Stress and Trauma Programme Prev

“Stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century.”

This means the general level of unhappiness and worry in the world today is creating a international epidemic of stress.

Stress is becoming part of the “new normal” for people and ongoing chronic stress can result in worsened co-morbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and inflammatory and auto-immune disease.

In turn, these health problems affect quality of life and cause a decrease in productivity and overall mental wellbeing.

Stress and Trauma Clinic

At Wellness on Alon we are sensitive to the fact that over 40% of South Africans are walking around with unresolved stresses, traumas and resulting mental disorders – not enough has been done to address this epidemic.

We have developed the Stress and Trauma Clinic, to house programmes, workshops and support initiatives to address theses ever increasing pandemic.

All our initiatives are designed around the truth that the body holds the key to all answers and what happens in the physical body (injuries, accidents) affect the mental and emotional body. And, in turn what affects us emotionally (abuse) and mentally (stress or burnout) gets stored in our body for review at a time when we can cope with the emotion.

Since the human body is designed as an integral being, the Stress and Trauma Clinic brings into all its Programmes and Stress support initiatives, healing through integrating Medical, Somatic, Nutritional and Physical therapies. We have used the best practitioners in these fields to provide our patients with optimum solutions, safety and care.

We work with people who are struggling to cope or come to terms with situations that perhaps once they could have taken in their stride and are now coming up for review. And people trying to just make it through the day with their bodies and minds working against them.

Stress and Trauma Programme

This bespoke offering formulated by our founder Kareema Mitha herself, focuses on a multi disciplinary approach to support those who are wanting to find relief from the symptoms of stress and trauma and searching for healing so they may live full lives.

Kareema, herself a victim of Stress and Trauma has incorporated the processes that have most served her on her journey to healing and worked closely with Dr. Essack Mitha for the medical direction to create a Programme where the client receives safe consultation from multiple practitioners (all experts in their own fields) to achieve wellbeing and release stresses and traumas.

Using her experience as a Therapist, Life Coach and Trauma Release Practitioner for almost a decade, Kareema launches the Stress and Trauma programme in a Wellness space that affords clients a safe, nurturing and non-judgemental space to work through traumas, anxieties and every day stresses – at a pace set through consultation.

The Stress and Trauma Programme is a unique offering of Wellness on Alon and incorporates multiple modalities to ensure a holistic solution; mind, body and soul. We believe there is a time and place for medical as well as alternate therapies, for counselling, IV Drip support and bodywork. With that in mind these sessions are carefully curated across 6months to ensure maximum benefit. Our practitioners have been hand picked and are genuinely world-class in their modalities.

This combination under one roof will facilitate gentle release of stored physical, mental or emotional injuries, and in so doing provide freedom – at your own pace – from the effects of stress and trauma.

The Stress and Trauma Programme allows for for online sessions wherever possible and scheduling tools to accommodate busy lifestyles.

The Stress and Trauma Programme will teach you to recognise your signs of overwhelm or dissociation in your body, and will afford an array of researched tools that you can choose to restore balance.

This toolkit stays with you long after completion of the Programme and allows you to incorporate lifestyle changes that maintain balance and allows joy.

To find out more about our Stress & Trauma Programs

How Does Stress Affect You Mentally?

Should stress levels go unmanaged, it can result chronic anxiety. Anxiety is an extended response to stress and can result in decreased energy levels, an inability to cope or function, panic attacks, depression, chronic fatigue, and burnout. A side effect of excessive stress can be suicidal thoughts and suicidal tendencies.

Other cognitive and behavioural symptoms include:

Racing thoughts
Forgetfulness and disorganisation
Inability to focus
Poor judgment
Being pessimistic

Appetite alteration
Avoiding responsibilities and procrastination
Increased use of alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes
Exhibiting more nervous behaviours, such as nail-biting, fidgeting, and pacing

How Does Stress Affect You Physically?

