We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Patching-Bunch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my working life is to quit early. Growing up I was taught that quitting was unexceptable under any circumstance, it was shameful.

Working in academia The idea of quitting is met with a feeling that you just can’t handle it, you’re not cut out for it.

When I decided to quit my first job in a research lab It was a difficult decision, I had so many worries, there was nothing but uncertainty if I chose to leave the path I’d been following for the last 7 years what else could I possibly do and what did it mean about me if I didn’t leave with the letters I’d been wanting to collect after my name? Who was I without the validation of higher education?

Now I understand with every new experience there is nothing but uncertainty because you’ve never been there before, while uncertainty is absolutely uncomfortable, it holds endless possibilities.

Quitting something that doesn’t serve you is best done early. Finding out what you don’t want is incredibly valuable and the only way to do that is try something and then leave it behind if it’s not the right fit. Rather than staying in a place where you’re miserable because you think you should, choose to move on taking the lessons from that experience to inform the next steps.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hello! I’m Jessica Patching-Bunch, I like JPB for short. I am a stress resilience coach on a mission to change the way we understand and approach mental health.

After working in neurodevelopmental research, speaking with the Neuroscience Caucus at the House
of Representatives in D.C, presenting at The Society for Neuroscience Conference, and dozens of schools around the country, I learned that wider communication of the ideas shared in these settings is lacking.

I am here to let my knowledge and experience serve more than the small circle of academia. Brain-Body Resilience was born from my own experience with stress related illness and frustration after recommendations from doctors to “just have less stress” along with my academic knowledge of the brain-body connection.

I work with individuals, small businesses and larger organizations as a coach/facilitator, speaker, and subject matter expert on Nervous System Hygiene (my method of nervous system education, care, and regulation)

Brain-Body Resilience is a brain-based approach to stress management focusing on serving high achieving women in learning to understand and navigate the nervous system and create a better relationship with your physiology so you can stop living like managing stress and anxiety are a full time job.

With a recent survey from the American Psychological Survey (2022) showing that up to 87% of Americans have alarming rates of stress due to increasing uncertainty from the ongoing pandemic and heightened geopolitical tensions contributing to everything from weight gain, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, high blood pressure and immune issues, Now is the time to
act on stress management.

Ultimately life is better when we feel better and getting out of chronic survival mode is key to having the energy to spend on higher level activities of creativity, producing your best, and creating joy and fulfillment both inside and outside of your work life.

Working remotely and holding training sessions virtually allows me to connect with people all over over the world as well as my local space in the Pacific NorthWest region of the U.S.

My commitment to you is to share science backed stress and anxiety interventions to help you learn to build a better relationship with your brain and body and the daily stress you face so you can get out of survival mode
and into living your best life.

The current systems we have in place to address mental health care are not working. A company may offer a crisis line or counseling sessions through an EAP that are underutilized.

Stress is the number one contributor to both mental and physical illness and yet we don’t have solid interventions in place to help assist in this crisis.

I am passionate about changing the stigma we have around caring for our mental and physical health and learning the power we have to participate in creating our own wellbeing.

The first step is to learn how we work as humans, to cultivate understanding of how your brain and body work. We can’t manage or regulate something we don’t understand including ourselves.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I quit my job in Neurodevelopmental research to start my own business in December 2019 and held my first in person events in February of 2020… and the world shut down just a few weeks later in March.

I decided to pivot on line like most people did at that time. I had no idea how I was going to do online business, I wasn’t comfortable in front of the camera, I didn’t use social media much at all.

Now I look back at the frustration of the learning curve and the uncertainty and I’m grateful to have chosen to continue. Having a business that operates online lends to a larger reach. I have now worked with and presented for people all over the world that I would have never had the opportunity to connect with in my geographical location.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The most important lesson I have unlearned is learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression, anxiety and PTST can result from a perceived lack of control over the events in one’s life, which may result from prior exposure to (actually or apparently) uncontrollable negative events.

Learned helplessness typically manifests as a lack of self-esteem, low motivation, a lack of persistence, the conviction of being inept, and ultimately failure. It is more common for people who have experienced repeated traumatic events such as childhood neglect and abuse or domestic violence … in these situations where there is chronic stress that is unavoidable and we aren’t able to do anything in that moment.

As a young child growing up in violent and abusive environments I learned that I had no control over my own safety or experience.

Unlearning this through years of learning about how the brain and body work, and therapy, are a major inspiration for my company Brain-Body Resilience. When you understand and put into practice the ways in which you have autonomy to choose, your whole life can change.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brain-bodyresilience.com
• Instagram: @jpb.brainbodyresilience
• Linkedin: Jessica Patching-Bunch

Image Credits
Kiana Taylor Photography Erin Belisle Photography