271 – Using Stress to Your Advantage, with Jeanette Morgan

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dr. Jeanette Morgan discuss how our perception of stress changes our physiological response to stress. They look at how we can relearn what stress means to us, how we model a healthy response to stress to kids, and why its important to understand why we get stressed to begin with. Jeanette Morgan, PsyD Jeanette Morgan, PsyD, earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Azusa Pacific University. She provides individual therapy utilizing evidence-based treatments to children, adolescents, and adults who struggle with anxiety, panic, OCD, tic disorders, trauma, grief and loss, relationship problems, singleness, self-esteem, and behavioral problems. In addition to her therapy work, Dr. Morgan is also a licensed educational psychologist with almost 20 years of special education experience, first as a Special Education Teacher and then as a School Psychologist. Dr. Morgan’s warm, compassionate, and optimistic style encourages those she works with to connect, feel seen and heard, and feel hopeful. She believes that everyone is doing the best that they can with what they know, and that expanding what they know through discovering their personal patterns and learning new skills is empowering and builds resilience. Key Points Understanding that stress is helpful for our body shifts how our body and hormones respond.When we are stressed, we release oxytocin which encourages us to reach out and connect with people we care about.We teach kids that stress is a positive response from our body by modeling it and talking to them about stress. Resources JLM Psychological Services Love the show? Consider supporting us on Patreon! Become a Patron Transcript Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 271, Using Stress to Your Advantage, with Jeanette Morgan. Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, on most episodes we get one Dr. Morgan. On this episode today we get double the Dr. Morgan’s. I’m so glad to welcome our expert guest today, someone you know well, Jeanette Morgan. Jeanette earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at Azusa Pacific University. She provides individual therapy using evidence based treatments to children, adolescents, and adults who struggle with anxiety, panic, OCD, tic disorders, trauma, grief and loss, relationship problems, singleness, self-esteem, and behavioral problems. In addition to her therapy work, Jeanette is also a licensed educational psychologist with almost 20 years of special education experience, first as a special education teacher and then as a school psychologist. Her warm, compassionate and optimistic style encourages those who work with her to feel connected, heard and feel hopeful. She believes that everyone is doing the best they can with what they know, and that expanding what they know through discovery in their personal patterns and learning new skills is empowering and builds resilience. And Sandie, unlike many of our guests, I’ve had a chance to know Jeanie for many years and I can say she is all of those things. Jeanie, so glad to have you here on the show. Jeanette [00:01:58] Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Sandie [00:02:00] Well, not any more excited than I am. And just for our listeners, there is a stronger connection here. Dr. Jeanie Morgan is my daughter and I have followed her career in just amazement and wonder at her persistence and perseverance and excellence in everything she does. I recently asked her to come and speak to my interns at Vanguard because with COVID and boomeranging back and forth, in-person zoom, so much stress, almost every conversation starts with, “I’m so stressed.” So, I ask her to come. It was an amazing conversation, and so I ask her to come on the Ending Human Trafficking podcast with us because everyone’s talking about how stressed our kids are, the mental health challenges. And so, Jeanie, thank you for joining me and let’s talk about kids and stress. Jeanette [00:03:12] Sounds good. Sandie [00:03:13] Tell us what is the secret to finding the stress advantage? Jeanette [00:03:21] The secret is changing our relationship with stress. So, we have heard all of these messages for so long that stress is detrimental, detrimental to our health. You’re going to die. It’s detrimental to relationships because you’re going to be irritable. All of those different things. When in reality, our stress response was actually designed to be helpful for us, to keep us safe. To help us meet the challenges that we have in life and thrive. So changing how we talk to kids and helping ...