Jessica Laubscher Clinical Psychologist

10/10/2025

Today is Mental Health Awareness Day
Let me introduce our inspiring multidisciplinary team in Kroonstad💚🤍

25/09/2025

Earth school is for the brave

24/09/2025

For years, I thought my anxiety was a moral failing. A weakness of character. The frantic heartbeat before a presentation, the 3 AM wake-ups replaying a awkward conversation, the tight knot in my stomach on a Sunday night—I thought it was just because I wasn’t trying hard enough to be calm. I’d take a deep breath, tell myself to “just relax,” and feel like a double failure when it didn’t work. My body felt like a traitor, constantly sounding alarms for threats that didn’t exist.

My doctor, after my third visit for mystery stomach pains and insomnia, asked a simple question: “How’s your stress?” I gave him the standard answer. “Oh, you know. Normal. Busy.” He didn’t push. He just nodded and said, “You might find this interesting,” and scribbled a title on a prescription pad. It wasn’t for a pill. It was for a book: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping by Robert M. Sapolsky.

The title alone hooked me. It was weird, specific, and felt like a riddle I needed to solve.

I expected a dry medical textbook. What I got was one of the most fascinating, laugh-out-loud funny, and profoundly life-changing books I’ve ever read. Robert Sapolsky, a world-renowned neuroscientist and primatologist, writes with the wit of a stand-up comedian and the wisdom of your favorite professor. He doesn’t just describe stress; he takes you on a wild tour through its entire biological carnival.

The central metaphor is genius: A zebra running from a lion is under immense stress. Its heart pounds, its hormones surge, its body redirects all energy to survival. But once the chase is over—whether it gets away or gets eaten—the stress response turns off. The zebra doesn’t stay up all night worrying about the lion that might come back tomorrow. It doesn’t get an ulcer.

So why do we?

Sapolsky’s brilliant answer is that humans have developed the incredible ability to turn on the same life-saving stress response by just thinking. We can trigger a physiological cascade of cortisol and adrenaline by vividly imagining a future deadline, ruminating on a past slight, or watching the news. Our bodies can’t tell the difference between a real lion and an angry email. We are constantly being chased by predators made of thought.

Reading this was a revelation that felt like a pardon. My anxiety wasn't a character flaw. It was a perfectly normal, ancient biological system being activated by a modern world it was never designed for. The knot in my stomach wasn't a sign of weakness; it was my body trying to save me from a PowerPoint presentation.

But Sapolsky doesn’t leave you there. This book is also a practical guide to taming the beast. He explains, in glorious, accessible detail, how chronic stress ravages our bodies—from our digestive systems to our brains to our hearts—and then provides the scientific backing for how to fight back.

This book changed my relationship with my own mind and body. I stopped fighting my stress and started managing it. I started going for a walk after a stressful meeting instead of just sitting and stewing in it. I began to prioritize sleep not as a luxury, but as a non-negotiable biological necessity for resetting my stress systems.

It didn’t make the stressors of life disappear. But it gave me the tools to stop my body from reacting to a spreadsheet like it was a sabertooth tiger. I learned to thank my stress response for trying to protect me, and then gently tell it, “It’s okay. I’ve got this. There’s no lion here.”

If you have ever felt your body betray you with worry, if you’ve ever been told to “just relax” and wanted to scream, if you want to understand the incredible, messy, biological masterpiece that is your body under pressure, please read this book. It is the smartest, most entertaining, and most empowering book on stress ever written. It won’t just change your mind; it might just save your life.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/4o17SzV

You can also get the audio book for FREE using the same link. Use the link to register for the audio book on Audible and start enjoying it.

10/09/2025

The privilege of a lifetime is to become
who you truly are.
- Carl Gistav Jung

19/08/2025

I picked up this book partly out of curiosity and partly out of a secret hope, it’s not every day you find a guide that promises to crack open the door to unconventional, passion-fueled careers. Jo Stewart delivers exactly that: a refreshing, fun, and surprisingly practical catalog of jobs that make you rethink the tired “safe” career advice we’ve been fed.

The tone is playful, but it’s not just fluff. Each career profile tells you what the job actually involves, the skills you’ll need, how to get started, and even what the lifestyle looks like. It’s a mix of eye-opening (“Wait, that’s a real job?”) and motivational (“Maybe I could do that”). From ethical hackers to ice cream flavor developers, travel Instagrammers to ethical fashion designers, Stewart proves that work doesn’t have to be soul-sucking to be sustainable.

This is the kind of book that sparks conversations, stirs dormant dreams, and reminds you there’s a whole world of possibilities outside the 9-to-5 cubicle box. It’s less about saying “quit your job tomorrow” and more about expanding your vision for what’s possible and then giving you a realistic picture of what it takes.

Lessons from the Book:

1. The World is Full of Jobs You’ve Never Heard Of
Your dream career might exist already, you just don’t know its name yet. Research, curiosity, and networking can uncover hidden opportunities.

