New Stress Relief Methods

Posted on by L. Kessler

Help With Stress Relief

Stress is so widespread and does so much damage to health, business, and relationships. Yet most people ignore it, live with it, or seek distractions from it. Perhaps most people stress, stress relief methods, stress relief techniques, stress management, managing stress, reducing stress, stress reductio, help with stressdon’t realize just how damaging it is. We gripe about it when we’re young, learn to live with it when we’re middle-aged, and then suffer the strokes and heart attacks caused by it when we’re older. Then it is too late.

I have tried, over the years, to get people to lose their stress while they still can. I have tried to let people know that traumas, whether from early in life or later on, keep high levels of stress locked into place. And I’ve tried to let people know that something can be done about it.

Normally, I see people privately for one-on-one sessions. The results have been stunning as so many I’ve worked with have left their suffering and stress behind and moved into new lives and relationships filled with vitality and joy.

Now I’ve taken the tools and techniques I’ve developed over the years and put them all into one website. When you need help, you can click on the site any time and get instant relief. Or you can follow the trainings and learn how you can lose stress permanently.

This is a great place for those of you who can’t see me privately to start eliminating stress from your life. It’s also a great place for those of you who do work with me–or have in the past–to be able to maintain or refresh what you’ve already learned.

This website is another way I can help those who need it.

family constellations, trauma, PTSD, PTSD treatment, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety, depression, insomniaGo to the site by clicking here.

And share it with those you love by clicking on the button below.

Thanks,

Larry Kessler

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How Stress and Trauma Can Make You Ugly

Posted on by L. Kessler

How Stress and Trauma Make You Ugly

stress, trauma, PTSD, stress relief, help with stress, help with stress relief, stress maangementEver look in the mirror and see the stress on your face? Or perhaps noted that you’ve gotten a little bit uglier? When you are under a lot of stress or have lived with the effects of trauma for a while, it shows on your face, your skin, in your eyes, and in the way you hold yourself.

Stress and trauma not only affect you mentally, emotionally, and physically, they also affect your health and increases your risk of developing:

  • heart disease
  • immunological diseases
  • cancer
  • strokes.

And those are in addition to making you ugly.

So how can stress make you ugly?

  • Vices

For many people, indulging in smoking, drinking, or mega amounts of food help pacify the feelings of stress. Many do all three plus some others like marijuana and prescription or non-prescription drugs. All of these prove fatal to beauty.

Smoking dries and ages the skin; drinking damages the liver and increases sugars in the blood giving the skin a flaccid tone; and overeating piles on fat and makes the skin look mottled and pitted.

  • Losing Sleep

Stress causes you to not sleep properly at night. And lack of sleep is one of the fastest ways to lose your attractiveness. Besides the mental and emotional toll sleeplessness takes, it also makes you look tired and drained. And how does that look in the mirror?

  • stress, trauma, PTSD, stress relief, help with stress, help with stress relief, stress maangementPimples and Acne

Stress can cause pimple or acne breakouts. It causes the body to increase its production of hormones that stimulate more oils in the skin. An increase in stress means more of these hormones, which means more oil that clogs your pores, ultimately leading to breakouts. And that ain’t pretty.

  • Wrinkles

You should be concerned about this: Stress Causes Wrinkles! When you’re under stress, your body’s cells age more rapidly. This causes your skin to lose its suppleness and look old, dry, and wrinkled. Still not reason enough to take care of your stress?

  • Hair Falling Out

If you have perpetual, ongoing stress, your hair will start thinning, breaking, and falling out more than usual. And there is no way to prevent this kind of hair loss. Comb-overs will only work for so long.

Unfortunately, even after you have taken steps to reduce your stress, your hair loss may still continue. Only by dealing with stress and managing it now can you stop future hair loss.

  • Vitamin Deficiency

Stress hormones interfere with the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and nutrients from the foods you eat. Vitamin deficiency not only affects your health, it also shows up in your physical appearance.

