POWER SHROOMS

For two people

4 large flat field mushrooms
4 tablespoons cooked spinach
2 tablespoons roasted pine kernels
25g freshly grated Gruyere cheese
15g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
chopped fresh parsley
sea salt and freshly ground Percy pepper
Recipe

Pre-heat the grill to medium. Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp cloth and remove the stalk. Brush the mushrooms,gill side up with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Place side by side in a baking dish and cook under the grill for three
to four minutes.

Heat the spinach in a microwave or a saucepan with a small amount
of water. Remove the mushrooms from the grill and then turn the grill up to high. Drain the spinach thoroughly and divide into four.

Place each spinach portion firmly onto a mushroom, then top each spinach mound first with grated gruyere and then with parmesan. Return the stacks to the grill and cook until the cheese begins to melt down over the spinach and mushrooms.

Place two stacks on each serving plate, sprinkle with toasted pine
kernels and chopped parsley and serve immediately with toasted
WHOLEMEAL OR RYE.

Egg & Salmon Sandwich

Ingredients
1 ounce smoked salmon
1 slice of tomato
1 whole-wheat pita bread
½ teaspoon capers
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon red onion, chopped
½ teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Method : In a small pan, heat oil at medium heat. Add and cook onion, for 1 minute, till it softens. Then add egg whites, salt, capers and cook. Keep stirring, and cook for 30 seconds. Egg whites will set. Once done, scoop egg, salmon and tomato into toasted pita.

25g dried apricots, diced
15g raisins
10g dates, finely diced
1 tbsp of pistacio or flaked almonds
Put aside this mix

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Cook in Microwave for 2 minutes, remove and stir and then cook for a further 2 min (keep an eye on it, lest it boil over!)

Stir in 1/2 tsp of orange flower water (if you have)

Pile the fruit mixture on top and drizzle over a teaspoon of honey (optional).

Enjoy!

ANXIETY, STRESS & PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT CLINIC
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN

Session 1
How does this work?
What to expect and is this the correct clinic for you.
What do you want from attending this clinic and how much are prepared to put into what will be required from you.

What results should you see and when?

Milestone 1. Week 1.

Psychological Assessments as well as an assessment of your current fitness levels, introducing joint mobility routines and basic breathing methods.

Milestone 2. Week 3.

Getting your head around the therapy plan and starting to experience improvements in both mood and movement.

Milestone 3. Week 6.

Beyond Suffering both Psychologically and Physiologically i.e. Both your body and your mind is used to regular training and this is starting to be reflected in your willingness to change. Here we start introducing low intensity strength exercises and stretching you a bit more in terms of psychological change.

Milestone 4. Week 10.

The ability to choose the way your thoughts are reflected in your behaviour, both physiologically and psychologically.
Now you will start to notice the changes physiologically in both posture and strength and psychologically in the way you react to your thoughts.

Milestone 5. Week 12.

Psychologically the real you is starting to emerge. Things are becoming a lot more intense and you are feeling the results in your body.
Progress to more challenging joint mobility routines with intermediate breathing methods and moderate intensity strength exercises, while introducing low intensity cardiovascular work.

Milestone 6. Week 12.

Finding out who you are and where you are psychologically.
Physiologically you will be achieving significant adaptations in body composition and general strength and conditioning.

Milestone 7. Week 18.

Leaving the distorted you behind and learning to enjoy your ‘new shoes’. You start to look for other areas in your life to feel as good as you are starting to taste now for the first time.
Reaping the substantial physical and psychological rewards of performing moderate intensity interval training while developing intermediate breathing methods.

Milestone 8. Week 20.

Discovering the real you and relishing your new abilities. By now you are able to stay in control when under stress through implementation of advanced breathing methods and applying all the cognitive change that you have learnt so far.

Milestone 9. Week 24.

By now you have learnt who you really are, what you really value and are committed to actioning these in your daily life. You will have commenced high intensity interval training and be using advanced breathing methods

Milestone 10. Week 40.
Now you will have developed both short term and long term goals and will actively be making them happen through action. Now for the first time you have the choice to live a vital life every day.

What is happening physiologically during severe anxiety?
The client shows evidence of hyperarousal i.e. there is an inundation of adrenaline and other stress hormones resulting in the client reacting confused and threatened. The brain structures mainly involved in rational thought and memory are short-circuited so to speak. The client’s sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, presenting muscle tremors, a dry mouth and a pounding heart as a result. The limbic system, the hippocampus and the amygdala handle emotion and danger. The limbic system also is the mid brain area accountable for the initiation of the freeze, fight, flight response. The amygdala and the hippocampus are deeply involved in responding to perceived traumatic events too. The more rational outer layer of the brain, the cortex is where our ability to judge, deliberate, contrast and compare is seated as part of the thinking capacity. The hippocampus, amygdala and the cortex are in constant communication.

The amygdala is the early-warning system. Here emotion is processed even before the cortex is knowledgeable about the event. The amygdala on receipt of stimulus from the sensory nervous system, immediately generates an emotional response by releasing hormones that stimulate the visceral muscles of the autonomic nervous system, which are felt in the stomach or elsewhere. Then the amygdala initiates the accompanying somatic nervous system response (musco- skeletal) e.g. trembling legs.

The amygdala is unaffected by the effects of stress hormones and may continue to alert even when it is inappropriate. Meanwhile, the hippocampus is passing the information to the cortex, the seat of rational thought. Once this happens, the rational thought will take precedence in the decision for action or not as the case may be. However, this assumes that the hippocampus is able to function and is not being paralysed by large amounts of adrenaline and noradrenaline that would make it impossible for it to instruct the amygdala to stop sounding the alarm.

I have been setting up a specialist anxiety clinic. For many years I have been working with patients suffering from a variety of anxiety based disorders and have found at 6 month follow-up irrespective of the type of therapy, something was lacking for some. So, I started to look outside the box and found an extensive amount of research around the reduction of anxiety using exercise.

As a result of the research of people like Oeland AM, Laessoe U, Oleson AV, Munk-Jorgenson P C. Barr Taylor, MD James F. Sallis, PhD RNeedle, PhD, I have integrated exercise (with a personal trainer) with specific type of CBT to form a new type of evidence based therapy for clients suffering from anxiety related illness. This integrated therapy will float under a positive Therapeutic Relationship. I still believe that it is the Therapeutic Relationship that far outweighs any other factors in therapy and it is from there that one needs to integrate whatever therapy will meet the need of the client.

This therapy model works with the client from both body and mind perspectives.  I also feel that the effects of exercise which are similar to the symptoms of anxiety i.e. shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, tightness around the chest, sweating will be reframed into a positive experience with the help of therapy and therefore on an experiential level their angst about feeling anxious will be brought under control a lot faster.

Do the free Anxiety test on my main website under the “Do I need Therapy” tag.