2. Creativity Can Pay, If You Treat It Like a Business
Many “fun” careers still require discipline, planning, and marketing yourself effectively. Passion alone isn’t enough, you need strategy.

3. Lifestyle Fit Matters as Much as Job Fit
Stewart encourages you to think about what your days would actually look like in a given role, not just the exciting parts.

4. Unconventional Doesn’t Mean Unstable
Many niche careers are financially viable if you learn how to package your skills and find the right clients or employers.

5. Networking and Visibility Are Key
In creative and unusual fields, getting noticed can matter as much as the work itself, your brand, portfolio, and online presence open doors.

6. Skills Can Transfer Across Industries
You don’t always have to start from scratch, many people transition into unconventional careers using skills they already have, reframed in a new way.

7. Curiosity is a Career Superpower
Staying curious, experimenting, and exploring new skills will keep your options open and your work life vibrant.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/46Sgxzc

You can also get the Audio book for FREE using the same link. Use the link to register for the Audio book on Audible and start enjoying it.

06/05/2025

Meditative…

22/02/2025

“We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.” -Rumi

06/01/2025

Such a lovely way to kick off a new cycle💫 with my favourite yoga teacher(s): Adriene🧘🏻‍♀️& Benji🐶

This year she offers 7 days of guided holistic yoga practice that takes a therapeutic approach to physical strength, joint health, nervous system resilience, and mental wellness. The primary focus is on the breath.

It’s an invitation to tap in. Listen. Align. And bring movement to stagnant places within.

Okay you made it to the beginning, if you are reading this you are in the right place. X marks the spot. You Are Here. This session is a soft hand reaching o...

18/12/2024

First, love yourself🤍

Do you love Me? Alice asked.
No, I don't love you! replied the White Rabbit.
Alice frowned and clasped her hands together as she did whenever she felt hurt.
See? replied the White Rabbit.
Now you're going to start asking yourself what makes you so imperfect and what did you do wrong so that I can't love you at least a little.
You know, that's why I can't love you.
You will not always be loved Alice, there will be days when others will be tired and bored with life, will have their heads in the clouds, and will hurt you.
Because people are like that, they somehow always end up hurting each other's feelings, whether through carelessness, misunderstanding, or conflicts with themselves.
If you don't love yourself, at least a little, if you don't create an armor of self-love and happiness around your heart, the feeble annoyances caused by others will become lethal and will destroy you.
The first time I saw you I made a pact with myself: "I will avoid loving you until you learn to love yourself."
From ‘Alice in Wonderland’

21/10/2024

Chemo brain🧠

Jy het nie jou laaste varkie verloor as jy ná chemo sukkel om te lees en dinge vergeet nie. Dit bestaan! Herstel só gouer van chemobrein

16/09/2024

Kroonstad Community📢: Free information session

You can look forward to learning more about Alzheimer’s Disease from the following multi-disciplinary team members:
🔸Janine Oelofse - Social Worker
🔸Nicolé du Plessis - Dietitian
🔸Lizel Hansen - Biokineticist
🔸Jessica Laubscher - Clinical Psychologist
🔸Ronel Aucamp - Registered Nurse, Netcare Kroon Hospital
🔸Louise Liebenberg - Occupational Therapist

Kindly RSVP to: Jessica, jesslaubscher88@gmail.com

20/08/2024

Author's note: A playful love poem to Death, because I want to remember to relate to it as a part of life, and in ways that exist outside of violence and brutality. 🦋

Death asked me to join him for dinner
so I slipped into my favorite black dress
that I had been saving for a special occasion
and let him walk me to our candlelit tryst.
He ordered a ribeye, extra rare
I ordered two desserts and red wine
and then I sipped
and wondered
why he looked so familiar
and smelled like earth and memory.
He felt like a place both faraway
and deep within my body
A place that whispers to me
on the crisp autumn breeze
along the liminal edges of dusk and dawn
somewhere between dancing
and stillness.
He looked at me
with the endless night sky in his eyes
and asked
‘Did you live your life, my love?’
As I swirled my wine in its glass
I wondered If I understood the thread I wove into the greater fabric
If I loved in a way that was deep and freeing
If I let pain and grief carve me into something more grateful
If I made enough space to be in awe that flowers exist
and take the time to watch the honeybees
drink their sweet nectar
I wondered what the riddles of regret and longing
had taught me
and if I realized just how
beautiful and insignificant and monstrous and small we are
for the brief moment that we are here
before we all melt back down
into ancestors of the land.
Death watched me lick buttercream from my fingers
As he leaned in close and said
‘My darling, it’s time.’
So I slipped my hand into his
as he slowly walked me home.
I took a deep breath as he leaned in close
for the long kiss goodnight
and I felt a soft laugh leave my lips
as his mouth met mine
because I never could resist a man
with the lust for my soul in his eyes
and a kiss that makes my heart stop.

~ Gina Puorro
Author's note: A playful love poem to Death, because I want to remember to relate to it as a part of life, and in ways that exist outside of violence and brutality.

[Photo: Kurt Markus for Vogue]