How can SciStress help a youngster with school? How can it help a busy professional mom with her daughter? How can it support good communication between mother and child?
 
Challenges for moms have increased. Raising a child is a challenge all by itself. Keeping the family’s home life organized usually falls to the woman. There are many challenges even for a stay-at-home mom. But today there are very few stay-at-home moms. Most women today work, many in demanding professional jobs. Therefore, caring successfully for a growing child is not an easy task. All these challenges create tremendous stress not just for mom but also for the child.
 
How can SciStress help? SciStress techniques are simple natural techniques, which are easy to use yet highly effective. Even young children can learn them. Now here’s a story a professional mom told me. Her daughter started first grade recently. She is busy with various projects in web development and marketing. Her husband is a researcher who spends long hours at the lab six days a week. You can easily see, lots of challenges for this mom.
 
Her young daughter, let’s call her Regina, had developed a nervous tick at her right eye. She also didn’t always sleep well. That got mom concerned. Mom talked to her about what was going on in school, but Regina wouldn’t tell her anything. That’s when mom thought of the SciStress techniques, could they really help? Mom taught her daughter and practiced with her many times over the weekend and the next few days before and after school.
 
After a few days Regina's tick had disappeared, and she began sleeping through the night. Mom would use the technique with her especially before bedtime so she was relaxed and could go to sleep easily. Now the amazing thing which happened was this. When mom sat with her at her bed practicing the techniques, Regina would start spontaneously to talk about what happened at school. Mom could praise her for good things that happened. She could also help her with stress at school. These regular mom and daughter evening talks led to a much closer and more intimate level of communication for the two!
 
Want to experience similar results?
We have taught a simplified version of SciStress technique to children as young as four years. And Judy has worked with young mothers and their babies when they were just weeks old.
 
If you or someone you love have issues to resolve, we would be happy to help. Our coaching may not “fix” all problems, but we have helped many people reduce stress in many different situations. Check out our free initial consultation. Clients will learn the techniques in a way to help themselves any time and any place. You may recommend our book, which explains the brain science in easy to understand terms and teaches the techniques thoroughly.
 
With warm regards,                    Fred & Judy
 
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng., Chief Stress Coach, Performance & Productivity Specialist
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Scientific Advisor, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
 
PS: Create a daily routine of managing stress. Check Appendix 2 of the book for quick help with stress

​What could a ladder, a horse and a hiking path in the Pennsylvania Hill country have in common? Well, it is a fear of heights. In our last blog article, we talked about the fear of flying and how to effectively deal with it. There is a lot you can do for yourself about most fear with the techniques described in our book. The coming holidays may also be stressful for some people. You could consider the book as a gift. Amazon is selling it now at a great discount, half-off.
 
What could lie behind the fear of heights in those three situations, on a ladder, on a horse, and on a hiking path in the hills? What could make one individual fear common everyday situations, which do not bother most of us? This case will reveal the layers of fear, how our brain creates them, and what is at the root of your fears. It sounds all a little complicated but in truth it’s quite natural. You will be able to follow this exploration easily. Quite likely you’ll learn something about how our human mind functions. Now, will you go with us on this expedition exploring the mind of fear?
 
The ladder
The story starts with the therapist we are training in the SciStress methodology. This social worker is delighted using the techniques and reports many successes. Recently she worked with Bethany, a lady who had a strong fear of heights. Bethany couldn’t climb a ladder out of fear. Our therapist was able to reduce that fear with Bethany in a very short time. Her client was ecstatic being able to climb a ladder and do some work around the house without that fear which had plagued her for decades.
 
A horse of course
Bethany and her husband live out in the country and have two horses. Her husband is an expert horseman and loves to ride sometimes for hours through the neighboring fields and forests. He loves to have his wife come along for these rides. But Bethany was still somewhat uncomfortable on the horse even after her fear of a ladder had been relieved. Since I happened to be in town at the time, the social worker decided to refer Bethany to him. For the next part of this blog it will be I, Fred, speaking.
 
Unraveling layers of fear
When I met with Bethany, I had to first explain a little about how our brain works. She had not yet read my book. The SciStress approach can be so effective because it explains how our brain creates the problems we have to deal with. Therefore, with a little bit of neuroscience, Bethany could much more easily find the root cause of her fears of heights.
 
She told me that it was now easier for her to get on her horse and ride with her husband. Eliminating her fear of climbing the ladder had transferred to some degree to riding her horse. But still she was somewhat uncomfortable and didn’t like to plan ahead for a ride. She wanted to know what caused that discomfort.

