can stay connected to the skills we are practicing. However, because group therapy depends on live participation, discussion, and practice, missed sessions cannot be fully recreated outside of group.
If you know in advance that you cannot attend most sessions, it may be better to wait for a future group or consider individual therapy instead.
-
The group fee is $1,200 for the full 8-week group, which comes out to $150 per session. Because this is a closed, time-limited group with limited spots, enrollment is a commitment to the full 8 weeks rather than a drop-in or pay-as-you-attend group.
Payment in full before the group begins is preferred. If needed, a two-payment plan may be available, with $600 due before Session 1 and $600 due before Session 5.
-
No. Because this is a small, closed therapy group, I do not offer refunds. Once you join, your spot is reserved for the full 8 weeks, and missed sessions are not refunded or credited.
The individual screening appointment helps us decide whether the group is a good fit before you commit to the full group fee. If you’re unsure whether group therapy or individual therapy is the right next step, you’re welcome to start with a free 15-minute consultation.