"I really enjoyed reading your book--it was both engaging and informative! The way you incorporated great statistics and strong analogies made complex concepts easy to understand. I especially liked how you used bold lettering for emphasis; it really helped key points stand out. Your discussion on early life stress and its impact on classroom behavior was particularly insightful, and I appreciated the clear definitions throughout. The alarming statistics and detailed explanations of how chronic stress affects brain size and function due to cortisol overproduction were eye-opening. Overall, it was a compelling and well-structured read! My biggest takeaways as an educator were the connections you made between chronic stress and learning disorders, particularly your discussion on page 102. It really reinforced how deeply stress impacts a child's ability to learn. I was also fascinated by the section on how stress in utero affects brain development--I had no idea how early these effects could begin. Another point that stood out to me was on page 92, where you explained that many stressed students struggle with group work, yet so many schools rely on collaborative learning. That really made me think about how classroom structures may unintentionally create challenges for these students."
Robin Dunfee

"Dr. Vince Callahan provides the reader with a cogent and very readable understanding of what the "stressed brain" is. Dr. Vince begins by showing how the brain is supposed to function under normal conditions, and then he shows how it malfunctions when things go bad. And then, he "blows the doors off" of your understanding of that function/malfunction in practical terms. I am an MIT trained engineer, Stanford Medical School and Harvard trained Physician and Surgeon, and I see highly stressed patients all the time, who are often driven to their limits by "pre-surgical anxiety." Because of this outstanding book by Dr. Vince, I now can plot the direction of what my patients are going through and more significantly craft an offer of assistance for the anxiety and even the PTSD that most of them are experiencing. This is a game-changer for my perioperative surgical patients and shows immense potential for improved outcomes.
In short, read this book and keep it in your library if you have any kind of contact with other humans. As a species we are characteristically stressed; armed with Dr. Vince's insights you will be able to deal with people more effectively and cope with what's going on in your own head too. Every human services provider should become versed in Dr. Vince's strategies as they will unquestionably improve your professional capacity.
Finally, if you are a scientist, you will be instinctively drawn into this book, it's a concise, well-written little volume. You will find yourself enjoying the logic and conclusions as if you were reading a mystery novel. But for weeks after you're done you will still be gleaning insights. I'm looking forward to more of this kind of insight and wisdom from Dr. Vince and you will be too."
Lennox Hoyte MD, MSEECS, FPMRS
Tampa, Florida