Running won't outrun your trauma, and therapist Don Harris explains why the fastest people at the finish line are often the ones still carrying the most weight.

Don Harris has built a practice and a run club around the same idea: movement helps, but connection does the deeper work. As a therapist who works with both teenagers and adults, he's learned that the question "What's wrong with you?" rarely gets anyone anywhere. "What happened to you?" does. That shift shows up everywhere in this conversation, from how he counsels students to how he built Embrace the Pace, the Denver run club he founded around self-love, wellness, community, and movement rather than pace times.

What happens when you stop treating exercise as an escape hatch and start treating it as one piece of a bigger picture? Don and Andrew dig into that question from a few angles, comparing the pull of running with others against the clarity that comes from running alone, and asking why the best ideas seem to show up mid-run. If you had to shop around for a therapist the way you'd shop for any other provider, would you settle for the first opening on the schedule, or would you hold out for someone you actually connect with?

The conversation closes on Embrace the Pace's upcoming Run for Denver Day, a free community event on July 20th built to bring Denver's run club scene and wider wellness community together in one place, no matter your club or your pace.

Quotes

"Life happened to you. And because life happened to you in a certain way, you're navigating it in the way that you navigate it." (18:41 | Don Harris)
"When are you going to stop running from it and start running towards it? Because it's going to continue to chase you because our body stores everything, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we talk about it or not, our body is storing all the experiences that happens to us. And while we're running from things, more experiences are happening to us. And so then it becomes the question of do you want to live a heavy life or a light life?" (21:24 | Don Harris)
"Don't just go to a therapist just because they're a therapist. It's 80% connection, relationship rapport, 20% modality of whatever that therapist is using. It doesn't matter how good the therapist is, whatever they specialize in, can you connect with them?" (23:47 | Don Harris)
"This version of yourself has value. It has meaning, it is worth something. And I say when you know your worth, then you add tax to that." (53:31 | Don Harris)
"I always tell people we start and end at the same place, no matter how fast you get there... The pace doesn't matter. You got up, you moved your body, you accomplished something. That is a win." (54:20 | Don Harris)

Links

Connect with Don Harris:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdondreharris/

Embrace the Pace: https://www.instagram.com/embracethepace.runclub/

DonDre 'Don' Harris, MSW, SWC, is a trauma-informed therapist, school social worker, and community leader passionate about helping people reconnect with themselves and others. Drawing from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness, and strengths-based approaches, he creates spaces where authenticity, healing, and growth can thrive.

Outside of the therapy room, Don is an ultrarunner and founder of Embrace the Pace: Run Club, where he uses movement as a tool for building community, resilience, and belonging. He believes that every mile, like every step in healing, is an opportunity to embrace the journey rather than rush the destination. Through his work, Don is committed to making mental health and the outdoors more accessible, inclusive, and transformative for all.

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