Press Kit
It’s All About Anything Is Possible!
Contact: Sheryl Grace Rudelic |
(415) 509-7112 |
Story Angles
1. Story Angle: Is Changing Your Health Through Your Beliefs Really Possible? Most scientists believe that no thought, no feeling, and no mental changes ever occur without something physical changing in the body.
2. Story Angle: Is Mystery Pain Ruining Your Life? Mysterious pain may originate in the brain rather than the body, according to recent scientific studies.
3. Story Angle: Is Your Bookshelf Full of Self-Help Books That Never Helped? Millions of books and programs relating to self-help, motivation, spirituality and the like are purchased every year and read but never put to use.
4. Story Angle: Victim Ownership – “Professional Victims” and Their Great Cover-ups! The “Professional Victim” often uses sly yet powerful strategies to cope with anger, to “control” situations and others in order to punish and maintain a sense of dominance.
5. Story Angle: Your Secondary Benefits to Being Fat! Psychology Today reports that 15% of women and 11% of men said they would give up five years of their life to be slim - and still people cannot lose weight! A whopping 36% of Americans vow to lose weight every New Year!
6. Story Angle: Is Counseling Accelerating The End of Your Relationship? Spending too much and accomplishing too little is often a fertile breeding ground for loneliness, rage, and despair.
7. Story Angle: Anyone Can Love The “Pressure” Moment! Make stress work for you rather than against you. The effects of stress depend a great deal on how you view it.
8. Story Angle: Instead of SLAPPING, Start TAPPING Your Child and Change Their Life Forever! Watch your child’s anger and upset fade away in an instant with the tap of your finger!
9. Story Angle: The Battle For Perfection – Is Your Need To Be Perfect Paralyzing You? Demanding personal perfection can lead to many problems and create constant dissatisfaction with yourself and your circumstances.
10. Story Angle: Makeover Obsession – If we were happy with our looks, would we be so driven to spend so much money to make ourselves beautiful? Our fixation with beauty starts very early with media advertising. It's conceived to make people feel so inadequate they'll go out and buy such things as cosmetics, clothes and diet plans, not to mention – fake body parts!
11. Story Angle: War and The Warriors Family – War Can Wound The Mind As Well As The Body! Doctors now know that subtle biological changes occur in the brain in response to extreme stress.
12. Story Angle: Painfully Shy – The Fears and Phobias Connected To Shyness Can Create a Living Hell For Those Who Suffer From It! For millions of Americans, every single day is a struggle with debilitating shyness – killing their chances of having what they really want!
Backgrounder
1 - A brief exploration on how negative and positive beliefs affect our health.
• The beliefs in your subconscious mind create your reality. The events which you will encounter throughout your life are attracted to you by your beliefs, your intentions, and desires. Beliefs are the most fundamental and essential component of the mechanism by which you form your everyday reality including your physical wellbeing.
• Your beliefs are responsible for shaping your perception and your perception is in large part what shapes your physical condition.
• The pessimist's thinking is "the outcome will be really bad," where the optimist's thinking is the opposite: "I can become healthy and strong" and "I can handle this problem." Positive thinking, especially a belief in your ability to control an illness, is associated with good health and superior performance in school and at work. Pessimists can learn to change their thinking, however, most will need
help to do so.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Is it true – your health is more affected by what you think than what you eat?
- How can your beliefs draw poor health to you?
- What is the reason some people don’t want to get well?
- With all the awareness given to positive thinking, meditation, fitness programs, etc. why is there still so much resistance when we know these things work?
- Can your attitude influence the way your body responds to various medical treatments?
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Backgrounder
2 - Stop the mystery pain.
• One in 5 million Americans are suffering from “Mystery Pain” wreaking havoc on their careers and personal lives.
• People seeking relief from unexplained painful conditions are often dismissed by their doctors as being psychological or imagined. Researchers carried out tests on eight people. Some were hypnotized and told they were in pain. Others were subjected to physical pain. Scans showed that both experienced similar brain activity.
• Mystery pain is often a result of emotional or physical trauma trapped in the body. The resulting biochemical and physical changes lead to numerous painful conditions some of which are headaches, chronic back pain and fibromyalgia.
