About Me

My name is Jerry Ryan.  I'm a licensed professional counselor and an award-winning coach. My expertise is in stress reduction. I have dealt with more stress in my life than most people you’ll ever meet. I could talk for an hour about all the stressful times but let me focus on just three.  

I was bullied as the new kid all through school. We moved a lot for my dad’s job and I went to 11 schools in 12 years. It got so bad in the sixth grade that our family doctor said I was getting an ulcer and put me on a baby food diet.

When I was 30, I was attacked on the job in an operating room by someone looking for narcotics. I had a major skull fracture, was in a coma for three days, and only had a 5% chance to live. When I woke up, my sense of smell and taste was gone, my memory was like Swiss cheese, and my emotions were out of control.

Seven years later, I was in a rollover car accident that broke my neck, my left shoulder blade, collarbone and ribs, punctured my left lung, and wiped out both frontal lobes of my brain. I don’t remember the accident or the following three months in and out of the ICU.

There was no way to foresee all the stress that these experiences caused. Not just for me but for my wife, my children, my parents, my brothers, and my friends. The stress involved in dealing with these situations caused a lot of additional problems. 

Like many people dealing with stress, I turned to alcohol and drugs to help me cope. There were times when the stress caused me to get sick, to miss work, and to have arguments with my family. 

Over the years, I found better ways to handle my stress. I studied yoga, martial arts, weight training, and meditation. In the last 20 years, I have studied the latest in neuroscience and the mind-body connection. I’ve used all this information to live every day less stressed. I put together a twelve-week program to help others do the same. This is how I became a Stress Coach.

 I’ve helped many people to overcome stress - 

• a veteran returning from Iraq who was stuck urinating in bottles in his room at his parents’ house. He now works with various veterans’ groups around the nation
• a recovering alcoholic survivor of an attempted murder-suicide who was too afraid to move forward in life. She is now a full-time caregiver for others.
• a young executive who froze in panic at his front door each morning. He went on his first whitewater rafting trip after just 5 weeks. 

They got past their stress by using the scientifically proven tools in this program. 

You can too.