Breaking the Cycle of Stress: Skills for Enhancing Wellness, Performance, and Effectiveness

1. Breaking the Cycle of Stress:Skills for Enhancing Wellness, Performance, and Effectiveness William F. Dougherty. Psy.D., NCP

2. Introduction • What is Stress? • Participants will learn various techniques to identify personal stressors and apply techniques to manage stress effectively. • Background and interest of the audience.

3. Course Outline • Stress points in participants lives (list) • Signs and Symptoms of stress. • Identifying and Managing Stress. • Goal Setting and Time Management. • Emotional aspects • Coping Strategies • Demonstration • Biofeedback, Guided Imagery,Visualization, Sensory alteration and Dissociation.

4. Physical Causes of Stress • Lack of Exercise • Diet: refined sugar, caffeine, nicotine, sleep disturbances. • Misuse of Medication • Excessive Alcohol Use

5. Family Stressors • Behavior Problems with Children/Adolescents. • Examples • Health problems in Family Members. • Death of a Family Member. • Partner relational problems. • Financial Issues • Moving

6. Job Related Stress • Starting a New Job • Retirement • Too Much Work • Poor Relationships with Colleagues • Unclear Duties or Responsibilities.

7. Physical symptoms • Headaches, GI distress, back pain, fibromyalgia, &TMJ. • Overeating, loss of appetite, eyelid twitching, excessive sweating, inability to sleep. • Hypertension, chest pains, excessive tiredness, & chronic fatigue.

8. Emotional Symptoms • Mood Changes, concentration difficulties, anxiety, panic attacks, withdrawing from others. • Anxiety, Anger, irritability, frustration and a low tolerance of others. • Depression, Confusion • Feelings of Helplessness, Restlessness, Racing thoughts.

9. Behavioral Manifestations • Procrastination • Deteriorating personal appearance • Apathy • Overeating • Negativity • Boredom • Our needs are not being met

10. Goal Setting • Understanding yourself at present Stage of life. • What do you enjoy doing? • Identify the most important things in life at present. • Clear & Specific Goals that are measurable and positively stated (“I want to lose 10 pounds over the Summer vacation”) rather than “I don’t want to be so fat.” • Develop Action Plan and Check progress.

11. Time Management • Self • Career • Relationships – partner, children, friends • A Balanced Lifestyle? (varies) • Sleep Time (quality) • Responsibilities (personal & household) • Transportation time • Personal & professional development • Recreational activities

12. Time Management • Your priority list – most important to least important for day and week • Scheduling – Include all appointments • Planner, PDA, or other method utilizing a To Do List • Do the most important –tasks when you have the most energy • Eliminate or Reduce “Time Wasters” • Finish one task before starting another. Don’t get sidetracked.

13. Emotions • Understanding, Identifying, and Expressing . • Coping Strategies • Our Mental Health

14. Emotions • Anger – a secondary emotion. • Usually the following emotions precede anger: disappointment, confusion, fear, impatience, worry, and frustration.

15. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Denial • I don’t have a problem! Nothing is wrong at all. Notice a person’s non-verbal expression-They may even be smiling • Denial can be useful in certain situations • And harmful, when refusing to recognize an emotion or a problem becomes a problem!

16. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Compensation • I was never a good athlete, but I am a very good salesman. • Compensation involves making up for weakness in one area by excelling in another area.

17. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Rationalization • “Its no big deal I called in sick….I just can’t deal with work today.” • Rationalization involves making excuses for actions or feelings • Examples?

18. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Projection • “This isn’t my fault. My manager gave me too much extra work.” • Projection involves putting your own faults onto someone or something else • Examples?

19. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Daydreaming • Also known as fantasizing to escape unpleasant reality. • You imagine, while at work, being in Bermuda when it is winter in PA • Other Examples?

20. Defense Mechanisms or Coping Strategies • Displacement • Often includes blaming and transferring emotions from the original source to another • Your are arguing with your spouse so you slam the bedroom door.

21. WHAT IS BIOFEEDBACK? • Biofeedback is a method for learned control of physiological responses of the body. These responses can be either in the voluntary system, such as skeletal musculature, or in the involuntary, or autonomic nervous system, such as heart rate, vascular responses (frequently indirectly measured as temperature), and sympathetic discharges (measured by the electrical skin response).

22. HOW DOES AVS BIOFEEDBACK WORK? • Auditory Visual Stimulation or AVS biofeedback equipment, comes in a number of forms and flavors. The most well-known and effective measure the brain's electrical activity and then pulse lights and sounds to control that activity. Such devices, through flickering lights and precisely controlled rhythmic tones, stimulate and synchronize the hemispheres of the brain while entraining the brain wave frequencies into desirable states of consciousness. The study of these brainwave patterns, the summation of the brain's electrical activity, as represented by electroencephalography EEG), has led scientists to the discovery that different brainwave patterns are associated with different states of awareness.

23. HOW DOES AVS BIOFEEDBACK WORK? • Four main brainwave patterns have been recognized: • Beta Waves 13 - 30 Hz Alert state • Alpha Waves 8 - 12 Hz Relaxed wakefulness • Theta Waves 4 - 7 Hz Imagery • Delta Waves .5 - 3 Hz Deep sleep

24. Biofeedback • With the relief of tension/stress/resistance in the body/mind, the user becomes receptive to information from "inside" and "outside" essential to fundamental change. Spoken words during certain L/S session will embed in deep layers of the user's consciousness to change thoughts, feelings and behavior automatically. The clinician’s digitally mastered voice has an amazing effect when combined with an individually developed AVS biofeedback program. Statistically, 72 percent of individuals receiving biofeedback are helped significantly; 20 percent moderately; and 8 percent marginally.

25. Biofeedback • By stimulating balanced, abundant neurotransmitter production, expanding neural pathways, and programming desirable, ecologically sound behaviors, AVS biofeedback can enhance physical healing and homeostasis, intellectual performance (creativity/IQ attentional flexibility), and greatly improved sense of well-being long after the session.

26. Biofeedback • The state of deep rest and hemispheric balance possible with AVS technology can rejuvenate the body/mind and have lasting effects in every area of one's life. To understand how this technology works, individuals are encouraged to schedule an initial session with a clinician who is trained and certified in biofeedback applications. The first session generally will include gathering a complete history and reviewing school or medical records. A sample introductory session will be provided and the individual will experience the results. For additional information regarding AVS biofeedback go to: www.drdougherty.org

27. References • Bibliography: Benjamin, John V., Biofeedback (1999); Carroll, Douglas, Biofeedback in Practice (1984); Green, Elmer and Alyce, Beyond Biofeedback (1989); Hatch, J. P., et al., eds., Biofeedback: Studies in Clinical Efficacy (1987); Jones, Marcer, Donald, Biofeedback and Related Therapies in Clinical Practice (1986); Richter-Heinrich, E., and Miller, N. E., Biofeedback (1982).

28. Stress Management &Professional Self-Care • Thank you and have a great day • William F. Dougherty, Psy.D., CPS, NCP Clinical Office located at • West Grove Professional Plaza 301 West Grove Street Clarks Summit, PAwww.drdougherty.org Tel: 570-480-6140