Have you felt frustrated when you have had chronic pain, health issues, or anxiety and people told you to just relax? First, would it be that easy? Second, perhaps you know you’ve been through a lot. Actually you already do a lot of stuff to cope. Maybe you have read Louise Hays and done energy work or have been on a journey in which you have made the links between the past and the present.

Maybe you’ve done decades of talk therapy or other processes. Maybe the issue is, you know what’s going on, but it is still getting to you.

In fact, “stress” was originally discovered when a researcher named Hans Selye found out that when people or animals have too many adverse disruptions in their lives, they start to develop chronic illnesses.

Yet the way we typically think of stress - and how to cope - like hot baths, breathing, mindfulness, tapping our face, exercise, changing our attitude, stopping our thoughts, energy practices, talking to a friend - have limitations in that they work on the physiological or coping level. In fact, you probably have had all that go out the window when that dreaded ex calls you, or the parent who still treats you the unpleasant way they did when you were young. Or these days…it happens when you open up your Facebook feed, and see what people are saying about the latest political news. Or maybe you get stressed when you get into relationships or social situations. You may notice that pretty soon, the emotions that get stirred up in you, bring your stress levels right back.

Many times, these emotions are stressful because they include complex feelings, particularly when they involve people we loved or cared for in the past, who hurt us. It is complex to feel anger and pain towards people who matter to us. In fact, having anger and grief…this is a natural response to trauma. When these feelings go unresolved, they can continue to cause us to feel “triggered” and stressed when even small amounts of conflict come up. They can lead to a life of avoiding things.

What if I told you there was a way you could learn to work through these feelings so that you could handle more situations with ease that currently stress you out?

In the most contemporary therapies and understanding of how we develop - called dynamic systems theory - mind and body and emotions work together. Similarly, untangling the emotions and stress involves a journey of working through the mind, body and emotions together. We change through experiential change. By working in this way together, we support you to untangle dysfunctional ways - way that maybe served you in the past - of coping. You begin to have the capacity to find strength and courage. You reclaim agency over your emotional well-being. Let’s find a path through what is difficult to deal with in your own emotional world. Let’s support you to trust yourself. So you act authentically with your own feelings.

If you’re interested in finding exploring the mind/body emotion connection, I invite you to give me a call and see how we can support you.