Have you ever felt like life was just happening to you, leaving you stuck in a cycle of giving to others while losing sight of yourself? What if years of people-pleasing and pushing through left you drained and holding a lot of stress, with no clear sense of what you truly want? And when deep struggles arise, how do you begin to rebuild while still showing up for those who rely on you?
Our bodies hold onto stress, often without us noticing, creating patterns that shape our reactions to financial, professional, and personal challenges. Traditional advice tells us to “just think differently,” but changing your mindset isn’t that simple when your nervous system is wired for stress. Without the right tools, breaking free from these automatic reactions can feel impossible.
For Dr. Laura Collatz, dentistry has always been a part of her life, from her early days filing charts at a family dentist's office to owning her successful practice. Despite facing unimaginable challenges, including complex PTSD, she found healing through neuroscience techniques and laughter yoga. Now a certified laughter yoga instructor, Laura combines her personal experiences with her professional expertise to help other dental professionals to find their inner magic.
In this episode, Laura shares how laughter exercises, NLP techniques, and mindset shifts can reprogram your response to financial stress, anxiety, and even everyday challenges. By creating new neural pathways, you can train your brain to associate money, work, and even dental visits with a sense of ease. Through intentional practice and guidance, you can shift from stress and fear to confidence and joy.
"I have been starting to implement[NLP learnings] just subtle things that I've learned into my conversations with patients and my treatment acceptance is going up because I know how to listen to them differently now. And I know how to respond to them differently now. And that's huge when a patient feels like they're truly heard and they're understood, that's a big chunk of the puzzle." - Laura Collatz
What you will learn from this episode:
04:24 - Shares her journey of overcoming trauma, people-pleasing, and complex PTSD and ultimately finding resilience and joy
09:16 - How her personal breakthrough session with Leslie helped her overcome procrastination, regain motivation, and launch her Laughter Fairy Coaching business
14:55 - Highlighting how gaining confidence in coaching and recording content for her online class has been both challenging and rewarding
17:48 - How the unconscious mind can't distinguish between visualization and reality, emphasizing how mental rehearsal, like that used by Olympic athletes, can rewire the brain for success
20:32 - Explaining the powerful effects of laughter yoga on the brain and body and how intentional laughter helped her overcome stress during vaccinations and emphasizing its ability to boost mood, reduce cortisol, and improve mental clarity
24:32 - How laughter exercises helps rewire the brain’s stress responses and sharing a Mel Robbins-inspired phone hack to reduce screen time
27:46 - Highlighting her work in laughter coaching, motivational speaking, and dentistry, including upcoming talks at major dental conferences
29:03 - NLP and how learning it has transformed the way she communicates with dental patients, increasing treatment acceptance
Connect with Laura Collatz:
Valuable Resources:
Connect With Leslie Thornton:
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