A quick excursion into the brain
Do you really want to understand what is going on? Then we will need to take a quick trip into the SciStress understanding of how the brain works. Most fears and feelings of discomfort have something to do with the basic survival function. If our ancient survival brain spots anything which it thinks might threaten us it will send a signal in form of a stress feeling, discomfort, or even fear and panic to our conscious awareness.
 
At the same time, our survival brain switches our autonomic nervous system within split seconds from relaxation to stress mode, in the language of neuroscience from parasympathetic to sympathetic mode. This response may be mild or extreme depending on the level of the survival threat perceived. Correspondingly our feelings may be slight irritation or discomfort for example, going all the way to full panic or rage. If you want to learn more about the typical stress reactions, get our free report on the "10 Top Dangers of Stress”.
 
Memories of past survival threats
The root cause of most stress reactions are memories of past experiences which our subconscious survival brain judged as being a danger to us. These memories are tucked away in a part of our survival brain, called the hippocampus. The hippocampus manages all our long-term memories. This means our long-term memories are stored in the subconscious emotional part of our brain. Talking with friends or family may trigger some of those subconscious memories one after another for a “walk down memory lane”. Also a drink or two may loosen access causing a typical talk about “the good old days”.
 
Bethany’s layers of fear
Her case is an illustrative example of how layers of fear are being built and how they can be stepwise neutralized. Bethany is very aware of her feelings and it was easy with a few questions for her to find those memories. The general fear of climbing up the ladder had already been reduced with our social worker. That had also improved her fear of sitting on a horse. Still some discomfort riding remained when Bethany met with me.
 
A dangerous Alpine trail
Now she remembered a fateful hike in the Rockies. She was a young woman with her husband and one of his friends ascending a peak on a steep ridge trail. The path was narrow with steep slopes on each side for many hundreds of feet. Falling down would mean certain death. Halfway up to the summit, they had to carefully pass a group of hikers coming the opposite direction. At that point feelings of panic seized Bethany. She sat down on a rock and could not move forward or back. After some talking and resting, she was able to be guided down the trail holding on to her husband’s friend.
 
With SciStress, levels of stress are judged subjectively just like pain in the doctor’s office on a scale from 0 = no stress, to 10 = intense stress, nearly unbearable. On that scale, she rated the stress level of that memory initially as 8. But getting fully into the past feelings it quickly climbed to 10. Using the SciStress technique several times she was able to reduce that stress to a much more comfortable level of 2. I could see relief in her face.
 
Holding a little girl out a third-floor window
The stressful memory of the mountain path had been neutralized. I asked her whether she had any other fearful memories maybe at an earlier age. Now the old survival brain was ready to permit access to another traumatizing memory. Yes, there was one. When she was about six years old a somewhat “crazy” uncle had played with her and at the spur of the moment took her and held her outside a third-floor window. Although it probably was just for a few seconds, it seemed an eternity to her. She didn’t scream or struggle for fear of being dropped. We now used the SciStress technique again a few times. She was able to reduce her stress level of that experience to zero.
 
Bethany felt great. She had managed to gain control of her stress level for two scary memories relating to fear of heights. She felt confident that now the root cause of her fears had been eliminated.
 
Sliding down an avalanche chute
There was still one more issue lurking in the depths of her survival brain. A couple of days later I received an email from Bethany. She was still delighted with her work from our session and reported that she found an additional trigger memory. Many years ago, hiking again in the mountains, she had slipped crossing the path of a previous avalanche. She remembered sliding down that chute at increasing speed and getting buried in the deep snow where the avalanche had come to a rest. Now that she was familiar with the procedure, she told me that she was able to quickly defuse the fear of that memory too. She was especially excited that she could now find and deal with such a significant high stress memory completely on her own.

Results: Comfortable on horse and path
For me the great achievement was, that her training had empowered Bethany to identify and resolve a significant stress problem quickly by herself. She was happy and relieved that now she could sit on a horse free of fear and look around, behind her and down to the ground without any anxiety. This was something she could never do before.
 
Next, she sent me a picture from the beginning of the path she was hiking with her girlfriend. In the past she had been afraid to walk up that path. The path wasn’t dangerous, but the hillside appeared steep to her. It had triggered the old memories of fear in the mountains. She sent the picture because she discovered that now all fear of that path had disappeared.

Want to experience similar results?
If you or someone you love have issues to resolve, we would be happy to help. Our coaching may not “fix” all problems, but we have helped many people reduce stress in most situations. Check out our free initial consultation. They also will learn the techniques to help themselves any time and any place. You may recommend our book, which explains the brain science in easy to understand terms and teaches the techniques thoroughly.
 
