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Stress

We work with stress sufferers who have decided to take full ownership of their recovery. Who wants to discover the confidence, reconnection and relief that comes with resolving hyperactivity in their brain’s fight/flight/freeze system?

Most of our clients are people who understand that there’s more to stress treatment than medication and talk therapies. This treatment is for people who believe in the value of self-care.

We believe that classic stress ‘treatments like medication and psychotherapy are valuable tools. However, they don’t form a holistic approach to stress treatment. Self-care and self-healing are important aspects of every mental health journey. Stress is a complex issue that impacts the entire person, so a flexible and holistic approach to healing is often necessary.

If our service is for you, you’ll discover that stress is not a disease or disorder. They are unprocessed emotional reactions to Adverse Life Events (ALEs). Processing them offers incomparable benefits for our confidence, self-acceptance, relationships, health, work, performance and peace of mind.

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Learn More About Stress Care

Severn sessions are for people who want to reclaim their nervous systems. By taking a holistic approach to heal from stress. 

Most ‘healing journeys’ require us to be open to various perspectives and solutions. Especially if we want to truly free ourselves from stress in the longer term. 

This is an opportunity to learn more about what causes stress to get ‘stuck’ in our nervous systems and the modern treatment options that now exist.

Stress Overview
Stress Causes
Stress Treatment

The Science

If you have ongoing stress symptoms, you may have a persistent over-activation of your limbic system. The limbic system is the part of your brain responsible for the fight/flight/freeze response. Severn sessions use gentle high-frequency light to target hyperactive nerve cells deep in the limbic system.   

The fight-flight-freeze response involves multiple brain centres and body systems. The central processors for this are all located deep in the brain’s limbic system. When the limbic system persistently signals the body that the environment isn’t safe, the body acts accordingly. As a result, physical and psychological symptoms eventuate for many sufferers of stress. 

We are discovering more and more ways to reduce hyperactivity in the limbic system. As a result, great progress is being made in the effective treatment of stress. The rise of EMDR Therapy, Trauma & Stress Release Exercises, Mindfulness, CBT and Somatic Experiencing Therapy are all examples of that. We offer light therapy sessions as another breakthrough in self-care for stress sufferers.

Severn Brainwave Entrainment sessions enhance mental and emotional well-being by reducing fight-flight-freeze activity in the limbic system. Brainwave Entrainment leverages the fact that nerve cell clusters deep in the brain respond to light. Many of the brain’s deep nerve clusters are every bit as responsive to light as skin and eye cells.

High-frequency LED light is gently beamed straight into the brain through light-receptive pathways to reduce the over-activation of the brain’s fight or flight centres.

From a neurological (nerdy) perspective, the effects of stress are simply a nervous system that believes it is not safe. Which is a part of the limbic brain’s fight/flight/freeze response.

Stress FAQ

Stress is a normal emotion that everyone experiences at times. It’s a feeling of unease, worry, or fear that can be triggered by a great variety of situations. However, when stress becomes excessive, it can interfere with daily life. Yet having an issue with stress doesn’t mean there is something wrong with ‘you’, it just means that a certain amount of stress has ‘built up’ in your nervous system and has got ‘stuck’.

From a scientific perspective, stress disorders are caused by the brain’s fight or flight centres being switched on all (or most) of the time. This leaves us in a state of what is called ‘hyper-vigilance’. Hyper-vigilance is caused by a structure deep inside the brain called your amygdala, being switched on all the time, as if the environment isn’t safe. This is learned behaviour on the part of the amygdala, which is part of the brain’s limbic system.

Almost all stress disorders are caused by our amygdala’s reaction to ALE’s or ‘Adverse Life Experiences’. This can include past trauma and trauma with a small ‘t’. There are many difficult things we go through in life, many of which exceed our ability to cope. Stress is the nervous system’s response to being ‘overloaded’ by one or more ALEs. Learning to process and make sense of the difficult things we have been through in our lives is the best way to approach stress. We may be born with a natural tendency towards feeling stressed when things go wrong, but that doesn’t mean we have to live our whole lives with high levels of stress.

The symptoms of stress can vary widely from person to person but may include feelings of fear, worry, or unease, physical sensations such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, and shaking, and avoidance of certain situations or activities. Many people who are stressed don’t feel anything too specific apart from a sense of unease. This is all part of our nervous system’s fight/flight/freeze centres switching to the ‘on position’. When these symptoms are persistent, it is sometimes a result of unresolved life stressors. Stress/trauma-informed care recognises that stress symptoms can be a result of past experiences and encourages a holistic approach to addressing the underlying causes of stress.

Managing stress can involve a variety of approaches, including self-care practices such as exercise, healthy eating, and mindfulness meditation. Trauma/stress-informed care recognizes that stress can be a result of past/present life experiences and encourages a compassionate and holistic approach to addressing the underlying causes of stress.

EMDR therapy is a type of trauma-focused psychotherapy that can be particularly effective in reducing stress symptoms by addressing underlying past trauma that may be contributing to today’s stress. Peter Levine’s work on trauma emphasizes the importance of addressing the physical and emotional aspects of stress in order to release it from the body, which can also help to reduce stress.

Brainwave Entrainment is an excellent self-care tool for reducing fight/flight activity in the brain’s limbic system. Regular Brainwave Entrainment sessions can have a profoundly positive effect on stress levels without using drugs or having to talk to a stranger about your problems. Brainwave Entrainment is not a treatment for stress, in the same way, that exercise is not a treatment for obesity. Self-care tools are a vital part of resolving stress in the long term, and Brainwave Entrainment is a self-care tool.

