The Off-Switch Method
When a reaction does not switch off by itself
Anxiety you can explain. A yes when you meant no. Work you cannot put down, even when you are exhausted.
Learn a physical technique you can use yourself, with Ugis guiding the work.
The person you work with
Ugis Strauss, founder of the Off-Switch Method
I’ve worked privately with people for more than 15 years. I teach you a physical technique, guide what you work on and help you check what changes in the conversations, decisions and ordinary days that brought you here.
Meet Ugis →In ordinary life
Everyday situations affected by anxiety and automatic reactions
The conversation
You know you want to say no. Then you hear yourself agreeing.
What you want
Say what you mean while the other person is still there.
The end of the day
The laptop is shut. The working day carries on in your head.
What you want
Rest without feeling you should be doing something.
The journey
You want to go. Just picturing the journey starts the fear.
What you want
Make the journey you wanted to make.
We work with a specific memory, sensation or anxious thought and check how the response changes. Then comes the test that matters: what happens when you speak to that person, stop work or return to the place you have been avoiding?
Find the situation that fits yours →Individual case records
What changed outside the meetings
Driving again after panic had restricted his journeys
Completed journeys over 90 days
15100200miles
One client went from a driving limit of roughly five miles beyond the city to completed 15-, 100- and 200-mile journeys over 90 days.
Individual case · Client-maintained symptom tracker
Read the driving case →How a senior leader reduced her working hours without reducing output
A senior leader made room for recovery without reducing her net output. Sleep and capacity for work returned while the pressures outside work continued.
Individual case · Practitioner record, no formal tracker
Read her case →Work with Ugis
Choose private sessions, a group programme or organisational work
Private meetings built around you, or a shared programme you apply to your own life. In both, I lead the meetings and you practise between them.
Private 1:1
Private 1:1 work with Ugis
We work directly on your situation. What happens between sessions helps me choose what we do next, how deeply and in what order.
12 private sessions · 3–4 months
Group with Ugis
The Off-Switch group programme
I take a small group through a shared sequence. You apply the method to your own memories, worries and reactions.
12 weekly meetings · 12 weeks
Next group planned for January 2027.
For your organisation
For teams facing sustained pressure, crisis exposure or burnout risk. People may still be delivering while sleep, recovery and decision-making are becoming harder.
How the method works
What you do, and how I guide it
You learn the main technique in the first session and practise it daily between meetings. I guide you through three phases, checking that each is substantially complete before we move to the next.
Regulate
Start with the stress, overload and body tension you are carrying now. Learn the technique you can use yourself, so the work is not confined to the time we spend in a meeting.
Repattern
Work through your emotional history across all areas of life, not only the problem that first brought you here. This includes two months of structured daily practice and work on how you see your future.
Integrate
Put the change into your conversations, decisions and daily life. Address the habits and practical arrangements that still need to change. The aim is to finish the work without needing me to keep it going.
Field evidence
Ukraine, 2022: help while the war continued
In March 2022, the Off-Switch Method was delivered as a free crisis-response programme for Ukrainians experiencing active war trauma. More than 7,000 people enrolled; 80% were inside Ukraine during active hostilities. The method was developed over 30 years of clinical and institutional practice. The war was still going on.
7,000+
participants enrolled
80%
inside Ukraine during active hostilities
42–60%
average PTSD symptom reduction in measured cohorts
sustained
at one-month follow-up where measured
Results reflect completing participants in the measured cohorts. Pre/post field evidence across multiple cohorts, not a randomized controlled trial.
“Panic attacks I had suffered from for more than 40 years disappeared. Not a single doctor had been able to help me with this.”— Nargiz Huseynzade
You do not need a polished explanation.
Start with a conversation
45 minutes. You describe your situation and what you’ve already tried. I explain what the work would involve, and we consider whether it makes sense for you.
Want to read more first? Read the evidence first →