Chana Studley
Chana has spent the last 30 years helping others recover from trauma, addictions, and working with all kinds of clients; adults, children and organizations. She has spent the last 5 years helping people with physical issues including chronic pain, allergies, migraines, skin problems and IBS etc., and more recently hormone problems and Long Covid.
She had amazing success with a recent Wellness program for the staff at an NHS hospital in the UK with an increase of 85% in wellbeing!
Chana's research into hormones and reproductive mood disorders including PMDD, Post partum and Menopause are the foundation of her next book.
Alongside her counseling work, Chana had a very successful career working in Hollywood creating special effects, animatronics, and costumes for major movies and earned an Academy Award as part of the team for the movie Babe.
My Pain Story
As a result of 3 violent muggings in the early 1980s, I had a fractured skull, 3 herniated discs in my lower back and two broken vertebrae in my neck. For the following 20 years, my back would quite regularly “go out’. I’d either be in agony on the floor or when struggling to stand, I would be bent sideways unable to straighten with searing pain shooting down my right leg. I visited the Chiropractor regularly every month desperate not to have surgery. When the pain would come I needed multiple visits as I struggled to function. Colleagues had to rush me to the emergency room several times as I passed out with pain at work. On at least 3 or 4 occasions, I was temporarily paralyzed from the chest down unable to move my legs.
It was terrifying.
This became routine, the fear that this time it would be permanent was always there. During the final episode, I was hobbling back from the Doctor’s office in agony dragging my feet like lead weights when I took a rest on a water pipe that was sticking out of the wall. Exhausted, I found myself stuck there terrified I would not make it across the busy street fast enough before a car would run me over. It was the spring of 2010 and that was my last serious episode.
What happened you ask? Well, I started a journey of understanding the mind. I found a new paradigm in psychology called the Three Principles and in 2017 after 25 years of being a trauma counselor, I trained as a Three Principles Practitioner. I hadn’t had any bad pain for a while so I decided to cancel my regular Chiropractic appointments. After I finished the training I noticed that my back felt really strong and then I realized I hadn't had one of those extremely painful paralyzing episodes since that time I got stuck on the street. It was unbelievable! I felt stronger than when I was in my 20's!!
I started to research this phenomenon and I found that there was a lot of science backing up my experience. When we are stressed the fight or flight response is activated in the body and blood flow is restricted. I also learned that the body has an innate wisdom to heal its self! My back had healed 20 years ago, so was it stress that had been producing the pain since then? Under the supervision of Jean Catherine Gray from Virginia University, I conducted 5 case studies and through my research, I discovered that with this understanding of the mind I could bring pain relief to others!
I am now working with people with all kinds of health issues, chronic pain, eczema, IBS, migraines, hormones, and more recently, Long Covid.
Anxiety is at the root of many of these conditions and Health Anxiety is a common issue with many of my clients.
Once we understand what is happening the fear starts to go away and we find the missing peace that points us back to our innate wellbeing and health and that is where the healing happens.
My first book, The Myth of Low Self Esteem, describes how recovery from trauma is possible. Painless is a novel that takes us on a journey of chronic pain relief and my latest book Very Well is a novel about hormonal distress and how we all have innate wellbeing.
Beyond Diagnosis is a groundbreaking Amazon bestselling textbook showcasing over 60 stories of recovery from every kind of mental health issue from pyschosis to bulimia to CPTSD.
Since leaving Hollywood, Chana has become a certified Life Coach, a World Health Organization Psychological First Responder, and a Three Principles Practitioner. She is a proud volunteer with The United Hatzalah Psychotrauma and Crisis Unit which is the first integrated national crisis response team in the world.
Chana is the director of the MindBody Institute which offers coaching, programs, and a unique Membership Group that is transforming people's lives.
My story has gone from anxiety and pain to wellbeing and so can yours!