QUIET AWAKENING

Mindfulness-Based Relaxation Training for Stress, Anxiety, and Emotional Resilience

At the heart of Quiet Awakening is the systematic use of research-based relaxation and visualization techniques designed to calm your nervous system and guide you gently from a state of hyperarousal, vigilance, and distress into a state of emotional safety and internal balance. You will learn these techniques by listening to recordings created by Dr. Rozantine, which gently guide you into a state of deep relaxation. These guided visualizations help you manage your emotions, increase self-awareness, and promote self-reflection and personal growth. The state of quiet awareness allows you to access parts of yourself that have become buried under the stress and strain created by the demands of modern life.  With regular practice, you will benefit physically by reaching a state of deep relaxation and calm.  You will also become aware of your internal landscape, which increase clarity, self-compassion, emotional stability, and resilience.

The Origin of Quiet Awakening

From the beginning of her career, Dr. Rozantine was interested in how emotions impact physical health.   Early in her training, she was introduced to relaxation training in one of her graduate courses.  She was impressed by the difference the training made in her ability to focus and to cope with the demands of graduate school. 

Dr. Rozantine’s dissertation research included working with women with cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, which are two major health concerns among women.  As she worked on her dissertation, she learned about the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), which is the scientific study of the relationship between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, brain activity, and immune responses.  PNI research helped her understand how long-term stress affects the immune system and contributes significantly to the development and progression of physical illness.

During her post-doctoral and fellowship training, Dr. Rozantine worked extensively with combat veterans at Veterans Administration hospitals and outpatient clinics. Many of the veterans suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, serious physical illness, and chronic pain.  Her training included conducting biofeedback sessions, during which patients were guided through exercises using monitoring equipment and computers to increase body awareness and teach patients deep breathing, mindfulness, and visualization techniques.  She also taught her patients how to use the self-regulation techniques at home to manage their symptoms of anxiety, hypertension, or headaches.

Based on the years of research, training, and clinical experience, Dr. Rozantine developed the Quiet Awakening model, which she used at The Center for Health and Well-Being in Savannah, Georgia.  Dr. Rozantine believed that everyone who came to see her for therapy would be experiencing stress, which would not only be affecting them mentally and emotionally, but could also be causing physical symptoms. She believed that teaching relaxation training would not only provide relief but would also enhance her patients’ work in therapy.  She decided to record not only relaxation exercises, but to write and record other scripts for patient wanting to focus on deeper issues like self-esteem, inner child work, relationship issues, and insomnia.

The Center for Health and Well-Being opened in Savannah, Georgia, in 2000.

Dr. Rozantine had a vision for creating a peaceful environment for her patients and, working with an architect and contractor, designed an office that embodied her vision.  When a patient opened the door to the Center, they entered a two-story lobby with ponds and waterfalls on either side of the room. To their left was a freshwater koi pond with large koi and waterlilies.   To the right was saltwater pond with smaller fish.  The Center was filled with soothing sounds of water flowing down waterfalls and the calming scents of aromatherapy.

At the end of their intake session, Dr. Rozantine introduced patients to the therapeutic process she had developed, which would consist of 8 weekly sessions of relaxation training before each therapy session. After the first 8 weeks, they could choose to continue to listen to the relaxation training or they could choose another series of recordings that focused on another area of interest. 

Starting with the second session, a staff member would take the patient to specially designed sound-proofed relaxation rooms that provided the optimal environment for learning relaxation techniques. The patients was seated comfortably in a recliner and the lighting was carefully adjusted to create a sense of safety and calm.  They chose the nature sound they preferred --- ocean, rain, or mountain stream --- and then would spend approximately thirty minutes listening to one of Dr. Rozantine’s recordings, allowing their minds and bodies to enter a deeply relaxed and restorative state. 

After the relaxation training, they would then be seen for their therapy session. These sessions became an integral part of treatment, preparing the patient to be more receptive to therapeutic work and enhancing the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Over time, patients recognized that the training they were receiving could extend beyond the office and began to request recordings they could use at home. In response, Dr. Rozantine created a series of professionally produced recordings, which she named the Mother Nature Series, which used calming nature sounds blended with guided imagery to deepen the experience of internal stillness and healing.