Have you ever wondered whether running is helping your mental health… or draining it?
In this episode, we dig into the real relationship between running and wellbeing – when it is helpful and when it is less helpful, or even outright harmful, to push the body through running exercise and marathons.
I’m joined by Counselling Psychologist and passionate runner Dr Chloe Bedford for an honest, compassionate conversation about the complex dynamics between running, identity, and emotional regulation, especially for busy, perfectionistic, or neurodivergent minds.
We explore both the light and dark sides of running – the clarity, calm, emotional regulation, and resilience it can bring… and the perfectionism, guilt, pressure, and burnout that can creep in when movement becomes another place we strive or push too hard to beat a personal best or complete a particular race despite it making us ill or injured.
Dr Chloe Bedford is a Counselling Psychologist working with adults, teens, and children struggling with their mental health. She has over 15 years experience of working in both the NHS and private practice. Chloe has spent time working in a specialist eating disorder service for teens and through this, as well as her own love of running, developed an interest in the complex relationship we can have with our bodies, eating and exercise.
Chloe is an enthusiastic runner, and has run many half marathons and 10kms. One day she dreams of making it to the start line of a marathon, but as a mother she accepts that this might have to wait.
Together, we unpack how to approach running in a way that supports your wellbeing rather than drains it.
We also talk about how fitness culture, social media, and societal expectations shape our beliefs about what running “should” look like – and the liberation that comes from choosing your own pace, your own goals, and your own rhythm.
This episode is for you if you’ve ever:
- Used running to cope or regulate your emotions
- Slipped into all-or-nothing thinking around movement
- Felt guilty when you “didn’t do enough”
- Compared yourself to others or felt pressure to perform
- Wanted a more compassionate, sustainable relationship with exercise
Chloe brings both psychological expertise and lived experience to help you create a version of running – or any kind of movement – that genuinely supports your mental health.
Chloe is acutely aware of the benefits that running has had on her own mental well-being, as a psychologist, as a mother, and as a human. She shares her experience and the science behind how it can help, along with other mental health information, on her Instagram account (@the.running.psychologist), in the hope that this might help others.
Connect with Chloe: www.marathonpsychology.com