• For fibromyalgia (FM,) medical practitioners most frequently prescribe antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft, along with aerobic exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy, which is aimed at modifying negative thoughts and encouraging healthier ways to adapt to illness.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Are there common personality traits among people with mystery pain?
- How do the present treatment protocols work over the long term?
- What has your experience taught you about working with mystery pain?
- How can you dislodge the trauma without causing even more distress?
- Do people avoid situations that could bring on their intrusive symptoms?
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Backgrounder
3 - Help for the self-help “junkie”.
• The self-help/personal growth industry is huge, as evidenced by bookstores' growing devotion of shelf space and multiple entries on how-to insight in order to achieve happiness in life or love, to managing your finances. A quick search on Amazon.com for "self-help" reveals tens of thousands of entries. Some people are junkies for such material. It’s interesting to understand why some people are in constant pursuit of the next “fix” while others resist it.
• Many times there is an addiction to the “process” of self-improvement and personal growth. It’s essential to know all of the self-help lingo so you can help others with their problems but your own problems remain. Most often your fear of success is greater than your fear of failure.
• The majority of people want to develop - become the best possible. Frequently, well adjusted people seek opportunities that will help achieve that, but when it turns into a lifestyle – perhaps taking a look at “recovering” is in order.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Why do people use self-help pursuits to soothe their deeply rooted wounds and feelings of failure?
- What’s the difference between a procrastinator and a self-help junkie?
- How can someone get off this expensive and time consuming treadmill?
- Do you think that self-help junkies are really masking their reluctance to change?
- What is the secret to attaining confidence and self esteem?
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Backgrounder
4 - Self-proclaimed victims – a way of life.
• The self-proclaimed “victim” will often have a medical profile of various disorders ─ a range of painful to somewhat limiting physical histories.
• The self-proclaimed “victim” understands what button to push to begin a chain of events in order to provide you “proof” of implied “abusive” behavior from others.
• The “social victim” has a elaborate web of reasons why they can’t achieve their goals and desires ranging from the government, big business, their political opposites, race, religion and so on.
• It is not a game, but a learned and accepted way of life. Making use of sly yet powerful behaviors provide the self-proclaimed "victim" a safety net while acting out this negative behavior pattern.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Why do so many people who are “victim” seem to be stuck on being angry?
- In the subconscious mind, do most “victims” believe they deserve negative treatment from others?
- What are the secondary benefits of being a “victim”?
- How can one erase the debilitating consequences that result from social stigmas and prejudices?
- What role does social and cultural, lie-based brainwashing and indoctrination play in your core belief system?
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Backgrounder
5 - Facts on being fat.
• Being overweight often has roots in something a lot deeper then just not eating correctly or not getting enough exercise. In many cases, the excess weight is actually a safety blanket you are hiding behind for a multitude of reasons.
• If your over weight state has an emotional root it can be very overwhelming to lose the weight and even threaten your belief system. As the weight comes off, all the problems you were hiding in the pounds of fat will surface and now must be faced and dealt with. This is often why the failure rate is so high.
• Because of fear – fear of loosing your built in excuse to not engage in life, whether it be job related, finding the right relationship, or anything you might secretly desire but your weight separates you from it - can quickly be overcome even if you’ve been hiding behind these dysfunctional feelings and behaviors for decades.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Does dieting have more to do with the mind than the body?
- What if you’ve always been fat. Can you change your perception of yourself and see yourself at a healthy weight?
- Does it really matter what diet or exercise program you choose to follow?
- How can parents teach their children to be healthy without triggering resistance?
- What is the alternative to a tendency to over eat in response to negative emotions like boredom, sadness or anger?
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Backgrounder
6 - The dangers of too much counseling.
• In recent polls, 22% blamed separations on communication problems even with the aid of professional counseling. It may seem like your relationship is on the rocks right now, but if you make your relationship "recovery" the first priority in your life you can turn things around.
• When you have hurt and upset, your ability to see clearly is often severely altered and the desire to fight, resist, hang on or withdraw kicks in. This in turn destroys love and fuels the cycle of conflict. This cycle of conflict then brings out the worst in people.
