Michelle, a professional woman with a child in college, has been experiencing generalized anxiety. She feels nervous and distracted and doesn't know why. She has been seeing a traditional therapist and has found that helpful, but feels she is at a standstill. 

Michelle is a very giving person with many skills and talents. She finds herself saying "yes" anytime anyone asks her to use her skills or talents. The result is that she is constantly busy. She recognizes that her husband is frustrated with her being gone so much, but she is unsure about any effect it is having on her. After all, she is helping others, contributing to her community and using her talents, all laudable attributes. 

Through Rubenfeld Synergy, Michelle begins to recognize her internal signals for anxiety and for relaxation. The gentle touch that brings awareness helps her to experience a preference for being relaxed, and with encouragement, she learns to communicate with her body in such a way that she can begin to recognize her own internal signals for anxiety or stress. Together we practice possible responses to these early stress signals, and from within herself, Michelle gets clear messages about how she wants to interpret and deal with these signals. As she does this more and more, she notices feeling more calm and centered at the end of each session than she feels at the beginning.  

Over time, by increasing her awareness of her body's signal and their significance to her, Michelle decides which activities she is involved with that have value to her and which are more of a nuisance than a joy. In sessions, she experiences the effect on her of continuing activities that have little value to her. She recognizes that she is paying a toll in her life, sacrificing part of her life in the attempt to please others and meet their expectations, not her own.  

As she becomes clearer about making her own choices and the rightness of that, and then making her choices known to others, she discovers that sometimes what is a burden for her can actually be a joy for someone else. So that when she says an honest "I don’t want to do this anymore", someone else often says an enthusiastic "But, I do". Go figure! 

Michelle becomes skilled at knowing and honoring her own choices, considering requests before she answers yes or no, and trusting her body to inform her about the rightness of her decisions. As a result, her life feels more in balance and she has more time for herself and her marriage. Now she has the space to look at other aspects of her life that she would like to change. And she can approach these things with curiosity and confidence. 

This process was well underway for Michelle in 4 or 5 sessions of RSM at Healing Connections. Michelle chose to have her sessions every two weeks to begin with, so in 2-3 months she had made significant positive steps to having her life be more the way she wants it to be. Her results ARE typical, though she is anything but. Thank you "Michelle" for allowing me to share your story.