In October 2022, I was invited by my friends at REMOTE LATIN AMERICA (www.remote.la) to the beautiful town of Cafayate in Salta, Argentina. They asked me to speak about the connection between travel and personal transformation, and how we can get the most out of our journeys.
Here’s how they introduced my talk:
“Travel is a journey through unfamiliar territories,” says Argentine psychologist and travel therapist, Javier Labourt, the REMOTE Talks speaker on our final day of REMOTE Immersion Cafayate. After years of studying the relationship between psychology and travel—his two passions—Javier has concluded that travel has the “powerful capacity to change our perspective, confront our fears, and empower us.”
At a time when mental health has become a sensitive and crucial topic, Labourt emphasizes how travel can foster personal transformation, reshape our relationship with fear, and create meaningful human connections.
According to him, there are four therapeutic goals that travel can help achieve: building self-knowledge, self-esteem, cognitive flexibility (adaptability), and empathy. “When traveling, we’re on fertile ground to plant the seeds of personal growth. Travel provides the perfect setting for nurturing human empathy,” says Labourt. “I wanted you to understand that what you do [as travel professionals] is, in fact, helping people enhance their mental health.”
Javier Labourt describes himself as a “creative psychologist with a passion for exploring the relationship between travel and personal transformation.” He is a licensed psychologist in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Palo Alto University in California, USA.