• To be most effective in handling your situation, this cycle of conflict needs to end. Fortunately, it only takes one person to end the conflict. When you change your responses to your partner’s behavior, you change the entire dynamic of the situation.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Can you use counseling as a way to learn how to better justify your behavior?
- Do you believe that talk therapy is too slow moving for today’s fast passed society?
- Can talk therapy reinforce the belief that we need something or someone outside of ourselves to find the answers?
- Can you become addicted to counseling by creating situations where small problems can be elevated into bigger issues thereby fostering the addiction?
- How can you become your own therapist if you’ve never had any training and you’ve been lead to believe that only a professional is qualified to help?
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Backgrounder
7 - Turning a stressful situation into a triumph.
• Realize that some stress is helpful – it provides motivation and builds strength. Without stress, you would be unable to react to situations quickly, and wouldn't have the stimulation needed to think and act. Stress provides life's zing, and keeps us from being bored.
• We often hear of athletes "psyching themselves up" or "getting their adrenalin flowing" before an important event in order to improve their performance. These situations tell us something important about stress: It can either be a barrier or an aid to success depending on how you interpret, label and control it.
• Stress is usually situational. The most effective stress management techniques to use are those that you can apply on the spot when you feel your stress level rising. Learn new and effective stress management techniques that you can apply anytime, anywhere and re-channel your energies.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- Can you change the way you respond to stress when all of your life experiences point to “you can’t”?
- Why is it that you can respond in certain stressful situations brilliantly and in others just fall apart and feel defeated?
- Why do some people seem to settle into the defeat cycle therefore making the circumstances much worse?
- In everyone's life a little rain must fall – how can you reset your response to stress?
- What’s the difference between the stress you create yourself to successfully perform and the stress you perceive that keeps you from accomplishment?
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Backgrounder
8 - The parent trap.
• Sometimes parents forget that children tend to be intimately tied to your emotional state to determine how they are going to feel. Remember, emotions get transferred between people when you interact, and children are often like tuning forks to your emotional states.
• Children are constantly picking up "stuff" from parents, teachers, peers, television and so on. These inputs go on daily and accumulate over the years to eventually become what we adults often call "emotional baggage." If these inputs go unresolved they form unnecessary "limits" and obstruct the attainment of your true potential. This unnecessary fear, guilt, grief and trauma often have a thunderous effect on your "adult realities" and can cost you dearly in both your personal happiness and your pocketbook.
• Ritalin is not an option! Ritalin is an antidepressant stimulant and antidepressant-stimulants are addictive. Giving your children Ritalin in many circles is considered child abuse! Children administered antidepressant-stimulants are three times more likely to become cocaine users. Don’t forget Kurt Cobain - the lead singer of Nirvana was a Ritalin child who eventually succumbed to heroin abuse and suicide!
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- What might stop your child from letting go of a problem?
- As a parent, how can I prevent my feelings of overwhelm and stop letting my own problems negatively affect my child’s conduct?
- How can temper tantrums be your window of opportunity to help your child learn essential emotional skills for handling their frustrations?
- How can you tell when your playful teasing turns into real hurt feelings?
- Do drugs limit your chances to teach your child problem solving skills necessary for future healthy development?
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Backgrounder
9 - The need to be perfect can suffocate the life out of you!
• People who are always worried that no matter how hard they try it is never good enough, or they are constantly disappointed in the people they live or work with, may be setting themselves to be disappointed, given that achieving perfection consistently is impossible!
• People who are perfectionists usually have trouble making decisions. They are so worried about making the wrong one that they fail to reach any conclusion. Along with indecision, perfectionists are sometimes plagued by great difficulty in taking risks, particularly if their personal reputations are on the line.
• Every perfectionist has a hidden fantasy that something really good will come from being perfect. For example, "If I do it perfectly, then...I will finally be accepted...I can finally stop worrying...l will get what I have been working toward...I can finally relax." However, the flip side of this is, "If I make a mistake," there will be a catastrophic outcome - “I will be humiliated ....I am a failure...I am stupid...l am worthless"!
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- How does self-judgment cultivate the belief that you are a "failure" at doing something?
- How do you stop believing that other people's opinion of you is a mirror of your self-worth?
- How can you stop the feeling of uncertainty that forces you to meet some outside standard and start believing you’re acceptable as you are?
