Most stress management advice is surface-level at best. It might help you feel better for a moment, but it doesn't reduce how often you're stressed or how intensely the stress hits. And here's what most people don't realize: chronic stress fundamentally changes you. It changes how you think, decide, engage with others, how you see yourself, and how others see you––to say nothing of the health impacts that can be long-lasting.

Stress and the emotions it causes are also contagious, meaning your stress increases the stress of those around you even if you don’t realize it. And there’s can come back at you just as quickly, trapping you all in a negative spiral.

In this interactive session, organizational behavior specialist Dr. Rachel Boehm shows you how to get at stress at the root using Science-Backed, People-Proven® strategies. You'll learn why stress compounds, how it alters your performance and presence, and most importantly, how to reduce its frequency and intensity instead of just slapping Band-Aids on it.

While others stay stuck in the spiral, you'll learn how to get out of it. That's the strategic advantage. For CPAs navigating constant pressure, tight deadlines, and high-stakes decisions, this isn't a nice-to-have skill. It's essential for sustainable high performance, career longevity, and health.

Key Takeaways:

Participants will be able to:

· Recognize how chronic stress changes their thinking, decision-making, and impact on others, and apply a framework to interrupt the cycle at the root.

· Identify the specific thoughts and beliefs that amplify stress responses and replace them with more accurate perspectives that reduce intensity and duration.

· Use evidence-based techniques to prevent stress from cascading to colleagues and clients while maintaining clarity and performance under pressure.

Hosted by the IGNITE Conference & The Virginia Society of CPAs