James E. Porter, FAIS
Fellow- Connecticut
“I very much enjoyed your presentation.”
Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., Director of the CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) Division at NIH. (National Institute of Health)
James E. Porter, President of StressStop.com, author of dozens of workbooks, CDs and videos on managing stress has been producing stress management training materials for over 25 years. His programs and products are used in thousands of hospitals, corporations, on military bases and in government agencies including The Mayo Clinic, Blue Cross Blue Shield, NASA, Camp Pendleton, and the US Senate. Mr. Porter also lectures on stress management in major corporations and for government agencies including: Blue Cross and Blue Shield, GlaxoSmithKline, Time Inc, Homeland Security and the US Navy. He is passionate about sharing what he has learned about managing stress over the past twenty five years. He has been interviewed on The CBS Morning News, and his work has been reported on in major news outlets including Good Morning America, Ladies Home Journal, The Associated Press, and The NY Daily News. His new book, published by Welcoa, is entitled: STOP STRESS THIS MINUTE and is winner of the 2012 Silver Award from the National Health Information Awards.
Program Topics
Stop Stress This Minute is a seminar based on Mr. Porter’s book (published by WELCOA), by the same title. Teaches people how they get almost addicted to low-levels of stress, multi-tasking and busyness and how they typically “cope” with that stress in counter-productive ways like smoking, drinking, over-eating and/or over-spending. Shows people how to get out of this all-too-common trap by self-regulating their own nervous system using easy relaxation techniques along with a simple, self-monitoring stress scale from 0-10 . Also demonstrates many unique ways to manage stress including cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, time management, problem-solving and journaling. Attendees come away from this program feeling relaxed, energized, inspired and ready to indentify and overcome their own sources of stress. 1 hour – to all day programs.
Mindfulness @ Work
Find out why mindfulness is being heralded as the new answer to stress. If you’re like most people, you go through life mindlessly: your attention is split in too many directions. Mindfulness teaches you how to turn your full attention in ONE direction. And when you do this, you’ll see that the benefits include working more efficiently, feeling less distracted, feeling more content and getting along better with your peers. Join us for an eye-opening seminar that will introduce you to the simple pleasures of living life more in the present moment. 60-90 minutes
Thinking Through Stress: Cognitive Restructuring
Most people blame events and circumstances for their unhappiness never realizing that it’s their thoughts about these events and circumstances that is often the true source of their distress. When we say things to ourselves like: I have the world’s worst boss, or this traffic jam is going to take forever or I’ll never get this assignment done, we don’t realize the added burden we’re placing on ourselves with our overly negative thinking. Reversing this tendency with a technique called cognitive restructuring helps people short-circuit stressful emotions like anger, frustration and anxiety. To quote a recent article in The New York Times: “The one workplace stress-reduction technique that seems to outperform all other is cognitive restructuring. 30-90 minutes.
Balancing Work and Family
According to the American Psychological Association, fewer than one third of Americans like the way their employer helps them balance work and family conflicts and more than two thirds of Americans feel that their stress levels are “unhealthy.” And not surprisingly: work is one of the most often cited causes of stress. Clearly employees need help finding balance between the obligations of work and family and this program will help them do it. Covers a variety of techniques for achieving work-life balance including a unique approach to time management, (accomplishing more, while doing less) to mindfulness, (using concentration to achieve “flow” at work) to stress outlets, (why people don’t give themselves permission to relax) to stressful thinking habits, (how people create their own stress) and how to keep your most important values in sync with your work and family goals. If you think you’ve heard this all before, prepare to be surprised. This seminar is practical, interesting, thought-provoking and informative. 30-90 minutes.
Emotional Intelligence
This train-the-trainer program will introduce you to science of emotions. You’ll find out what goes on in your brain when stressful emotions start to take you over and exactly what you need to do to regain control of your emotions, too. In addition, you’ll learn how to handle emotions in others so you can cope well with difficult bosses, angry coworkers and customers who would normally try your patience.
Emotions are a double edged sword. They can get you in trouble but they are also what motivate and inspire you. Once you understand how to manage your emotions, they help you make decisions, help you communicate better, help you understand others better and help you understand yourself too. That’s why learning emotional intelligence skills is so important. Join us for an enlightening program that explains how to maximize these benefits and be a better person, too. 30-90 minutes
Journaling
Through Stress Most people never take the time to connect the dots between their sources of stress and their symptoms of stress. There’s a tremendous benefit derived from doing this over several weeks that you’ll never understand, until you try it. You put together patterns and see recurring sources of stress that, once identified, you can simply eliminate from your life. This 45-minute program will give you the tools you need to begin using a stress management journal as a powerful ally against, anxiety, tension, mood shifts and the difficult people and situations in your life that cause them. (This seminar goes with our workbook: The Stress Management Journal) 60-90 minutes
Three Dimensional Stress Management
This program introduces you to three dimensions or levels of stress management that you can use in tandem to manage almost any stressor. Level One includes the basic physical techniques like exercise, yoga and deep breathing. Level Two includes cognitive techniques like reframing, use of humor, and positive thinking. Level Three techniques includes philosophical ways of looking at stress such as mindfulness, value clarification, gratefulness and putting your stress in perspective. Put these three dimensions together and you have a body-mind-spirit approach to managing stress that is an almost fail-safe weapon against any stress you might encounter. 60-90 minutes
Stress Management Overview
A variety of physical and mental techniques for addressing the build-up of stress. Covers fight or flight, stress-related illness, the relaxation response, meditation, mindfulness and cognitive restructuring. 60 minutes to all day.
Resilience
Learn how to go with the flow, bend in the wind and get up from the mat after you take a fall. Resilience is about taking stress in stride, accepting your mistakes and moving on. In this program you’ll learn how to stay flexible, get around road blocks and see problems as opportunities for personal growth. 60-90 minutes
How to Relax in Tense Situations
Learning how to self-regulate your nervous system is an important skill. The nervous system is divided into two branches: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. When the sympathetic nervous system is engaged the body is gearing up for stress. When the parasympathetic nervous system is engaged the body is at ease or preparing itself for rest. Most of us spend too much of our days with the sympathetic nervous system engaged (and even running full-tilt) and as a result, suffer from stress-related problems like tension, headaches, irritability, anger, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety and high blood pressure. The antidote to ALL these problems is actually quite simple: learning how to activate the para-sympathetic nervous system – at will. Also known as the branch of the nervous system that helps us rest and digest, we can activate this branch with fairly simple techniques including, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, deep relaxation, meditation and stretching (yoga). By attending this program, you’ll not only learn why you need to activate this branch of the nervous system, you’ll learn how to do it as well. And, even more importantly, (if you’re in the military) you’ll learn how to do it, when you’re on patrol, on duty and/or actively involved in your work. 45-90 minutes
Mr. Porter can also do half day and full day programs. Here is a description of a day long program.
Stress Management Seminar
Recent research shows that stress can contribute to headaches, chronic back pain, depression, insomnia, allergies, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Some experts estimate that up to 90% of all doctors visits are for stress-related concerns. So it’s important to learn cutting edge strategies for managing stress that will help you feel better, work better, communicate better, concentrate better, and ultimately function better. In this seminar, stress expert James Porter will teach you how to identify and monitor your stress so that you can stop it before it starts. He’ll show you how to avoid the “stinking thinking” that leads to stress. He’ll also show you how living in the present moment leaves you less anxious and less angry. Join him for a full day program that includes lots of learning, relaxation, meditation, videos. interactive fun and plenty of time for Q&A.
Snoopy listens to STRESSSTOP.COM CD: A DAY AWAY FROM STRESS: part of a health promotion program for Met Life.