Meet Seoka Salstrom
“Growth begins when we stop trying to escape our experience and choose to meet it with willingness”
Holder of the inner terrain
Seoka’s work is grounded in a deep respect for human experience. She brings a steady, compassionate presence to Athara Adventures, shaped by years of walking alongside people through change, uncertainty, and growth.
“Growth doesn’t come from white-knuckling our way through,” she says. “It happens when we can stay present with all of it, beauty and gremlins alike.”
Those who spend time with Seoka often describe a sense of being able to settle. There is room to be honest, to move at your own pace, and to explore what matters without pressure or performance. Her way of working is calm, attentive, and quietly rigorous, creating room for both difficulty and possibility.
The Path That Shaped Her
Seoka grew up close to nature, learning early what it means to listen, adapt, and find her footing over time. Her life has been shaped by long relationships with mountains, movement, and the inner world, as well as decades of professional work in psychology and behavioural science.
Her work is informed by extensive training and practice in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an evidence-based psychological approach that emphasises values, willingness, and learning how to relate differently to thoughts and emotions rather than trying to fix them. This framework, together with years of contemplative meditation practice, sits at the core of how she understands growth, change, and what it means to live well.
“In the spring of 2021, during a period of burnout and health challenges, a close friend and mentor suggested I go to the mountains to heal. I insisted I didn’t have the time or freedom to step away from work. Yet John Muir’s words, ‘The mountains are calling and I must go,’ etched on a small handmade plaque in my bathroom, seemed to call louder each day. Three weeks later, I walked out my front door in Woodstock, Vermont, and headed south on the Appalachian Trail without knowing when I’d return.
The first days were cold and unnerving. I rationed toilet paper poorly and questioned my life choices in the drenching rain. By day four, though, I felt more free and joyful than I had in years. The months that followed brought black flies, rock scrambles, twisted ankles, flash-flood warnings, cheetos, deep solitude, and long conversations with strangers. I was a whole new kind of exhausted and deeply grateful.
As someone with a loud inner critic, I became very kind to myself out there. The cost of letting self-doubt make my decisions was just too high. The trail stripped life down to what was essential and mirrored both my limits and my strength. Somewhere between the storms and the absurdities, I came home more myself.”
Her approach is shaped by over twenty years of clinical experience, ongoing study, and the lessons of lived experience, grounded in a deep ethical commitment to doing this work with integrity. Just as importantly, it is grounded in humility and curiosity about what it means to be fully human.
How She Guides the Athara Experience
At Athara Adventures, Seoka supports the inner landscape of each experience. She is attentive to emotional safety, group dynamics, and the subtle ways people respond to challenge, rest, and connection.
Her approach is not about fixing or pushing. It is about helping people relate differently to their own thoughts, emotions, and patterns, so they are no longer in the background running the show.
“I am serious about the work I do, and I often take myself too seriously in the process. Then I notice something absurd or hilarious about the moment, or about myself, and we’re laughing again.
We’re all in this together: facing fears, grieving losses, making a mess and hoping no one is looking too closely, including ourselves. When we stop fighting what’s here and meet it with awareness and compassion, something clears”
That same attentiveness carries into how Seoka leads and builds. She listens closely to what people are actually asking for, even when it is not yet fully formed. When she notices a genuine need, she brings creativity, commitment, and discipline to shaping structures and experiences that can meet it. The work evolves in response, grounded in clear values, steadiness, and respect.
“I try to listen for what’s underneath, not just what’s being said out loud,” she says. “I hope people leave more willing to explore new places in the world and within themselves. And kinder to themselves as they do.”
Depth is held with care, and responsiveness is balanced with discernment. Participants are always invited into choice, never obligation.
Working in Partnership
Seoka leads Athara Adventures in close collaboration with Anna and Sarah. Their shared leadership allows each experience to be held from multiple angles at once, psychological, physical, cultural, and practical.
She values this way of working together. Trust, mutual respect, and clear communication between the founders create a stable container in which participants can relax, knowing that no one person is carrying the full weight of the experience.
“We have each other’s backs and we trust each other with our lives. None of us is meant to hold everything alone.”
Relationship to Place
Seoka’s work is strongly influenced by place. Living and walking in the mountains of West Virginia, Vermont, and particularly Europe has shaped her understanding of pacing, presence, and what it means to move through the world without pretending.
“I am far more honest with myself about myself than ever before. The mountains are a mirror.”
She is drawn to landscapes with depth and history, places that invite humility and reflection. Places in which the people fought for the greater good and defended against tyranny and fundamentalism. At Athara Adventures, these environments are not backdrops, but active participants in the work, offering perspective, challenge, and a reminder of what endures.
A Closing Reflection
She believes growth is less about reinvention and more about clearing away what obscures what has been there all along. In ACT, this is known as the observer self. It is the part of a person that notices thoughts and feelings. It is the self behind every label. Before anything is added after “I am,” there is simply the self that observes. That understanding shapes how she shows up.
“The longer I do this work, the more curious and open I become. I’m continually humbled by what I learn from others, their stories, their resilience, their courage. It is a privilege to be trusted in such meaningful ways.”
At Athara Adventures, she brings this belief into every retreat, walking or cycling holiday, tour, and coaching space, offering an attentive and steady presence for those who feel ready to explore, reflect, and move forward in their own way.
Learn about Athara Adventure’s Other Founders
Anna
Sarah
