Shana Trahan, author of The Anxiety Fix | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Good morning, welcome to the show. Is this Shanna?

0:02 Speaker 2: It is? Good morning? How are you?

0:04 Speaker 1: Good morning? Okay, tell me if I'm saying your name correctly, we're alive on the air. Is it Shana Trahan trey Han? How do you say your name?

0:14 Speaker 2: Sure? Is Shanna trey Han?

0:15 Speaker 1: Shanna trey Han. Okay, cool, got it? Thank you, Thank you for joining us this morning. Very interested in talking to you. Can you before we talk about your book, can you tell us about your background and at about the therapy center and everything, anything and everything we should know about you before we before we really get into it.

0:34 Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I appreciate you very much, for sure. So I was born and raised in Louisiana, right in your New Orleans. And then also, gosh, so my life pretty much is. I was an educator for twenty years. I was in military leadership, hearing of two beautiful kids, one beautiful granddaughter, and I love to travel. Insofar is middle heal health is concerned. I kind of thought about it, I guess when I was younger, because people used to always come to me and ask me what do I think? And so, yeah, so that's a little bit of background.

1:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, So and tell us about the Tray and Therapy Center, What is that exactly? What do you do there?

1:21 Speaker 2: Thank you so much. So the Trade Hand Therapy Center is where we shape minds and change lives. And that's the slogan I came up with because I just thought about the processes that I thought taking place in the transformations of people's lives who followed through consistently and more intentional about the therapeutic process. So that's what we do and been in private practice for almost eight years and right now we're licensed in like nine eight states, and so we started out of Texas though, and so yeah, so that's we really love to support people who are challenged having mental health challenges.

2:04 Speaker 2: If it's with marriage, if it's emotional, just you know, anything that they're dealing with. I try to streamline it. So I would say, if I wanted to tell you mainly what we do, sure it's going to be relationship, marriage, certainly, anxiety, depression, and had a lot of clients who present it with like bipolar disorder, okay, but certainly the age range pretty much is like twelve and up.

2:33 Speaker 1: Okay, Okay. In your experience, do you feel like the has it gotten better over time? In terms of the stigma, you know, a lot of people have a problem admitting or acknowledging and directly dealing with mental health issues like depression, for example. I know this from personal experience. I'm someone who struggles with depression, as a lot of our listeners know, I've I've been pretty open about it the last few years, but I wasn't always open about it, and there was a time where I would try to hide it.

3:00 Speaker 1: And I know that. I know that there can be a lot of stigma and judgment that people have to deal with if they if they start to open up about these things, whether it be publicly or even to family and friends. But I do feel like that's gotten a lot better, especially over the past decade. I feel like people have become more open and comfortable talking about these things. And I'm curious what your experience in terms of that has been. Do you think it's do you think it's gotten better, or maybe it's gotten worse, or I don't know.

3:30 Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think in terms of people being open about this stuff.

3:34 Speaker 2: That's an excellent question because there's multiple parts of that. So the first part I will share is that I do believe that more doors and more windows have been opened, and honestly, as people in Hollywood have come out to say, hey, you know what, I'm experiencing anxiety, I'm experiencing depression. I do have bipolar, you know, and I do movies as well, right, So I believe that that has created some shifts. And then also though, literally I was talking to someone the other day and you know, someone who's someone that I know that's not in therapy, and I asked him, I said, oh, I said, well, you know, have you ever thought about talking to someone?

4:19 Speaker 2: And they said, well, I just think of talking to someone as just, you know, saying just what I'm feeling. And I said, well, you know, therapy is so much more than that, right, And you know, don't please, don't come just pour everything on my head and walk away. For me, therapy is certainly about change. And I'm such a solution focused type person. But because of my background, I've taught from babies. I used to have a daycare, So from babies all the way to college level, I've taught. And I would say that I've worked with people who have identified special needs and then those who don't have identified special needs.

5:03 Speaker 2: Right, And so in working with those who identified special needs. I think that that really has helped me to be real specific in planning and treatment planning for my clients, because they don't just to give them a broad spectrum antibiotic, for example, is just not enough, Like they need something that's really specific to their background and their experiences. So I practice what's called integrative therapy, and that it uses multiple multiple theories in one setting as opposed to trying to go with one theory.

5:43 Speaker 2: But the person really needs a little bit of this one and a little bit of that one. And so I believe that that is the most for me, the best approach, and it seems to have worked for the people that I see. But yeah, just to answer your question, yes, I think that it's more people are open. However, there's still so many people. If we look at the number of people committing suicide, there's still so many more people that need to be reached.

