I really feel that stress relief is achieved through a combination of physical movement, meditation and an assessment that brings people to the root emotional cause of the stress.  If you just work on the mind, it doesn't work for the body and the emotions.  If you focus only on the emotions, it doesn't work for the body and the mind. We hit every aspect: the body, the mind and the emotions.  –Brett Cotter, Founder and CEO of Stress Is Gone, LLC

Stress is a universal part of the human experience.  We all experience stress at different levels in our quest for survival.  Stress is painful.  In our shared tendency to avoid pain and seek pleasure, we want to escape stress and find contentment. 

After many years of searching for effective stress relief, former Hastings resident Brett Cotter says he has found a solution that he wants to share with the world:  "We are all looking for happiness and unconditional love.  We are looking for peace.  I have been able to experience those qualities in my life and I want to show others a way to get there for themselves.  People think that it can't happen quickly or without a lot of effort, but I am here to show them another way." 

Brett Cotter is the founder and CEO of Stress Is Gone, LLC, a start-up company with twelve employees and a global vision.  Stress Is Gone offers personal, academic and corporate stress relief sessions and workshops. In addition to the one-on-one coaching they offer, Cotter and his team go into corporations, non-profit institutions and schools to help clients achieve lasting stress-relief. 

Cotter experienced a tumultuous childhood that set him on a life-long healing journey.  His parents divorced when he was very young and he rarely saw his father.  "My mother kicked my father out when I was six.  My father was supposed to pick me up every weekend, but he would only come once a month or every two months.  He would always call and say he was on the way.  It was an emotionally tormenting thing for me," Cotter explained. 

As a result of this beginning, Cotter says he had a lot of difficulties in his relationships.  In college, he majored in psychology with minors in sociology and anthropology to gain a better understanding of himself and the world. 

Continuing his education, Cotter studied under Dr. Kam Yuen, a 35^th generation Shaolin Grand Master.  "He taught me how to focus my conscious mind, my subconscious mind and my super conscious mind to achieve stress relief in the body," Cotter explained.  "I use my conscious mind to tune into where the problem is.  My subconscious mind communicates with those cells.  Then I open up to my super conscious mind to start correcting those cells."  Complicated as that may sound, Cotter says that in his classes and individual sessions he has simplified the teachings to make them easily accessible to everyone. 

Stress Is Gone has developed a unique method to: 1) "Unload built-up stress and tension." 2) "Learn how to stop the stress reaction," and 3) "Relax the mind."  In the Stress Is Gone workshops, Cotter incorporates music, movement, meditation and "a proprietary process we use which involves assessing and expressing the root cause of the stress, and then locating it and unwinding it in the body." Cotter says that he arrived at this method through years of experimentation with reducing his own stress levels. 

"The Stress Is Gone method comes from my own life experience of understanding how music and movement impact the body, and then seeing how important it is to asses and express the root cause of the stress," he said. 

Stress Is Gone serves clients by providing real and pragmatic solutions to consciously respond to everyday stressors.  After one workshop, Cotter claims that people can "relieve the stress they walk in with.  If it's about finances, their job, school, their spouse or kids; they will get to the root of it and release the stress in their body.  They will have a window of opportunity to respond to the stress consciously." 

Giving examples of common stress scenarios, Cotter continued, "Let's say it's getting the kids ready for school by 8:15; we work with people to set up that environment to make it stress free. People really can be stress free when they are putting their kids to bed, or when they are interacting with their boss.  When I go into companies, I talk about healthy boundaries.  A lot of people think they can't have healthy boundaries at work; I teach them that they can." 

A major part of the Stress Is Gone mission is service.  "My goal is to let people know that this technique exists. We are trying to reach more people through a grass roots effort," said Cotter.  The company regularly sets up free stress reduction sessions in the greater NYC area.  Consistent with this purpose, Cotter has appointed a Pro Bono Relations Manager, Jeanette Weil.  Weil was recently spreading the word about Stress Is Gone in the Rivertowns, and she met with Carl Carvalho, owner of Human Bodyworks in Hastings. Human Bodyworks and Stress Is Gone have teamed up to offer three upcoming sessions, free of charge.  By attending one or more of these sessions, Cotter says Rivertowns' residents can take away concrete tools and exercises to reduce stress in daily life.  For those who wish to go further in addressing stress and its causes, there will be an additional four- hour workshop held at Human Bodyworks in December. 

For more information about Stress Is Gone, LLC, visit the company website at www.StressIsGone.com.  To schedule a free consultation, contact Brett Cotter at 646-395-9604 or by e-mail at brett@stressisgone.com. 

The free group sessions at Human Bodyworks in Hastings will be held November 4, December 2 and December 9 from 1-2 p.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m.  The comprehensive workshop will be offered at Human Bodyworks on Sunday, December 12, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. for a fee of $40.00.