The body’s response to perceived threats or stress is to put you into fight-or-flight mode. The chemical changes that occur in the body to get it ready for physical action, is the “fight”. And these hormonal alterations that occur automatically can also make a person prepare to run away, known as “flight.” Our body’s chemical responses to stress are vital and can help us to survive in dangerous situations– as long as it’s short term.

These neuro-chemical processes are shared by humans with animals and enable our immediate survival of the threatening or overwhelming situation.

If either ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ are not (or only partially) possible or persist long term, more complicated neuro-chemical processes set in and our body might go into states of ‘freeze’, ‘flop’, ‘fawn’, and ‘dissociation.’

‘Freeze’ is a survival reaction during which the body is temporarily immobilised or numbed.
A ‘flop’ response results in a total bodily collapse, which might involve blanking out or loss of consciousness.
A ‘fawn’ or ‘submit’ response arises when survival is dependent on placating the aggressor, such as in hostage situations, childhood abuse, sexual trauma, ritual abuse, domestic abuse and many others - these are complex traumas.
‘Dissociation’ functions to disconnect us from emotionally unbearable feelings and body sensations to regulate disturbing emotional or sensory overwhelm during traumatic events to ensure our For some people this creates the sense that it is almost ‘as if the trauma never happened’ or ‘partial memory loss’ or ‘inability to access the natural emotions around it.’

Physical symptoms of chronic stress include:

Low energy levels
Headaches
Upset stomach and IBS symptoms
Aches, pains, and tense muscles
Increased heartrate
Insomnia
Frequent colds and infections
Decreased libido
Nervousness, tremors, cold sweats
Dryness of the mouth
Clenched jaw and teeth grinding

Emotional symptoms include:

Frustration, moodiness, and agitation
Overwhelming feeling of losing control
Difficulty relaxing and quieting your mind
Low self-esteem, loneliness, worthlessness, and depression
Avoiding people

The stressors that hide under our noses

It goes without saying that South Africans are faced with challenges and stress factors that are very specific to the country. But stress, anxiety, traumas and burnout are not unique to South Africa.

In fact, the top five stressors involve life events and are often overlooked :-

Giving birth to your first child
Getting married
Loss of a loved one
Divorce, or
Financial loss or difficulty

In fact, the cumulative effect of worrying around money, family, partners and work-life are often perceived as part of life – but they are ongoing stressors.

Pre-TSD

Given our 2020 co-vid experiences the feeling of ‘no control’ over the future has been exacerbated. “Life with COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown measures has changed everything familiar about 21st century living. As social distancing measures were introduced to flatten the curve and contain the spread of the virus, many people’s usual activities, routines or livelihoods were significantly impacted, which lead to a rise in levels of loneliness, depression, harmful substance use, and suicidal behaviour,” notes the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) in a statement.

This anxiety over the future perceived unknowns and threats is now coined Pre-TSD. It has been defined as a syndrome involving flash forwards of dreaded events that could be imminent. This condition is said to be the pre cursor to PTSD. And the co-vid19 epidemic has resulted in many such cases.

What is Chronic Fatigue or Burnout?

Ongoing chronic workplace stress results in ‘burnout’ and has recently been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a syndrome that hasn’t been successfully managed. It is characterised by mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, increased detachment and a decline in professional satisfaction caused by multiple factors. These factors include feeling out of control, feeling ill-equipped and under resourced employment environments, growing demands and a faster pace of work.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The complex physical responses to chronic stress and trauma results in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which results in personality changes, chronic pain, depression and anxiety, metabolic rate adjustment, auto-immune conditions and eating and other mental disorders – to mention a few.

These stresses and traumas are stored in the body and a combination of medical, counselling and somatic therapies are often needed for lengths of time.

Meet the Stress and Trauma Team

Meet our compassionate, professional Team on the Stress and Trauma Programme.

Certified TRE facilitator

Naeera Abed

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