So instead of breaking all the mirrors where you live because you do not like what you see, or covering yourself with a veil or mask when you go out, ask yourself if you have been under a lot of stress lately.

Then do something about it. It will only get worse, and you will only get uglier if you don’t.

 

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Pain Expert Talks About Mind-Body Benefits

Posted on by L. Kessler

Reprinted from NIH Report, March 29, 2013

What happens in your brain when you experience pain? Can mind-body approaches really help ease pain?

stress, trauma, pain, stress management, pain management,

Dr. M. Catherine Bushnell

Dr. M. Catherine Bushnell, scientific director of NCCAM’s Division of Intramural Research, tackled these topics when she recently spoke on “The Neural Basis of Mind-Body Pain Therapies” in NCCAM’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series.

“Pain is a multidimensional, complex and individual experience,” said Bushnell, who is leading a new, cross-cutting NIH research initiative on pain. Research has been yielding fascinating insights on pain’s underlying biology. For example, imaging has shown that even in conditions in which the causes of pain are not visible or known, the brains of pain patients do experience pain. And it is evident where in the brain this happens.

When someone is exposed to a pain stimulus, a series of signals ascend from the body site to the spinal cord and then the forebrain. Then, as part of pain processing, a series of signals descend in the opposite direction. In both directions, multiple pathways and cells, such as neurons and neurotransmitters, are involved.

Continue reading →

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Washing Away the Trauma of Birth

Posted on by L. Kessler

Just being born is a trauma for a baby as it leaves the warm, moist comfort of the womb and enters the glaring lights and abrasive sounds of a new world.

This video shows how a newborn’s raw nervous system can be soothed and calmed into a peaceful state. How lovely to have been welcomed into the world this way.

This is a must-see video.

Notice how the touch and gentle massaging helps the baby’s nervous system to calm  after having gone through the hardship of birth. Likewise, gentle touch can have a profound affect on soothing an adult’s nervous system that has been ravaged by stress and trauma. Early traumas in adults that occurred before 2 years of age are particularly well-treated with this type of therapy.

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New Videos to Help Your Stress

Posted on by L. Kessler

Help with Stress Relief

I have started a new site that offers people not only help with stress and useful techniques in managing stress but also help to get rid of stress permanently. It’s also a place where people with stress can come together and help each other by sharing what’s going on with them, commenting and giving advice, and listening.

Most Stress Management techniques only give you ways to cope with stress. But that means that you already have stress that needs to be managed. Besides helping you deal with stress as it arises, this site will also eliminate your reaction to events and situations in life that causes stress.

Recently,  I added some new videos you can watch anytime you want. These relaxing videos contain calming sounds that will melt away your stress:

stress, stress management, help with stress, help for stress, less stress,Some have gentle music and peaceful images that help stress dissolve. Some combine music along with sounds of nature. Others have only sounds of nature without music and keep a steady video of a stream or waterfall on camera so you can watch and listen at the same time. Several videos contain chanting, which many people find calming, and others provide sounds in the background to help you focus or study.

You can watch and listen to these videos. Or maybe you will want to just put on a set of headphones, turn off the monitor,  close your eyes, and let the sounds wrap around you and carry you away.

Spend 10 minutes, 20 minutes, as much time as you want.

The best part is they are only a click away. So you can be working on your computer, click on one of the videos (or audios),  take a quick break, and calm yourself instantly for however long you want, at home or at the office.

Click Here to Check Out the Site: It goes way beyond stress management.

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What Stress Does in the Body

Posted on by L. Kessler

How Stress and Trauma Cause Autoimmune Illnesses

Book Review: The Missing “First Domino” In Autoimmune Conditions: Nervous System Dysregulation

stress, trauma, PTSD, autoimmune disorders, Larry Kessler, helphealingtrauma, thecausesofstress, anxiety, Peter Levine

Click Here to Order Book

This eBook by Dr. Lori A. Parker is an excellent resource for understanding how the body reacts to stress. She uses simple language, clear graphics, and concise metaphors to enhance her  discussions of the biology of stress and trauma.