- Could this stifling need to avoid ridicule and seek approval stem from childhood expectations placed by parents, teachers, etc?
- Can a highly successful perfectionist ever be happy with themselves?
- Is it true that some people spend all their time educating themselves preparing for an endeavor that they never have the guts to do?
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Backgrounder
10 - Desperate for beauty.
• Upon initial meetings, our appearance is the only thing available for the rapid assessment of others, and for some, this factor can result into an unhealthy need to look “perfect” – buying into the notion that more attractive people are more clever, more worthy and deserving of happiness.
• Image merchants peddle unrealistic, unattainable and unhealthy images that were once targeted mainly at girls and young women are now aiming this message at boys as well. Reportedly, 53 percent of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies." This number grows to 78 percent by the time girls reach age 17. Boys and young men are trying everything from compulsive weight lifting to steroids. More and more boys and young men are taking the quest for physical perfection beyond the boundaries of normal activities. Drugs, harmful habits, eating disorders and countless detrimental behaviors will continue unless this mindset is shifted, and a lifetime of devastating consequences will occur.
• Modern technology able to produce airbrushed images of skinny, tanned, perfectly toned bodies and youthful, flawless, unlined, blemish free faces is causing those who cannot achieve this “look” to resort to drastic measures that sometimes even involve suicide.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- How can we stop being a slave to this need to be perfect?
- Why do we so easily buy into what these billion dollar industries are selling us?
- Are the manufactures of cosmetics, salons and spas, fitness centers, plastic surgeons and the like exploiting our insecurities just to amass large sums of money?
- Is it true that American action toys like GI Joe have grown steadily leaner and more muscular from the 1960s to present, contributing to body obsessions in boys and young men?
- What are the long term effects of all this beauty mania and how can you attain a healthy balance?
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Backgrounder
11 - The ravages of war.
• Psychological problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome(PTSD), anxiety, mood disorders and depression are some of the problems facing military personnel returning from combat. Scientists are learning just how trauma affects the brain—and how best to help the healing process. Doctors now know that PTSD is the product of subtle biological changes that occur in the brain in response to extreme stress.
• Experts say that mental disorders can make the already rugged transition from military to civilian life a harrowing one. Soldiers can experience depression, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, emotional numbing, recurring nightmares and intrusive thoughts. And in many cases, the symptoms worsen with time, leaving the victims at higher risk for alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, homelessness and suicide.
• Domestic-violence, trust issues, emotional closeness, communication, responsible assertiveness, effective problem solving, self-esteem, guilt – just the tip of the iceberg of what some families must deal with.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- With constant media images of the battlefield, how can military family’s best keep a balanced perspective knowing their loved ones could be in harms way?
- What can the family do to best prepare themselves for the soldiers return?
- Is the news coverage today placing more stress on the families who are separated from their loved ones than ever before?
- What are some of the ways a returning soldier can clear the negative emotions such as guilt and shame and tone down their heightened responses?
- What are the first steps that husbands and wives must take to begin re-establishing their personal relationship with each other?
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Backgrounder
12 - Shyness is thought of as a social phobia.
• According to recent findings published in Health News, psychotherapy of the American analytical type is not now recommended for phobias — it is no good dredging the murky well of memories to explore what it was that grandma said at the age of 3 or what you did behind the bushes when you were 7.
• Most often, a person is shy because they deem themselves inferior or lacking in some way. They want to hide themselves and their feelings, because they somehow believe that exposing themselves or "putting themselves out there" will lead to some type of pain. They shrivel up around others, because they don't feel worthy or good enough to shine in the company of others.
• You may desire a life partner, or even a family, but somewhere in your heart, mind and subconscious, you believe that talking to the opposite sex will bring you pain. You believe, on some deep level, that you’ll be rejected. All human interaction involves risk. Sometimes you'll win. Sometimes you'll lose. But you will really lose if you don't take the chance.
Ideas For Interview Questions?
- If psychotherapy is not recommended for treating phobias, what is?
- What is the difference between being afraid of something and having a phobia about it?
- How can shyness limit your activities?
- What are the physical symptoms you could experience when face with a situation you just can’t handle?
- Do shy/socially phobic people underestimate their social skills and abilities?
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