diff --git a/datafusion/common/src/tree_node.rs b/datafusion/common/src/tree_node.rs
index 42514537e28d..bb268e048d9a 100644
--- a/datafusion/common/src/tree_node.rs
+++ b/datafusion/common/src/tree_node.rs
@@ -292,6 +292,23 @@ pub trait TreeNode: Sized {
         )
     }
 
+    /// Returns true if `f` returns true for node in the tree.
+    ///
+    /// Stops recursion as soon as a matching node is found
+    fn exists<F: FnMut(&Self) -> bool>(&self, mut f: F) -> bool {
+        let mut found = false;
+        self.apply(&mut |n| {
+            Ok(if f(n) {
+                found = true;
+                TreeNodeRecursion::Stop
+            } else {
+                TreeNodeRecursion::Continue
+            })
+        })
+        .unwrap();
+        found
+    }
+
     /// Apply the closure `F` to the node's children.
     fn apply_children<F: FnMut(&Self) -> Result<TreeNodeRecursion>>(
         &self,
diff --git a/datafusion/expr/src/expr.rs b/datafusion/expr/src/expr.rs
index b11636d831b1..ad15a81a2325 100644
--- a/datafusion/expr/src/expr.rs
+++ b/datafusion/expr/src/expr.rs
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use crate::expr_fn::binary_expr;
 use crate::logical_plan::Subquery;
-use crate::utils::{expr_to_columns, find_out_reference_exprs};
+use crate::utils::expr_to_columns;
 use crate::window_frame;
 use crate::{
     aggregate_function, built_in_function, built_in_window_function, udaf,
@@ -1232,7 +1232,7 @@ impl Expr {
 
     /// Return true when the expression contains out reference(correlated) expressions.
     pub fn contains_outer(&self) -> bool {
-        !find_out_reference_exprs(self).is_empty()
+        self.exists(|expr| matches!(expr, Expr::OuterReferenceColumn { .. }))
     }
 
     /// Recursively find all [`Expr::Placeholder`] expressions, and
diff --git a/datafusion/expr/src/logical_plan/plan.rs b/datafusion/expr/src/logical_plan/plan.rs
index ca8d718ec090..7ea1324d9052 100644
--- a/datafusion/expr/src/logical_plan/plan.rs
+++ b/datafusion/expr/src/logical_plan/plan.rs
@@ -1321,6 +1321,21 @@ impl LogicalPlan {
             | LogicalPlan::Extension(_) => None,
         }
     }
+
+    /// If this node's expressions contains any references to an outer subquery
+    pub fn contains_outer_reference(&self) -> bool {
+        let mut contains = false;
+        self.apply_expressions(|expr| {
+            Ok(if expr.contains_outer() {
+                contains = true;
+                TreeNodeRecursion::Stop
+            } else {
+                TreeNodeRecursion::Continue
+            })
+        })
+        .unwrap();
+        contains
+    }
 }
 
 /// This macro is used to determine continuation during combined transforming
diff --git a/datafusion/optimizer/src/analyzer/subquery.rs b/datafusion/optimizer/src/analyzer/subquery.rs
index 79375e52da1f..002885266e2f 100644
--- a/datafusion/optimizer/src/analyzer/subquery.rs
+++ b/datafusion/optimizer/src/analyzer/subquery.rs
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ fn check_inner_plan(
     is_aggregate: bool,
     can_contain_outer_ref: bool,
 ) -> Result<()> {
-    if !can_contain_outer_ref && contains_outer_reference(inner_plan) {
+    if !can_contain_outer_ref && inner_plan.contains_outer_reference() {
         return plan_err!("Accessing outer reference columns is not allowed in the plan");
     }
     // We want to support as many operators as possible inside the correlated subquery
@@ -233,13 +233,6 @@ fn check_inner_plan(
     }
 }
 
-fn contains_outer_reference(inner_plan: &LogicalPlan) -> bool {
-    inner_plan
-        .expressions()
-        .iter()
-        .any(|expr| expr.contains_outer())
-}
-
 fn check_aggregation_in_scalar_subquery(
     inner_plan: &LogicalPlan,
     agg: &Aggregate,
diff --git a/datafusion/optimizer/src/decorrelate.rs b/datafusion/optimizer/src/decorrelate.rs
index dbcf02b26ba6..7eda45fb563c 100644
--- a/datafusion/optimizer/src/decorrelate.rs
+++ b/datafusion/optimizer/src/decorrelate.rs
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ impl TreeNodeRewriter for PullUpCorrelatedExpr {
                     _ => Ok(Transformed::no(plan)),
                 }
             }
-            _ if plan.expressions().iter().any(|expr| expr.contains_outer()) => {
+            _ if plan.contains_outer_reference() => {
                 // the unsupported cases, the plan expressions contain out reference columns(like window expressions)
                 self.can_pull_up = false;
                 Ok(Transformed::new(plan, false, TreeNodeRecursion::Jump))