Although this book can be read by anyone wishing to understand the mechanisms of stress and trauma, Dr. Parker focuses on the roles stress and trauma play in the formation of autoimmune disorders and syndromes, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, etc.

While Dr. Parker acknowledges that the etiology of syndromes is complex, at the beginning of the book she ponders two questions: “What causes the body to produce an immune response against itself?   What are the circumstances, mechanisms, and triggers?” These questions set her off on her quest to find the “First Domino” in the sequence of syndrome formation.

What then follows is a Sherlock Holmes-like investigation into the role genetics may play, the nature of trauma, the interplay of hormones and body chemistry, the dance of the autonomic nervous system, and the sequence of internal events that occur in stress and trauma that lead to autoimmune illnesses.

This book is simple enough for the lay reader (I plan to suggest it to my clients) and thorough enough for a medical researcher. I can’t recommend it enough.

 

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Beyond Sandy Hook: How Somatic Experiencing Can Help Us Heal

Posted on by L. Kessler

What Happens During Trauma?

This follow blog was sent to me by THE SETI STAFF on FEBRUARY 12, 2013. I was given permission to share it with you below.

trauma, PTSD, Sandy Hook, Somatic Experiencing, Larry Kessler, Peter Levine, SE, healing from trauma, helphealingtraumaThe horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, remind us of the terror and uncertainty of trauma.

At the SE® Trauma Institute, we believe that with the right techniques and support, children, adults, and communities can begin to heal the effects of trauma. This page describes how the principles of Somatic Experiencing® (SE®) can be applied and how we can begin the healing process.

What Happens During Trauma?

It is important to understand the naturalness of our responses to traumatic experiences. Biologically, we have only a few ways to respond to overwhelming circumstances:

  • We can become hyper-aroused or constricted in our bodies, emotions, and thinking
  • We can dissociate, as if we’re just not even there
  • We can numb ourselves to the point of feeling helpless and hopeless

trauma, PTSD, Sandy Hook, Somatic Experiencing, Larry Kessler, Peter Levine, healing from trauma, helphealingtraumaWe are born pre-wired with a process for recovering from these symptoms. Think of an animal in the wild: after surviving an attack, the animal may tremble, but will eventually go back about its business. As humans, we have those same circuits; the problem arises when our bodies cannot complete these natural processes. The incident becomes stuck in our wiring and our body.

Example: At Sandy Hook, children and adults had to hide while listening to terrifying sounds of gunshots. It’s likely that impulses to run, to shout, to look to see what was happening— all strong, natural survival impulses— had to be contained or overridden, or were in direct opposition to equally natural survival impulses to hide, to freeze, to look away. These powerful impulses bring the body and nervous system into a terrible state of conflict, as if one foot is full on the gas and the other is on the brakes.

Without the chance to complete these intense physical reactions the body locks them in place, and this is when trauma symptoms can begin to develop.

How Somatic Experiencing® Works and How It Helps:

Maggie Kline, MS, LMFT, SE® Practitioner and faculty member, points to the premise of SE®:

“We believe that trauma is not in the event itself; it lies in the resiliency of the nervous system. In other words, how quickly does the person who experienced the overwhelm bounce back, if at all? This means that after the event is over, if the children or adults affected are still registering danger signals in their body, they may easily get stuck in a vicious cycle of fight, flight or freeze, become alternately hyper-vigilant or dissociated and aloof. Either of these states may cascade into a myriad of symptoms, including sleeplessness, aggression, social problems, academic problems, and eventually, if unresolved, PTSD.”

Continue reading →

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Why You Won’t Get Rid of Your Stress or Trauma

Posted on by L. Kessler

Fear, Stress, and Trauma

fear, stress, trauma, PTSD, somatic experiencing, trauma therapy, stress management, stress reliefWhat would your life look like if you had no fear? Would you finally be be able to say “I love you” to someone? Or maybe you would be able to leave someone you should have left long ago. Without fear, would you ask your boss for a raise? Or would you leave your job and find something better? Maybe you would finally get the help you have been afraid to ask for but know you need.