With warm regards,                    Fred & Judy
 
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng., Chief Stress Coach, Performance & Productivity Specialist
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Scientific Advisor, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
 
PS: Create a daily routine of managing stress. Check Appendix 2 of the book for quick help with stress

We have an acquaintance who has been very successful. She works directly for the CEO of her organization, has a great family with three children and is quite a socialite. Yet this super lady has a big problem. When she has business meetings or conferences far away, she will not hesitate to drive there 10 or even 15 hours to get there. If she goes on vacations, she might even drive two days with some family members and stay overnight on the way. It’s not that she doesn’t have the money to fly. Her company would gladly pay for her plane fare on business trips. No that’s not the reason, the reason is that she is totally terrified of flying.
 
Fear of flying is quite a common problem which many people experience, some more, some less. Interestingly I’ve met very few people who have a fear of driving a car. And I have never met anybody who’s afraid of riding in a train. In my book on stress management I talk about the various stages of the fear of flying, because I’ve worked with quite a few people to help them alleviate that issue. They are now comfortable flying and can even enjoy the trip.
 
Here’s one of the cases to show how the SciStress techniques can make life easier if someone suffers from a fear of flying. In my office set a large well-dressed gentleman, let’s call him Joe. He told me how he would deal with this extreme discomfort traveling by plane. If he had enough time in the airport, he would have a drink “to relax”. Often, he was on a tight schedule and didn’t have time for the drink. He had to walk on board feeling increasingly tense. He’d squeeze into the narrow 17-inch seat which many planes still have and buckled up immediately. Now came his mental exercise of “I’m strong, I can deal with this”. But underneath Joe would feel very uncomfortable. Joe had a very tough time using the word “anxious”, but that was what the feeling was, he admitted.
 
The brain is amazingly flexible and powerful. Therefore, I asked Joe to imagine that he had to go now to the airport for a 4-hour flight to Phoenix. You could see his discomfort as his face and posture changed. Now I taught him the basic SciStress technique. As he began to use it, he immediately began to relax and look more at ease. We went over the basics one more time. Now Joe felt comfortable enough to imagine going to the airport and walking up to the plane. At this point he told me he began to feel some dread. Again, I guided him to use the simple steps of basic SciStress.
 
In a few minutes Joe was ready to step into the plane and walk to his seat, in this imagined trip. I encouraged Joe to sit in the middle seat, which he hated obviously the most. Again, Joe used the technique a few times, maybe for five minutes. Now he could imagine the situation in reasonable ease. Nobody “likes” a middle seat. Now his plane rolled to the starting position. At this point there was a little discomfort to take care of. But now the engines roared, the plane accelerated on the runway, Joe could feel the vibrations of the takeoff. Even though this was just imagined, Joe could feel the sudden panic of leaving “solid ground”.
 
I worked with Joe to use the technique by himself to reduce the panic feeling and get to a point of comfort on this imagined trip. He said he was thinking as soon as the cabin staff would come with their carts, he would order a scotch. But even without the scotch he said he would be comfortable continuing his trip.
 
A few weeks later Joe reported on his progress. He had a short trip from Detroit to Washington, DC and everything went fine. He said he used SciStress briefly at home for a couple of minutes before he took off for the airport. He felt fine walking through the airport and getting on the plane, this time he had a real seat by the window. When the engines went to full power on takeoff, Joe said he again use the technique all the way down the runway.
 
Now he said came the real miracle, he felt totally comfortable being up in the air. He also said that SciStress helped him stay calm and focused in difficult business meetings. He liked the fact that he could use the technique discreetly without anybody else noticing a thing.
 
Like the fear of flying, the technique empowers people to help themselves with many other fears and anxieties and negative feelings of different types.
 
You can Use the Method to enhance an amazing number of areas of your life:

• Increase life energy and results – less inhibitors and stress, better focus and energy
• Improve communication – eliminates even fear of public speaking
• Strengthen relationships – take stress out of existing ones, open new possibilities
• Support family and work – get the communication and decisions you need
• Prevent and resolve conflict – deal with difficult situations, reduce having your ‘buttons pushed’
• Manage change and crisis – remove barriers to innovative thinking and decisive action
• Enhance health and wellbeing – health issues are aggravated or caused by stress
• Ease travel – less fatigue, jet lag, fear of flying; better sleep, adaptation to climates and cultures
• Improve physical performance – do better with exercise, sports, golf

 
This may sound too good to be true. However, the neuroscience of stress management shows why and how this is possible. You can read about these new powerful insights in the book “The Girl who Couldn’t Laugh: The Neuroscience of Stress Management” written in easy to understand language. And you can do so free of charge with Amazon’s “Look inside” feature to read the first few chapters:

A tastefully dressed woman in her late forties came up to me somewhat shyly during a meeting some time ago. She asked if I could help her with a problem. I told her that our techniques work for a lot of issues but there was no guarantee and that we’d have to explore it. She was very concerned that she would have to disclose the issue she wanted to work on. I assured her that was not necessary, and that we could work productively without my knowing what issue she was working on.
 
