Mind Body Mastery Group for Stress (MBMS)™ and stress related disorders including anxiety, depression, trauma, and support for reducing Bad Habits.

Fee: $39, $20 with participation in any therapy

Join other successful people who are taking action on personal and professional growth.

The Mind Body Mastery Group is an open experiential group with the goal that within three sessions, the participant will have the ability to:

  • cope with stressors
  • trigger an autonomic relaxation response (relaxed breath, less tension in visceral and voluntary muscles, etc.)
  • create the sensations and feeling of pleasure
  • have the cognitive skills to let go, center and see new opportunities.

The relaxation response is provided as an alternative to the automatic negative stress responses the participant has acquired (learned) during their lifetime. Often, this response drives them to become anxious, angry, ruminative, compulsive, or avoidant.

A second longer term goal, when an individual attends the group over a longer period of time (6-8 weeks), and the skills are further practiced, is to increase that individual’s mind mastery to regulate emotions, change emotional direction, improve focus, improve concentration, experience peace and connect with themselves, others and the universe. Enabling the participant to harness their mind and body’s natural gifts for healing.

Skills developed by experiencing this group:

  • Ability to quiet the physical stress response, much as yogi masters do
  • Ability to regulate emotional intensity
  • Ability to relax in nearly all conditions
  • Ability to stop or significantly reduce obsessive thoughts and rumination
  • Ability to focus – become much less distractible
  • Ability to break habits
  • Ability to self-induce positive feelings and increase confidence
  • Ability to become “unstuck” and find new solutions and opportunities
  • Ability to meditate and increase spirituality

What makes this group different?

This group combines western psychology, neuroscience, eastern mind body practices and spiritual practices into a neurologically conceptualized and experientially delivered group. Hypnosis is used to reach the unconscious mind immediately (changing mood and emotion within the first session). Visualization exercises are used to induce positive feelings and instill hope. Lastly, cognitive mindfulness based meditation is used to increase awareness, ability to focus, improve concentration and to change automatic behaviors.

MBMS Group Protocol

The group takes approximately 75 minutes.

  • The facilitator opens the group with group norms and then provides five minutes of psycho-education on stress management.
  • Then there is a 15 minute progressive relaxation exercise enhanced with hypnosis to deeply relax the participant.
  • A second 10 minute psycho-education component on a particular theme (anxiety, depression, trauma, or bad habits)
  • A second visualization exercise is introduced to increase positive feelings and strengthen mastery
  • Next, a 10 minute mindfulness exercise is introduced to teach meditation
  • A wrap up discussion on how to apply these techniques in their lives during the week.

What have others experienced in this group?

95% of the thousands of participants who have experienced this group report that they have gained significant relaxation and cognitive skills in one to three sessions. The majority use superlatives such as “wow”, “first time in my life I have truly relaxed”, “Dr. Roger the stress dodger”, “most significant skills I have ever learned” to describe the experience.

Who should participate in the group, who should not

Anyone who “feels” stress, including irritability, frustration, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, tension, stomach aches, headaches, hypertension, withdrawal (caffeine, sugar, smoking) and IBS. That is because the body’s automatic response to stress, often called the fight, flight or freeze response, is the core source for the discomfort of being stressed, burned out, anxious, mildly depressed, lonely and stuck. The stress response effects the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the mind and body’s unconscious system that controls digestion, respiration, circulation, perspiration, muscle tension and immunity. When the ANS is out of balance, we experience headaches, stomach aches, IBS, hypertension and other health problems. Unresolved stress often results in clinical anxiety such as General Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   Unresolved anxiety often leads to a Depressive Disorder and Bad Life Styles. This group is not an alternative to therapy, rather it is an adjunct skills group.

Learning mind mastery skills benefits anyone who is somewhere on the stress discomfort spectrum. Once the participant overcomes the negative consequences of stress, the mind body mastery skills can further be used to enhance their lives by improving reactions, focus, concentration, memory and ability to connect to others.

There are few who should exclude themselves from the group because they do not tolerate a group setting well.

DISCLAIMER: This group does not diagnose or treat any mental or physical condition. It is intended to provide stress management skills only.