As you know, fear has the ability to take over. Does anxiety ever jump on you when you are getting ready to give a talk in front of a group of people and jumble your thoughts? Or perhaps it just nags at you with a vague feeling of dread when you have to introduce yourself to strangers at a gathering of people you don’t know. Whether it’s overpowering or subtle, fear can stop you from doing what you want to do.

Fear is designed to protect your body from danger–fire, predators, etc.–and take you out of harm’s way. In this way it is a beneficial emotion that spurs you to either move to safety or protect yourself. After you have taken action, the fear usually dissipates. When it doesn’t go away, however, and lingers in the background, it turns into either stress or trauma. The fear can then be paralyzing at times and low-grade at others.

You may think that trauma comes from a single event, such as an accident, an attack, a serious injury, a disaster, or war. However, much of the trauma you have experienced in your life took place at a very young age, sometimes before you could speak or even remember what happened. Continue reading →

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Falls and Trauma

Posted on by L. Kessler

How a Fall Can Cause Trauma

trauma, PTSD, falls, Somatic Experiencing, SE, Peter Levine, It’s obvious that a fall from a ladder or down a flight of stairs can have serious consequences physically. But what about the more subtle effects they may have years later  on the mind and body that could be classified as trauma? And what about smaller falls that we don’t think mattered? We have all had trips and falls that haven’t necessarily resulted in trauma. So what are the indicators that a fall has produced a traumatic effect on the body and mind?

Some of the common symptoms of a fall trauma include:

  • dizziness
  • frequent loss of balance, unstable
  • a heightened sense of being physically vulnerable or absolutely no sense of vulnerability
  • anxiety about falling
  • clumsiness
  • over-control of the body, stiffness
  • a fear of heights
  • large gaps of memory loss
  • unable to feel grounded, feet may feel like they don’t reach the earth

Several or all of the symptoms above may indicate that a fall wasn’t as insignificant as we had thought it was. It usually takes a fall that has resulted in an injury to develop into an ongoing trauma that will impact us years later. People who have fallen may quite often continue to trip over their own feet, knock things over, and bump into furniture. These may not seem like much, but they can be serious depending on where they trip or what they knock over.

The good news is that falls and their symptoms can be treated and the effects on the body eliminated. We can regain a healthy sense of being grounded and balanced, a sense of stability.

Somatic work is especially good at working with serious falls. This is particularly important if an injury resulted from the fall, which will add another layer of trauma symptoms.

If you have suffered a serious fall, see if the above symptoms apply. If they do, get help.

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Battle Neurosis and PTSD–”Let There Be Light”

Posted on by L. Kessler

A John Huston Film on WWII Vets Recovering From PTSD

While serving with the U.S. Army Photographic Unit during World War II, John Huston made three documentaries. In 1945, he filmed “Let There Be Light,” the third and final one in the series.

It was one of the first movies that documented what was then called Battle Neurosis and Combat Psychosis, diagnoses that would later be labeled Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980. When shown to the Army brass, the film was yanked and not allowed to be shown to the public for 35 years. This is a moving film that follows a group of combat vets from admittance to recovery.

Watch the Full Film Here (60 minutes)

Hypnosis, combined with psychotherapy and group therapy, was the main treatment. We now know of better ways to treat trauma and PTSD, particularly using somatic-based therapies, such as Somatic Experiencing®.

Following this movie, I’ve posted a short interview by Clete Roberts with John Houston, who talks about the reaction of the Army to his film.

Clete Roberts Interviews John Huston (10 minutes)

If you follow the links to YouTube, you will find the movie broken down into 7 parts.

I’m grateful to Misako Miyagawa for bringing this historically important film to my attention.

Please Share This Movie by Clicking Below

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