Stress Management

It's likely safe to say that we have all experienced stress. It can be acute such as when we see a snake or chronic such as in the workplace. It can come from relationships, finances, schedules, and other environmental factors or it can come from within as in illness or inflammation. Regardless of where it comes from, the body's stress response system, the Hypothalmus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA axis) awakens and engages.

From a neurobiological perspective, our body is unable to distinguish between stress associated with deadlines, conflict, poor sleep or other forms of distress and stress associated with news of obtaining your dream job, being asked on that date you were hoping for, finding your perfect four-legged friend at the shelter or other forms of eustress.

When the HPA axis is activated, we may initially feel energized. Cortisol released in the process gives us the energy to take action. However, when we remain in this process for too long, we become mentally, emotionally, and physically depleted. We lose our zest for life, our curiosity, and our creativity, Life becomes black and white instead of vibrant, our body develops strange aches, and our once enjoyable experiences become more burdensome and obligatory. 

There are many ways to recover from too much stress and we have an abundance of knowledge to support you in this process. 

Through a collaborative approach we work with you to address the route causes of what is happening. We start with assisting you with exploring what motivates you to remain in the patterns of stress and then support you with untangling your thoughts and habitual responses that maintain the pattern.

This can be done through teaching mindfulness practices, using Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT/Tapping), guided journaling, using Internal Family Systems concepts to identify and support the parts of you keeping the patterns in place, challenging and reframing limiting beliefs and exploring familial patterns influencing you today. 

If you are sensing you are moving towards overwhelm or burnout and find yourself aware of your patterns but unable to interrupt them, contact us and we can help re-define your direction and resume the life you were meant to live.