Stress Management
About
Stress response has played a key role in our evolution and survival as human beings. In moderation, stress is healthy as it motivates us to achieve our goals and get things done.
However, when stress is not managed properly, or is sustained for long periods of time, it can be a cause of mental and physical illness.
Symptoms
Everyone experiences stress, however, people’s ability to cope with it varies. Certain people are not fully aware how stressed they are until it affects them severely.
If stress starts to affect your mood, sleep and/or relationships, it is important to manage it as soon as possible to prevent health problems from developing:
- difficulty concentrating and relaxing
- constipation or diarrhoea
- eating more or less than usual
- feeling overwhelmed, irritable
- changes in menstrual cycle, libido
- mood swings — anxiety, depression
- muscle tension
- sleep problems — insomnia
- using alcohol, tobacco or drugs to relax
Causes
The most common sources of stress are work-related, financial, relationships, or dealing with illness.
Stress can be caused by one big event such as a bereavement or divorce, or by an accumulation of many small things that build up.
When you are stressed, your brain signals the release of a cascade of hormones (adrenaline, cortisol) providing you with a burst of energy to react to perceived dangers.
However, when stress becomes chronic, it can start to create inflammation and imbalances that may take a toll on your cardiovascular health, digestion, hormonal and sexual health, immune system and mental wellbeing.
3 in 4 adults in the UK have at some point felt so stressed they felt unable to cope, according to the largest known study of stress levels in the UK (YouGov, 2018).
51%
of adults who reported stress also reported feeling depressed
36%
of adults who reported stress cited their health, or a friend/partner/relative’s health as a main factor
46%
of adults who reported stress say they ate too much or ate unhealthily as a result
Treatments
Identifying the underlying causes of stress is the most important step towards dealing with your situation.
Using a holistic approach, we integrate Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) into your Nutrition & Lifestyle therapy to help you identify, manage and reduce the sources of stress in your life.
Nutritional Therapy
Food is your friend.
As practitioners one of our key goals it to make sure our clients understand the relationship between their diet, stress, mood and behaviour.
Stress influences eating behaviours and food choices. During acute stress, appetite is usually suppressed, whereas chronic stress generally promotes ‘comfort eating’ of energy-dense foods high in fat and sugar. These habits and food choices can affect your mood, anxiety levels and sleep, whilst stress (particularly chronic stress) is linked to diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Nutritional therapy and lifestyle coaching help you recognise your eating behaviours and food choices in response to stress, educating and empowering you to make the right choices to avoid compromising your mental or physical health.
We also pay close attention to your gut health and microbiome, as this has an important influence on your brain function, mood and behaviour, known as the gut-brain axis. In fact, 90% of serotonin, the ‘happy’ hormone which plays a role in your emotions and mood, is produced in your gut, not your brain.
Lifestyle Coaching
Empowers you to be at your best.
Over the course of your life, your experiences and relationships programme your mind to think in a certain way, and as a result your behaviour is often driven by unconscious habits.
As part of your therapy, we apply NLP, a personal development technique that reframes how you think and communicate, and helps you break free from unconscious habits and limiting beliefs that have been embedded within you throughout the years. NLP empowers you to achieve your desired outcomes — work-orientated goals, improved productivity, weight loss etc. — and has also been successfully applied in therapy for phobias, depression & anxiety.
We thoroughly assess your lifestyle to identify stressors that perpetuate the way you are feeling, and suggest forms of self-care according to your individual needs, that can help you alleviate and build resilience against stress.
We use a holistic approach to focus on areas such as sleep, time management, burn-out, mindfulness practices, exercise and physical activity.
Functional Testing
Harness the power of science.
Chronic and unmanaged stress is one of the main causes of illness. Not only does it influence your mood and sleep, it also contributes to premature ageing and serious health conditions such as autoimmune disease, depression, digestive disorders (IBS), stomach ulcers, heart disease, hormonal dysfunction and infertility.
If you are suffering from stress and its related symptoms, Functional testing may be beneficial to identify or rule out adrenal insufficiency and dysfunction in other areas of your body, or suspected underlying health conditions linked to chronic stress. This information gives us a deeper understanding of the causes and knock-on effects of your stress, and helps to more accurately guide your therapy, restoring adrenal function and hormonal balance.
- Adrenal Function Profile Test – assesses 24 hour cyclic cortisol levels, pinpoints cortisol surge and measures DHEA.
- DUTCH Plus CAR Test – offers an extensive profile of sex and adrenal hormones plus melatonin, 8-Hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine and six organic acids.
- Stool Test – analyses gut function associated with gut-brain axis
BOOK A FREE DISCOVERY CALL
To ensure the continued practice of safe and reliable therapy, all consultations are currently being conducted virtually.
Satisfied Patients
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Sign up to receive discounts, promotions and the latest news.
Alex TM
Stress, Weight ManagementI had no idea how much my diet and lifestyle was affecting me until I started seeing Carmen. I work in TV and my routine changes all the time. It's usually early starts and late finishes so the lifestyle can be intense. During COVID I was out of work and lost a lot of weight. When the work picked up again my energy levels, mood and weight did not... Carmen opened my eyes to my food and lifestyle choices. I was drinking way too much coffee, snacking at random times of day instead of eating proper meals or even skipping meals completely, and my sleep was no good. Carmen's knowledge, coaching and positive personality have helped me change my old habits and I'm now a lot more conscious and disciplined about my food choices. My energy levels and sleep have improved massively, my weight is increasing and my stress is now under control. Muchas gracias Carmen!