Wellness Relaxation & Stress Reduction

Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Wellness is essential to a Heart on the Mend. Having a self-care/love regime promotes inner wholeness, which leads to health between you and your loved ones.

Psycho-Spiritual Wellness

I have been a psychotherapist for over twenty years. My choice of career, I am sure, was guided by my abiding wish to discover how to find inner peace and happiness. Early on, my own needs and interests led me to incorporate spiritual understandings and tools into my work with others. Whatever the reason the individual, couple or family comes to therapy, they are helped to assess, develop and implement an approach to wellness. Essential to this is how to deal with Stress.

Understanding Stress

Modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and demands. For many people, stress is so commonplace that it has become a way of life. Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. But, when you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price.

If you frequently find yourself feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, it's time to take action to bring your nervous system back into balance. You can protect yourself by learning how to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and taking steps to reduce its harmful effects.

The Body's Stress Response

When you perceive a threat, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rouse the body, for the stress response is the body's way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

But, beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.

Effects of Chronic Stress

The body doesn't distinguish between physical and psychological threats. Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

In Hearts on the Mend Psychotherapy

You will find your own methods of helping balance your life before we end your therapy. As each individual finds balance, they promote healing in their family unit.

Lotus Lodge Retreat Center

Sometimes time away from it all helps healing. The Lotus Lodge Retreat Center can be used by individuals, couples or families as an idyllic spot to create intimacy and bonding. Set in acres of woods, streams and waterfalls, this warm lodge nurtures the heart and soul.

Lotus Lodge is available for individual and small group retreats. This can be done independently or with the aid of members of our team who can help you plan your retreat with a pre- and post-retreat meeting. You can be helped with planning for your trip at any level you want to take it: from sunbathing on the deck to camping by the creek. We have spiritual retreat workbooks you can use to structure your retreat. Being in nature is a wondrous spiritual experience during all seasons and the “Presence That Is” will gift you in untold ways.

Contact us at (631) 656-0590. We will be more than glad to assist you!