6:13 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so tell us about the book The Anxiety Fix.

6:19 Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Anxiety Fixed. While Yeah, just as I was observing, I guess what's been happening. And I don't watch the news much, but I guess back last year I was watching it a little more and I was just listening to even clients and friends and family members, and it just dawned on me that people were really suffering from anxiety, I mean almost to what could be like nearly OCD levels.

6:47 Speaker 1: Uh.

6:47 Speaker 2: And it's unfortunate because you know, there's ways and systems and processes, and you know there's so many solutions. Sure, and so I came up with anxiety Fix, and I believe that all of the components of it are so important. And so the book talks about like the biology of anxiety, which I think that it's important to understand, like where is this coming from? Right, what's the source of all this? And then the next thing, certainly we look at food that you eat and then the best foods for you know that you should eat if you're having anxiety, and like everything, a lot of times we overlook it.

7:30 Speaker 2: I mean, food and water are like the foundational you know, it's foundational like ourselves, right, So what foods are contributing to how we're feeling and how we're feeling is presenting into the world. Also, we look at things such as community building community. When I talk to a lot of people, you know, I find that they don't have you know their core group. Souse families kind of spread away, spread out and move the different states, and then it's like now you have to come up with your own group.

8:04 Speaker 2: And so I believe that certainly finding your people is a thing that you know, people have said use the term your people, but it's meaning that group that fits you, right, So in finding your people, that that part is really important to reducing anxiety because you feel like, hey, I'm not alone. And also looking at holistic supports because it's not everyone doesn't necessarily need a medicine from the pharmacy, but sometimes people can definitely benefit, so let me say that. But also looking at holistic supports for that purpose.

8:40 Speaker 2: And I think that understanding what those things are is important. And if those things work for you, then you may not need medication. However, if your person suffering with severe anxiety or severe depression, or you know, severe case of your mental health concern, you may you know, need the medication. So I mean, just have to be honest with yourself, right, So if the holistic supports are not working for you, then we may have to move towards, you know, medication.

9:11 Speaker 1: It sounds like you're suggesting to that, tell me if I'm understanding this correctly, that it's probably better to try to with with something like anxiety, it's better to try to address it, you know, holistically, or you know, you mentioned nutrition, the importance of nutrition, and you know most people don't exercise enough obviously that you know. I'm a hypnotherapist, and I talked to my clients a lot about that mind body connection, and I tell them, look, the better you feel mentally, the better you'll feel physically, and vice versa.

9:43 Speaker 1: But it sounds like you really suggest kind of trying these other things before, because I think there's a misconception that some people have that you know, you can cure anything with a pill, But the reality is there's other things that you do want to try first, because you might not need medica, and if you can address these things with diet and exercise, and you know, you talked about community, you know, because a lot of people struggle with loneliness and that obviously that does inflate anxiety and depression and all these things.

10:13 Speaker 1: So I mean, it sounds like you're saying there are ways to address these things, and medication might be I don't know if the last resort is the right way. Of putting it. But am I on the right track with that?

10:25 Speaker 2: You are so so on the right track as we watch these lovely commercials that pass on the different stations and then at the end somebody says about forty different side effects very fast. Yep, yep, I am. Everybody's in the business of medicine and or the line of work that we're in for different reasons, right, We all have our different reasons, and I pretty much I would say that my motive, if you will, has always been to help and support. And so that's my military background, that's my teaching background, that's my even store manager background, that's my daycare background.

11:10 Speaker 2: Everything I've always done has been to support and train, teach, help, you know, And so that for me is this thing as well, because you know, I could I could say, hey, go go get the Mets, Go get the mets, go get the mess because it doesn't hurt me physically. But it's just the moral part, like just knowing that hey, maybe if they had done you know, a little more exercise or maybe kind of gotten you know, went out and you know, developed a new hobby and you know, met some new people that that could have been the beginning to something new and better for them.

11:52 Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, you don't go just straight to the pill or straight to the medicine that has you know, a lot of side effects. But again, some people certainly are benefited by that, right, So we don't want to say that medicine is not good, because medicine certainly has helped many people for a lot of things. But certainly we want to take it in terms of medication, how you kind of tie trade up or tie trade down. So we want to kind of start at the basic level. Hey, how much water are you drinking?

12:26 Speaker 2: Right, and then go up to medication if that is required.

