Passport to Recovery: How Travel Coaching Can Help You Overcome Fears After Trauma

Solo travel has become a transformative movement, particularly among women who now comprise 70% of all solo travelers worldwide. Yet despite these impressive statistics, many women remain on the sidelines, watching others embark on adventures they only dream about. What's holding them back? For many, it's the invisible weight of past trauma, grief, or loss that makes the unknown elements of solo travel feel insurmountable.

This episode introduces the concept of travel coaching—a specialized approach distinct from traditional travel planning services. Unlike travel agents who book your trips, travel coaches focus on the deeper "why" behind your journey, crafting intentional experiences designed for personal growth and healing. When we've experienced trauma, our brains often remain stuck in survival mode, making even the thought of planning travel overwhelming. Travel coaching works specifically with these challenges, helping guide women from a place of hesitation to empowered exploration.

The magic happens when we step beyond our comfort zones. Something transformative occurs when we leave familiar surroundings—our brains begin to rewire as we engage with new environments, pulling us out of internal thought patterns and creating space for new perspectives. For trauma survivors, this shift can be profoundly healing, though timing matters. A travel coach helps identify the right moment in your healing journey and designs experiences that challenge appropriately without triggering. Whether you're processing grief, recovering from divorce, or healing from past trauma, intentional solo travel might be the breakthrough experience you've been seeking. Ready to move from watching others' adventures to creating your own? Visit cherylbeckesch.com to learn more or book a free discovery call to discuss how travel coaching can transform your journey.

https://www.cherylbeckesch.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Solo Female Travel Statistics
• 1:20 What Is Travel Coaching?
• 4:30 Travel for Healing Trauma
• 9:11 New Website Launch
• 12:00 Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Did you know that 72% of American women have traveled solo at least once? According to Condor Fairies of 2024 stats, and one in four travelers worldwide is a woman traveling alone. Per bookingcom, women influence and make 80% of travel decisions globally. You've probably seen solo female travel has been growing steadily over the past 10 years and of all the solo travelers in the world, 70% are women. Have you been part of that growth Maybe? Maybe you've been on some solo trips, or are you still sitting on the sidelines dreaming and watching others do those solo travels that you wish you could do, but something's holding you back.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Cheryl Esch, travel coach and solo travel advocate for all you out there that are sitting on the sidelines. Well, one way I help people to feel unstuck or scared is to work with me as a travel coach, and you may ask what is a travel coach versus what's a travel agent, travel advisor? Maybe you think those terms are interchangeable, but they're actually different things. So I'm going to share with you what travel coaching is not, and just to clear up any of that confusion of those different names that we might call people that assist with travel, a travel coach is actually not a travel agent, meaning we do not create itineraries or book your travel for you. That's gonna be more your travel agent or travel advisor that's gonna do those kind of tasks for you. However, there may be some travel coaches out there who either work with or can recommend a travel agent for you, and so they might even just be a one-stop shop, meaning maybe they were a travel agent and they have become certified as a travel coach to sort of help their clients, you know, just find the best place to take their travels. But travel coaching focuses on helping a client have a meaningful experience with their travel, based on their individual needs, their intention for the trip, and we, as travel coaches, guide the client in through the pre-trip phase, during the trip and even post-trip simulation and reflection. We will focus on the why behind your travels and even craft an experience to produce personal growth and transformation.

Speaker 1: 3:00

And in my program I specifically focus on finding healing and transformation from past grief, lost traumas, those kinds of things that make it a little more challenging in going on a trip, possibly because there is some deeper issues that may be preventing you from remaining scared or on the sidelines, and so I work with clients to help them work through those reasons that they're stuck. You know what is preventing them from going on this trip. Why do they want to go on a solo trip and to really utilize that time? Because I truly believe, and I have experienced it in my own life, that travel, coaching and being intentional about your trip has provided healing for me personally and I've seen it in a few clients of my own and I've seen it in a few clients of my own. So I can officially say my new website, my refreshed website, has been launched, as of you hearing this today, and within that there is more information about my program and next week I'm going to talk a little bit more. I'll share a little bit of my one of my healing stories of how I utilized travel to heal from some things.