Trauma-release exercises, such as shaking and deep breathing, can also be helpful in reducing stress by releasing tension and stress from the body. It is important to work with a qualified mental health professional to determine the best approach for managing your stress.

Coping strategies for stress can include self-care practices such as exercise, healthy eating, and mindfulness meditation, as well as relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Taking care of your environment and making careful choices about your lifestyle is an excellent way to minimize stress. Drinking too much coffee and talking to aggressive people every day is not the ideal way forward for most stress sufferers.

Understanding the roles of life stressors, adverse life events (ALEs), and trauma is essential for truly successful stress coping strategies. EMDR therapy is a type of trauma-focused psychotherapy that can be particularly effective in reducing stress symptoms by addressing the underlying trauma that may be contributing to them. Peter Levine’s work on trauma emphasises the importance of addressing the physical and emotional aspects of trauma in order to release it from the body, which can also help to reduce stress. 

Stress-release exercises, such as shaking and deep breathing, can also be helpful in reducing stress by releasing tension and stress from the body. It is important to work with a qualified mental health professional to develop an individualised coping strategy for managing your stress. As we have mentioned before, regular Brainwave Entrainment sessions can also be profoundly transformative.

All emotionally healthy humans get stressed at some point. Stress can be managed and reduced to the point where it no longer has a negative impact on your life for sure. A complete “cure” may not be possible, as stress is a natural response and can be a normal part of life. However, with effective treatment and self-care strategies, you can learn to manage and reduce your stress symptoms. 

It’s important to remember that recovery from stress is a journey and not a destination. A trauma/stressor-informed approach to stress can help you understand how past experiences may be impacting your stress and provide tools to cope with those experiences. EMDR therapy and trauma release exercises can be effective in addressing the root causes of stress and facilitating healing. Excellent self-care and appropriate treatment choices rolled out consistently offer an extraordinarily good chance of getting to a place where you are really happy and relaxed about your quality of life.

There are many strategies for managing stress without medication. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness meditation, exercise, and relaxation techniques like deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation can be effective. A trauma-informed approach to therapy can help you identify and address the underlying causes of your stress. EMDR therapy, psychotherapy and TRE ‘trauma release exercises’ and mindfulness therapies can be especially helpful for addressing past stressful or traumatic experiences. 

It’s important to remember that self-care is an ongoing process, and it may take time to find the right combination of strategies that work for you. Brainwave Entrainment, yoga, healthy lifestyle, minimal screen time, healthy sleep, healthy food, minimal caffeine, regular cardio exercise, healthy relationships. These are the choices that need to be worked towards if you want to be able to manage your stress without medication. Patience is the key. We are seldom able to make overnight transformations in life’s mental health department.

If you have a loved one with a stress condition, it’s important to provide emotional support and encourage them to seek professional help if needed. Avoid minimizing their feelings or trying to “fix” their stress, as this can be invalidating. Instead, offer a listening ear and validate their experiences. Encourage them to engage in self-care strategies like exercise, mindfulness meditation, and relaxation techniques. A trauma/stressor-informed approach to therapy can be especially helpful for acknowledging past or present experiences that may be contributing to their stress.

Yes, trauma can certainly cause stress. Trauma can leave the brain’s limbic system in a permanent state of fight/flight. Trauma can occur in any event that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope, and it can leave lasting effects on the body and mind. Trauma can create a sense of fear, helplessness, and horror, leading to symptoms such as hypervigilance, avoidance, and stress. Many of our old stresses and traumas sit quietly in the subconscious for long periods. And are then activated or triggered by present-day life adversity. So although you may not think of yourself as someone who has unresolved trauma, many of us do without realizing it.

Trauma can be resolved through various trauma-informed therapies such as EMDR, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT), and Somatic Experiencing (SE). Peter Levine’s work on trauma and TRE can also be helpful in releasing the tension and energy that can be trapped in the body after a traumatic event.

Yes, stress can cause a variety of physical symptoms. Some common physical symptoms of stress include heart palpitations, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, and muscle tension. These physical symptoms are often a result of the body’s “fight or flight” response being activated in response to perceived danger.

When stress stays in the system for long periods of time, it leads to persistently high cortisol levels in the blood and affects things like sleep. This means there are many instances where secondary health issues can arise from stress. It is common knowledge that symptoms like pain, headaches, IBS, asthma, fibromyalgia and skin complaints like eczema are profoundly linked to stress in the body. Stress can easily be a part of this. 

In cases where stress is related to trauma, it’s possible that physical symptoms may be a result of the body’s response to the traumatic event. Trauma-informed therapies such as EMDR, TF-CBT, and Somatic Experiencing can be effective in addressing both the physical and emotional symptoms of stress related to trauma.

Yes, stress can certainly make you feel like you’re going crazy. Stress can create a sense of overwhelming fear and worry, leading to intrusive thoughts and sensations that can feel out of control. These experiences can be distressing and make it feel as though you’re losing touch with reality. However, it’s important to remember that these experiences are a result of stress and not a reflection of your sanity or mental health. Trauma-informed therapies such as EMDR and TF-CBT can be effective in reducing the impact of stress and intrusive thoughts related to trauma. Peter Levine’s work on trauma and TRE can also be helpful in releasing the tension and energy that can be trapped in the body after a traumatic event. With the right support and interventions, it is possible to manage stress and reduce its impact on your life.

Our Team

Tobias Hall

DC BSc. Hons. IIst Nat. Dip. NZCA

Kade Christensen

BHSc. (Paramedicine) EMT, CERT. ST

Zabad Michael

DPT (Doctor of Physiotherapy)
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