12:30 Speaker 1: Sure, sure I do. Yeah, most people don't drink enough water, and it is so important, especially you know, in the hot summer. But it's but it's always important. And yeah, it's interesting too because I know that there's studies that show that exercise, for example, for many people, and again you know, obviously we don't want to say for everybody, but for many people, you know, just exercise, even just walking every day can be more effective for depression, for dealing with depression than say going on a on a medication.

13:04 Speaker 1: And and you're right too, you mentioned those those commercials that you see for for for medications, and I I don't remember which one it was, but there's a there's an antidepressant years ago. I remember seeing this commercial late at night on a on a cable news channel. I I think, I I think I know which one it was, but I'm not sure, so I don't want to say it. But but one of the side effects for this antidepressant was may cause suicidal ideations. And as someone who struggles with depression, I just I remember seeing this commercial and it mentions the suicidal ideations, and I thought, well, that's that's a bit counterintuitive.

13:41 Speaker 1: You know, if I'm going to go on that mad it's because I'm trying not to kill myself that this antidepressant might make me want to kill myself, you know, so to be very blunted. So yeah, so I'm always I'm always skeptical. I've I've never gone on any kind of medication for my depression, but but I and maybe I should, but some would suggest I should try it. I try to deal with it on my own. But but I do know that, uh, you know, and again it's something that a lot of people struggle with depression, is is is very uh very common and anxiety of course, and they're they're I agree, they tend to be connected.

14:23 Speaker 1: Do you feel that, uh, do you feel that people are being well? Let me ask it this way. Do you think these problems have become more widespread or do you think people are just becoming more aware and open about discussing them over time? You know, we talked earlier about the stigma, and I think you and I agree that that's been getting better. But do you think these problems have actually gotten worse or do you think people are just more open about them? Or maybe it's hard to say.

14:53 Speaker 2: Hmm, you know, I think that people are becoming a little more aware. Yeah, But honestly, the crazy thing is that I would say sometimes unfortunately, you know, people are unaware of some people are unaware of, you know, our own presentation. And I was talking to a friend the other day and I mentioned something to them about I guess, you know, a behavior you know, I observe, not trying to be their therapist, but it's just that we were talking about something between us and I said, did you realize X, you know had happened?

15:37 Speaker 2: And they were like, oh, maybe because of why you know? And I said, no, it wasn't Why wasn't present at the time, you know, And then because they had like they were showing like little signs of anger or frustration, and like there was nothing in the moment really that anybody else probably would have said, Hey, you should be frustrated, you should be angry right now, right, And so they hadn't even realized that presentation of themselves. Okay, And so sometimes we don't even realize our own presentations.

16:06 Speaker 2: So how can we even you know, talk to the therapist and say, hey, I've been experiencing X, you know, and with everybody ghosting everybody in twenty twenty five, I mean, people aren't being on you know, aren't really talking to their friends, and they just, oh, that person presented angry, I'm just going to leave them alone forever, you know, you just sure, you know people, you know, how do we have friendships? How how can we be honest with each other and not you know, concern ourselves with everybody ghosting us or you know whatever.

16:38 Speaker 2: So, yeah, sometimes we don't even realize our own presentation.

16:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And it's easy to not only not only do we not always recognize our own presentation, but it's easy to misread other people. Uh. Text messaging I think has played a big role in that in our society, in that, you know, I saw somebody make a joke the other day. It's almost like you have to end every text with a smiley emoji, or the person you're sending the text to is automatically going to assume that you're angry with them. There's a lot of misunderstandings that happened because of that, you know, and I'm guilty of it myself.

17:18 Speaker 1: You know, sometimes I misread people or I misunderstand or especially if I meet somebody new and they come across to me as a little bit kurt or perhaps kind of stern, and how they present and then I and then I get into my own head about, oh they don't like me, there's something about me that bothers them. And then I get to know them a little bit and it's like, oh, no, that's just how they talk. They're a nice person and they do seem to like me. They just you know, I misunderstood, I misread them, and that happens to me a lot.

17:45 Speaker 1: I've gotten better about it over the years, but it still happens where it's like, you know, I get a wrong idea, a wrong impression about somebody else's presentation. So it's something I think we all need to be aware of and mindful of. And but but it's tricky. But it's tricky. I do under if if some of these problems have worsened over time though too. I mean, obviously, like you said, people are more open about about talking about these things, but and there's more awareness. But also I think that because you mentioned how people eat the foods that we eat, you know, we we eat all this processed food, and you know, and and as a country, you know, we tend to you know, we have higher and higher numbers of diabetes and and and obesity and all of this.