Speaker 1: 4:33

So there are many different situations in which a person, a woman, might need to find healing and I feel travel offers that and for many reasons, one of the big things that I have noticed with women that are struggling maybe they've had some past trauma and they're still processing that we all know. If you have ever been in that situation, you've ever experienced whether it's grief, loss of a loved one, a bad divorce because that is a partial grieving process that happens and everything else that goes along with that. Or maybe just you had a traumatic event earlier in your life, or even semi-recently it could be just traumatic to in your brain and therefore you are responding in a way that is reminiscent of PTSD and so you might have some of those what we call. You have triggers that still might randomly happen, and so that makes it a little unsettling possibly for you, as that person struggling with that, to even consider going on a solo trip, because there is so much unknown about solo travel and if you've been through some trauma, sometimes having control could be also something that is preventing you from doing any kind of solo travel or moving forward, because it keeps you kind of stuck in this control mindset, even though, as we know, travel we can't control travel there's so much unpredictability.

Speaker 1: 6:22

You got to be flexible with change, but what I have noticed with women that are kind of in that stuck traumatic phase of their life and they're still processing they could be going to counseling, which I highly recommend there is a mentality of being in survival mode and if you've been there you know what I'm talking about. And so to even think or plan a trip is so overwhelming to you, right, and that may be one of the reasons you haven't even considered a solo trip to help you move through this process. But what I found and there is science behind it when we are moved out of this safety, this bubble that we have created for ourselves due to the trauma we've experienced and I'm not saying this is something you could consider like immediately following a trauma Often my trips were even sometimes years after the trauma. My trips were even sometimes years after the trauma. So there is a period where you may need to find that safe space for yourself, right, to feel safe in your own mind and body and spirit.

Speaker 1: 7:44

So once you've gotten past that, though, we often stay stuck in this survival mentality and we just are getting through our day. We're just doing what is necessary, right, and we can't really think of anything else because our minds aren't letting us and we may be thinking we're still in that situation, so we're on the defense and so we're kind of constantly in that fight and flight, kind of feel right, and that also makes it very overwhelming in the brain to even consider a solo trip just to travel in general, right, because there's a lot of prep with travel. You have to plan, you have to pack, you have to schedule things, you have to book your flights, and so all that, on top of just trying to survive, can be too much for someone who is kind of in those early stages possibly, but in the later stages we may still revert to that, and so my goal in working with clients that are in that space where they have walked through some part of their trauma, they've started some counseling, they've started the healing process possibly, or the grieving process, is to help guide them and show them the benefits. First of all, because when we are taken out of this comfort zone as I was mentioning earlier, this bubble that we've created to create safety for ourselves it actually it rewires your brain and there's something magical that happens when we are pulled out of our comfort zone, we're suddenly having to look outside of ourselves, even because we have to start to be aware. We're no longer in our comfortable home and our comfortable job and in our comfortable town and everything's predictable, right, we get moved to another country, just for example, and suddenly all of our senses are aware, right, we're pulled out of ourselves and we suddenly have to you know, you know again, be aware of our surroundings, um, and then start to see ourselves in a new light, and this is when the transformation can start. And so part of my program is it's very individualized, depending on your story, depending on certain triggers. We keep that in mind as we look to. I do help, suggest and plan in a sense. I mean you're going to do all the booking and all that for yourself, but kind of guide you in a way to make sure where you've chosen to go is suitable for you and your personality, but also suitable for you in this season of your life and that it's not going to put you in that traumatic brain mindset. So you're not going to default to some sort of PTSD responses. So if that is you and you want to explore that idea you're not sure, maybe it's something you want to try, maybe you're unsure if this is right for you. I encourage you.

Speaker 1: 11:23

First of all, go to my website. I want to thank my web designer, mariah Petty. She did a beautiful job and I'm so grateful for her and the love that she put into the refresh of my website. I'm just so thrilled. And so the website is actually Cheryl Beck Esch, so that's C-H-E-R-Y-L-B-E-C-K-E-S-C-Hcom. So for those that don't know me or have just gotten to know me, beck is my maiden name and I still have quite a few people that refer to me with my maiden name, and so that's sort of why I created that website, with those merged together. Plus, that is actually where you would find me on Facebook as well.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Anyways, go to that website, check it out. You could also just book a call with me If you're unsure of a. What are the next steps? Is this something that would work for me? And I would love to get on a free 15 minute sort of discovery call to talk maybe more at. You know you can ask whatever questions you need to regarding the coaching program, and we'll talk some more next week about some personal experiences of how travel coaching has healed me personally, and I'll share a little story of my own, and we'll talk some more about this next week. But get on that website, check it out and book a call with me if you are unsure and need some answers and sisters, I would love for you to get out there and have your next adventure. So book a call again. If that is you sitting on the sidelines dreaming through other people's stories here, let's create a memorable and healing story for you.