Three SciStress attributes.
This is an interesting case because it demonstrates three important attributes of the SciStress work. First, since it is not “therapy”, we don’t need to know the issues in order to coach a client successfully. Secondly, we coach individuals on how to use the techniques most effectively for themselves. They learn the techniques and how to use them in a powerful way to solve their own issues. Thirdly, using the techniques on initial issues a client brings up is not always the most effective way to solve a problem, especially not permanently. In SciStress, we call this a level 2 issue. This requires finding a deeper second issue, which is the root cause. That root cause is usually a very stressful experience much earlier in life, which has been long forgotten, but is still stored in the subconscious long-term memory.
 
The Internet isn’t always the best source.
Now here is the story of Kathy, not her real name, but her real story! Kathy had learned a similar type of technique on the Internet. She had used it for several weeks on this issue, which she did not disclose to me. Now there are a lot of videos all over the Internet claiming to teach self-help techniques like EFT for example. Unfortunately, many of them are not very useful. Since the techniques appear to be very simple, “experts” out there can cause more confusion than help. In the worst cases they teach something wrong.
 
Kathy told me that what she learned from the videos did help her relax a bit, but the problem did not disappear. I took her through the basic SciStress technique and made sure she used it correctly. We tried SciStress on another issue, less stressful, as a test. Kathy was very successful alleviating that issue.
 
Going back to her original problem, Kathy was still very upset. Her stress level on a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being the worst was 8 or 9. I could see her stress response in posture and facial expression. After a round of SciStress, Kathy was able to reduce her stress level by a few points, maybe to 5 or 6. Her main fear now was that the stress would come back later. I asked Kathy the key question: did she remember a similar feeling of stress earlier in her life, maybe much earlier.
 
Getting to the root cause.
Kathy’s face suddenly turned pale . I could see a full-scale stress response. Please understand, when we rediscover a long forgotten very stressful experiences, our old brain will trigger the nervous system to respond just like in the original stressful situation. We therefore will re-experience the memory in a similar way. Kathy clearly felt extremely stressed. I coached her to immediately go through the complete SciStress technique. After the first round she looked a bit more collected. We both knew that we had discovered the underlying root cause of her problem, and only she knew what that problem was.
 
I coached her through two more rounds of SciStress, guiding her to again focus as much as comfortable on the original experience, now just a stressful memory. After about 15- or 20-minutes Kathy’s face looked much more relaxed and there was even a brief smile. Thinking of her past stressful experience Kathy now rated her stress intensity at about 1 or 2. I asked Kathy to re-imagine the more recent situations which caused her to be upset or stressed and make those as bad as possible in her mind. We then used SciStress again on the stress those thoughts caused for her until she felt relaxed about that. Now she felt confident that she could manage those situations much better.
 
Using SciStress to strengthen positive expectations.
Here’s a great way to use the SciStress techniques to focus on positive outcomes. Importantly, we use that step only after we have reduced any major stress issues to low levels.
 
I guided Kathy to use the techniques on the previously stressful situation but to imagine the very positive outcome she wanted to achieve. She enjoyed that process and said it gave her a strong sense of hope and positive feelings about what she could do. I told her to use SciStress to help eliminate any remaining stress which might occur when she got into the situation again. She left feeling happy and full of energy.
 
We had completed her work successfully. With some coaching she had found the long-forgotten root cause of her current problems. She had reduced the stress level associated that root cause memory. She had activated positive expectations for the current situation. This is something only possible after reducing or eliminating the past root cause of the current stress.
 
A dark family secret.
Next time I saw Kathy she wanted to tell me what had happened. She wanted me to know how SciStress techniques and our coaching had helped her solve a big embarrassing problem in her life. She still was a little shy and hesitant about explaining the situation, but the sheer energy of having solved that big problem was visible and gave her courage. Kathy, a woman in her late 40s, had remarried about six months ago. She loved her new husband and they had a great sex life. That was very important to her. One big issue however was that she did not want her husband to touch her breasts. This was very difficult for him and very embarrassing for her. But she felt intensely uncomfortable each time he wanted to massage or kiss her in that location.
 