18:27 Speaker 1: And I mean that all contributes. And I think as though as those problems continue to worsen, I think that obviously affects everybody in terms of how they feel and and their emotional well being and all of that. So I suspect that people are becoming more aware and more open about these things, but I think the problems are probably also getting worse and and that and that's why that makes it that much more important for people to read things, for example, that are helpful to them, like your book The Anxiety Fix and and someone who someone who reads your book, what what will they what will they get from it?

18:59 Speaker 1: Like do you lay out in the book kind of a plan or a strategy for people who use to deal with their anxiety, or or do you make it just make a lot of suggestions about different methods to try to cope or tell us a little bit more about the book. What do you present to the reader in terms of what can help them?

19:18 Speaker 2: For sure? So I would say number one is that I think that two things about the book. One is that it should be on it I mean, you can read it on your own. However, I really suggest that you anyone that considers purchasing Anxiety Fix, that they actually use it alongside their therapists, because really there's things there. For example, I had someone that was reading the book and then they were like, oh, you know, I saw the coping skills, and so I just figured I could just do them all. No, you cannot do You don't do them all.

19:53 Speaker 2: You don't do them all at one time.

19:55 Speaker 1: You know.

19:56 Speaker 2: The way that I suggest is certainly choosing one or two coping skills, practicing those intentionally over a couple of weeks, seeing you know, the you know which one is benefiting you most, and if if one of them is benefiting one, you don't see the benefit, then you know, then drop that second one at another one. Now you're doing that one that you know works, and you're trying another one, and you know on top of that. So definitely, the book presents with a lot of coping skills support and I think that that is important that you don't you can't you don't employ forty coping skills all at one time.

20:31 Speaker 2: I think that that will lead to overwhelm. And so the goal one is not so overwhelm, but you definitely want to. I would say use this with your therapist so that way, you know, the therapist has the book Anxiety Fix. You have the book Anxiety Fix, and then you get to read the first chapter. You're answering questions and you know, figuring out who you are and what's happening with you and why it's happening, and then you get to bring that back to your therapist then kind of talk about you know, the questions that you answer, why you answered them that way you know, and your behaviors and your choices that might be leading to your anxiety.

21:07 Speaker 2: Right, So This is certainly a book that can be read on an individual basis, but I certainly suggest that you do go through it, you know, on an individual basis. But then when you go to your therapist, Hey, I read the first chapter of Anxiety Fix this week. Can we talk about that? Yeah, because I'm certain that your therapist will be very glad to kind of go through the process with you step by step because it's going to lighten their load as well. Sure, and then you've already done some of the work, right so they don't even have to assign some homework.

21:40 Speaker 2: Hey, you've got your homework right there, an Anxiety Fix. And then the therapist is just supporting and facilitating. It's like, hey, this is really easy.

21:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Is this your first book, by the way, or have you written other books?

21:54 Speaker 2: I've written other books. However, out of all the books, I will say that this is the best of all the books. Okay, So if anyone buys any books that Shanna Treyhan has written, Anxiety Fix is the one. I mean, this is like the one for you know, you can buy it for your sister or your brother because you know that they're struggling and just leave it with them and walk away. Hey, try this. You know sometimes people don't want to have the conversation. Here you go and then just leave them with it. Right, certainly yourself, your kids, it could be a family, a family book to read.

22:30 Speaker 2: Let's sit in a circle. Let's talk about this stuff. Man, this has been affecting everybody. Little Johnny, it's affecting you at school. You went to a new school. We just moved. We're having some anxiety because now you have to start over from scratch making new friends. A husband or wife just got a new gig because they just moved. You know, everybody's feeling the anxiety. Let's sit down in the family as a family. Let's read it, Let's talk about it. Let's experience everything together. Hey, we're going to try some of these coping feels together.

23:00 Speaker 2: Hey, we're gonna try some new eating plans together. Right, So don't just let you know your family members sit in a room with the blinds closed and the doors closed and not talking. Lets everybody come together, sit together around anxiety fixed. We can have some popcorn, take turns reading, and then discuss how we're feeling and what our experience has been.

23:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds great, and I'm sure that probably everyone can get something out of it, even even people who think, you know, no, I'm good, I'm good, I've I've got I've got this. You know, everything's everything's good. There's probably going to be something in there that they can that they can glean from it that will help themselves or or perhaps to help someone they know, because you know, these problems are so widespread and anxiety is such a such a thing, such a common thing. Obviously, a little bit of anxiety.

