Into the Cold: How I Use Cold Water Therapy in Coaching Outdoors

When people hear the phrase “cold water therapy”, they often picture elite athletes plunging into ice baths after a game, or hardy swimmers breaking through ice on a winter’s morning. But in my coaching practice, cold water isn’t simply about recovery or adrenaline, it’s about growth, resilience, and learning to meet discomfort with curiosity.

I use cold water therapy as a practical, embodied exercise with clients. It has become one of the most powerful tools in the way I work outdoors, not because it’s extreme, but because it strips things right back to the raw, honest reactions we all carry when faced with challenge.

Stepping Into Discomfort

When a client prepares to enter cold water, everything in their body screams “no”. The breath shortens, the mind races, muscles tense. It’s the same instinctive resistance we feel in the boardroom before a difficult conversation, or when we’re about to step into an unfamiliar role. Cold water is simply a mirror for that moment of discomfort.

In coaching, we often talk about the “stretch zone”, the space just beyond comfort where growth happens. Cold water creates that stretch instantly and unmistakably. The moment your skin meets the chill, you’re forced into presence. There’s no space for overthinking or distraction; it’s just you, your breath, and the water.

The Embodied Lesson

One of the reasons I bring cold water therapy into my approach is that it moves learning from the head into the body. You don’t just talk about resilience, you feel it. You don’t just imagine how to calm yourself under pressure, you practise it – in real time, with every fibre of your being.

When clients step into a river or lake, I guide them to notice their immediate reactions: the gasp, the urge to escape, the mental chatter telling them it’s impossible. Then, I invite them to find their breath, slow it, anchor it, stay with it. Within a minute or two, most discover that the intensity softens. What felt unbearable becomes something they can manage. That realisation,  I can do this, I can stay with this; often creates a profound shift.

A Safe Container for Challenge

Of course, safety is vital. I never throw clients into the deep end, literally or metaphorically. Cold water immersion in my sessions is carefully structured. We prepare together, we enter gradually, we stay for only a few minutes, and we always warm up afterwards. It’s about stretching, not breaking.

This structure models something important for life beyond the water: how to hold yourself through challenge with awareness, preparation, and care. Facing discomfort doesn’t mean recklessness. It means choosing to lean in, but with support and intention.

The Coaching Conversation

The real magic happens afterwards, when we reflect together. I might ask:

• What happened in your body and mind when you first entered?

• How did you find a way to stay?

• What surprised you about your own capacity?

• Where else in your life do you encounter this same pattern of resistance and resilience?

Clients often draw powerful parallels between their water experience and situations at work or home. The gasp of cold becomes the same gasp of fear before speaking up in a meeting. The steadying breath mirrors the calm they need before giving feedback to a colleague. The choice to stay a little longer in discomfort becomes a metaphor for staying in a difficult but necessary conversation.

Why It Works

There are scientific explanations for the benefits of cold water exposure; improved circulation, boosted mood, stress resilience. But for me as a coach, the science is secondary. The value lies in the lived experience: how it reconnects people with their own resourcefulness.

In the water, there’s no mask to wear, no polished role to play. It’s just raw humanity meeting raw nature. Clients often emerge with a glow, not just from endorphins, but from the deep satisfaction of having faced something hard and discovered they could manage it.

Building Resilience Beyond the Water

The lessons of cold water therapy ripple outwards. Clients leave knowing that discomfort is not something to fear but to explore. They carry the memory of their own capacity;  if I can do that, perhaps I can face this challenge at work, or this change at home.

I sometimes encourage clients to continue small practices on their own: ending a shower with thirty seconds of cold, or visiting a local lake with care. Each repetition is another rehearsal of resilience. It becomes a gentle training ground for courage.

More Than a Trend

Cold water therapy has gained popularity in recent years, sometimes as a lifestyle fad. For me, it’s neither gimmick nor endurance test. It’s a simple, elemental way of reconnecting with ourselves in the face of discomfort. It’s nature showing us, quite literally what happens when we stop running and choose to stay.

In the coaching I offer outdoors, I use the environment as an ally. Mountains teach patience, forests teach stillness, and rivers, especially cold water teach courage. Cold water therapy is one more way the natural world helps us grow, not by removing challenge, but by placing us right inside it.

Closing Thoughts

When my clients step out of the water, teeth chattering, smiles wide, something has shifted. They have crossed a threshold. They know in their bones what it means to meet fear, to breathe through it, and to come out the other side stronger.

That’s the heart of how I coach outdoors. It’s not about conquering the elements, it’s about letting the elements reveal to us what we already have within. Cold water, sharp and honest, simply helps us remember.