This issue had not come up with her first husband whom she had married right out of high school. Maybe he was used to her sensitivity or didn’t care. Anyhow, it was a big problem for them now. With her new husband it never occurred to her why she felt that way. Being coached to look for similar feelings in her earlier life, suddenly a deeply embarrassing and painful memory came up. Her dad, whom she loved dearly, started touching her breasts when they started to develop at about age 10 or 11. He did that when she went to bed, and mom was not there. He did it several times fondling and massaging her nipples and checking the size of her breasts. At the time she felt terribly embarrassed and deeply confused.
 
Kathy said her father never made any other sexual advances. And he stopped touching her breasts after maybe half a dozen occurrences. But since then she always felt very uncomfortable with someone else touching her breasts. Now she knew the root cause of the experience and she had eliminated the stress level of that memory. She reported that she could now enjoy the intimate time with her husband without feeling that old stress reaction. Both Kathy and her new husband were delighted.
 
SciStress coaching can empower a client to solve problems.
We saw that with targeted coaching individuals can solve difficult and complex issues without the coach knowing about the issue. This case also demonstrates that sometimes an experienced coach is necessary to help a client solve an issue by finding the root cause of the current problem. And another not uncommon phenomenon is shown by Kathy’s situation. In many cases individuals do not want to disclose the issues they want to work on. But once the issue has been resolved and they are free of the stress relating to it, they become very eager to talk about the original issue. Clients often even feel an urge to tell about it because they are so excited to be free of the difficulties it had caused in their lives.
 
Want to experience similar transformations?
If you or someone you love have issues to resolve, we would be happy to help. Our coaching may not “fix” all problems, but we have helped many people reduce stress in most situations. Check out our free initial consultation. They also will learn the techniques to help themselves any time and any place. You may recommend our book, which explains the brain science in easy to understand terms and teaches the techniques in detail.

With warm regards,                    Fred & Judy
 
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng., Chief Stress Coach, Performance & Productivity Specialist
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Scientific Advisor, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
 
PS: Create a daily routine of managing stress. Check Appendix 2 of the book for quick help with stress.

Hi SciStress friends, Judy here. Today we need a woman’s voice. A few weeks ago, I read an article about menopause in the newspaper. This reminded me of the story of a good friend of ours. Some time ago, we talked with her on the phone and she didn’t sound quite all right. Finally, she admitted she was suffering  from severe hot flashes. She was going through menopause. Would she be open to try something new. I guess she was desperate. So I asked Fred to tap with her over the phone. The amazing thing was that in less than 10 minutes her hot flashes were completely gone!
 
Hot flashes gone in 10 minutes, would it last?
We talked to her recently again. Our friend told us that using the SciStress tapping technique helped her tremendously. Each time the uncomfortable feelings started return, she would immediately use the technique. It worked every time. And on top of it the hot flashes would occur less frequently. Her whole menopause transition became much more comfortable.
 
How could such a simple technique be so effective and work so quickly? I have to speculate a little here. In my career as a mental health nursing professor I’ve read a good amount of research. But for the Meridian Tapping Techniques, or MTT for short, on which SciStress is based there is good research, but nothing on menopause. Therefore, I think the mechanism based on my knowledge of human physiology is as follows.
 
How could it work?
SciStress tapping directly calms the old part of your brain and helps to switch the autonomic nervous system from stress mode to relaxation. Now I was very lucky and did not have any problems with my menopause. But a lot of women are not so fortunate. They have hot flashes and all other kinds of symptoms of the hormonal changes. My thought is that for those women the hormonal changes cause a stress reaction in the nervous system. Using SciStress techniques reduces the stress reaction and therefore reduces their discomfort with menopause symptoms.
 
You can try it with any “female” discomfort.
We have had clients tell us that SciStress techniques also help with some discomfort they have with their regular period. That could be the same or a similar mechanism. Anyway, if you have any discomfort with either menopause or monthly periods be sure to try the techniques. And please, please, please send me a quick email and let me know whether SciStress did work for you, Judy@SciStress.com.
 
And what about the guys?
By the way, guys obviously don’t have menopause as such. Although there some changes for middle aged men too when their natural hormone levels drop. Because of this, some experts do talk about a "male menopause". But Fred reminds me that when guys feel uncomfortable it is often related to just plain stress. Any feeling of discomfort has some kind of relationship to stress. Therefore, you gentlemen can use SciStress any time to make your life smoother and more comfortable.
 
Let us know if you want any personal support or coaching. We may be able to help you with whatever bothers you. And you can get our book which explains everything on Amazon.
 
Warm regards,      Judy

Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Scientific Advisor, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng., Chief Stress Coach, Performance & Productivity Specialist
 
PS: Create a daily routine of managing stress. Check Appendix 2 of the book for quick help with stress.