Terms and Definitions:

Stress: 

 - A physical and emotional reaction experienced by an individual. Neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, merely an indicator to internal processes and subconscious routines.

Emotional Barriers:

 - These are learned behaviours that prevent an individual from facing a situation (any event or interaction, current or imaginary, likely to induce feeling of anxiety or stress) by way of a significant emotional reaction (prompting for caution).

Executive Functioning: (in this context) 

 - An individuals immediate capacity for problem solving or negotiation (higher cognitive functioning)

Understanding the stress response may significantly assist us in being able to manage our client interactions. As emotions go up, the body responds in predictable ways, none of which being conducive to complex negotiations and the loss of things the client values. 

Symptoms we expect to see:

• Heart rate increases
• Breathing increases
• Body releases sugars to the muscles, expecting to need a physical response (running or fighting for life). Individuals experience this physical feeling as anxiety, and then panic attack.
• Hearing is reduced
• Vision is narrowed
• Critical thinking ceases (ability to manage complicated thought processes)
• Rational thinking ceases (emotional responses take over, which are focused on eliciting an emotional response rather than achieving a profitable goal)
• Digestion slows or shuts down completely
• Increase in the creation of fatty tissue
• Increased appetite