23:48 Speaker 1: Tell me, tell me if I'm I try to tell people this, but I'm never sure I'm explaining it right. Tell me if you think, uh, Shannon, if you think I've got this right, a little bit of anxiety is a good thing, right, because you have to have some level of anxiety and stress in order to to push you to do things right, to to to to get you to make sure that you take care of your responsibilities. You know, if you have bills to pay, for example, you know you want to have a little bit of anxiety, like, Okay, I've got to pay that bill.

24:14 Speaker 1: I got to make sure I do this on time. I've got to Uh. If you're a parent, you know, I gotta, I gotta make sure I do this for my kid. I gotta. You know, so a little bit of that's a good thing, right, But but but you don't want it to become too much where you're you're now you're worrying about things that you can't control, and now you're you're you have anxiety about things that to a level where it's actually harming you and not not helping you because a little bit is helpful. You know, we human beings were designed, our brains are designed to want to handle some level of challenge, right, Otherwise we'd be bored to death if everything was easy.

24:47 Speaker 1: But but we don't. But when that anxiety begins to take take us over and and ruin our lives effectively, right, you know, that's that's when we need to really, that's when we need to look at some ways to manage it.

25:02 Speaker 2: I agree with you one thousand percent. You know, definitely there's there's what I call good anxiety and bad anxiety, right, yeah, and so yeah, the bad anxiety is anxiety that has you up at night and you can't fall asleep, or you can't or if you fall asleep, then you keep waking up. You know that's bad anxiety. You know, good anxiety is, Oh, I better be get up and go take my job this morning. You know, let me get up and get my stuff on. You know, that's that's good anxiety. Right. So, certainly the things you mentioned good anxiety.

25:29 Speaker 2: So there is, in my opinion, is good and bad anxiety. Right. So, yeah, we all do live with some level anxiety, and that's certainly how we you know, Oh, let me go out and water the plants today. You know, I've got to do this. Let me make sure this happens. Let me make my list of five things I got to do today, right, So those things are good anxiety for sure. Yeah.

25:49 Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, Shanna, the time goes quickly. We do need to we need to start to wrap up. But I'm so glad to get to talk to you this morning and in the book The Anxiety Fix. I think it's great everything that you're doing. Please tell our listeners where's the best place to go online, not only to get the book, but to learn more about you. Uh, maybe we have someone who wants to talk to you, maybe they want to schedule something with you. What is the what are the best ways for people to reach you?

26:19 Speaker 2: Sure? The name of the book is Anxiety Fix and you can find it on Amazon and just look up Shanna tray Hann s h a n A t r a h a N. And then of course our website where you can find more information definitely about holistic supports and things like that, and the things that we offer is going to be www if they still allow us to use it. Right tray Hand t r a h a N Therapy t h e r a p Y Houston dot com. So that's tray Hand Therapy Houston dot com. And again, we are in eight states on the East coast and in Idaho, South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Delaware, Rhode Island, in New Hampshire.

27:09 Speaker 2: So yeah, just reach out to us. We're there.

27:13 Speaker 1: Outstanding, outstanding, all right, Shanna trey Han, thank you so much. Well, we'll have to do this again in the future. It's been wonderful to speak with you this morning. I really appreciate you joining us, and it's been great to learn about you and learn about the book. And you're doing great things out there in the world, so and we need that, we need that, So thank you so much for joining us today.

27:33 Speaker 2: I appreciate you. Thank you for your time, many blessings and we will talk soon.

27:37 Speaker 1: All right, sounds good, Thanks Shanna, have a great day.

27:40 Speaker 2: Thank you, bub.

27:42 Speaker 1: All right, Shanna Treyhan. Check out her book, The Anxiety Fix, available where well, she mentioned Amazon. Of course that's probably I assume Amazon is a number one place where people get their books. But yeah, wonderful to speak with her. And you know, we focus a lot obviously on the show. We do more interviews with musicians than anybody else. But it's wonderful to get into some of these other areas, especially where I mean partly too. You know, I'm a certified hypnotherapist, so I have a natural interest in these things anyway, and I help people with things like anxiety and stress and whatnot.

28:15 Speaker 1: But it's I think it's great to bring bring on other people to talk about these things too, and definitely check out. You know, she's had an amazing career. We could probably have if we'd had more time, we could have delved more into some of her experiences. But but yeah, check out her book, Shanna Treyhan, The Anxiety Fix