About the authors

Maxim Haim was born in 1963 in New Zealand, grew up in England and now spends his time between Byron Bay, Australia, and San Francisco. At the age 4 it became clear that Maxim had a big heart and a natural ability to reach out to people, patiently walking home hand in hand with a young girl with a hole in her heart, making sure she got there safely.

Later his desire to learn more about the human mind, about what it is to be a human being and why we do what we do, led him to study Buddhism and lead a monastic lifestyle for 7 years, initially in the UK and later in New Zealand. During this time, listening to many people telling their stories and offering his guidance, he noticed that we all suffer in similar ways. Maxim has also endured life’s corresponding ups and downs: love lost and found, debt and several failed businesses, struggles with self-esteem, poverty consciousness and the daily demands of life as a parent, partner, entrepreneur, employee and friend but today he leads a happy, prosperous and fulfilled life. 

Trained in mental health and specializing in stress and schizophrenia, Maxim has been advocating, coaching and counseling professionally for over 10 years. He has witnessed many wonderful people recover from the strong grip of mental illness, helping them reintegrate into society. Sadly, Maxim saw just as many lose themselves to their state of mind, developing secondary illnesses like depression, anxiety or schizophrenia because they did not have access to intelligent guidance or prompt intervention coupled with the right self help recommendations. Maxim believes that many debilitating mental health problems can easily be avoided by limiting and dealing with stress in our lives. In The Anti Stress Book he and Sandhan outline many useful and simple techniques to appreciate how to do this.

“Stress is a very real and prevalent problem in our lives. Our modern lifestyles and time constraints are literally wearing us out, yet stress is often overlooked as something we should all be able to cope with and handle without any help. It is not difficult to mitigate stress before it becomes serious illness if you follow the right advice.”
 
Having personally faced traumatic experiences, ranging from anxiety to panic attacks and depression, Maxim is pleased to share in offering you words of wisdom, as well as practical and personal advice that you can use and integrate into your life right now, helping you to effect great changes and limit the impact of stress on your daily life.

Sandhan was also born in the UK to migrant parents, and after stints living around the world, has finally settled too in Byron Bay, Australia. Educated at one of England’s premier public schools and later obtaining a degree in French, it was clear that she would never follow a conventional path.
Married at the age of 24, she and her partner settled in the West Country opting to run a small farm where they hoped to live “The Good Life,” but despite seemingly having everything to make them happy, the young couple nevertheless encountered all their demons and when their neighbor offered them a place at a weekend workshop, both of them jumped at the chance. This proved to change the course of their lives, for it was here that they came into contact with the Enlightened Master Osho Rajneesh.

The lure of living a spiritual life made it hard to settle in deepest suburbia, and when the relationship ended, Sandhan and her daughter headed for India and the ashram of Rajneesh. Here, visitors had the opportunity to practise ‘seva’ or worship through work, while also getting the chance to live and meditate in the presence of an enlightened master. At the same time Sandhan took part in many therapy workshops, trainings and courses. Trained in massage, Reiki, Primal de-conditioning, Tantra, Aura Soma colour therapy, Psychic and energy reading, Co-dependency and Women’s Work, Sandhan then worked for several years in the ashram as a therapist and healer.

Having left India, Sandhan then ran a meditation centre in the South of France, working closely with people for over 10 years using a mixture of modalities and helping them overcome all sorts of issues, ranging from stress reduction to depression and low self esteem.  Nevertheless there was a time when the French dream also came to an end, marking the beginning of a new phase in Sandhan’s life. In 2001 she moved to Australia, joining her mother and many old friends. Years before she came across the work of Tony Robbins, the peak performance coach and having participated in her first Robbins event, was instantly hooked.  Tony’s forte is clarifying why people do what they do and helping them transform if what they are doing is not working.
Since then Sandhan has completed all of Tony’s Mastery University and Leadership coaching programs where she learned to artfully help create lasting change in people’s lives, whatever the issues and has been coaching people ever since. She is also a Oneness (Deeksha) Blessing giver, offering Blessings worldwide.

She brings all her expertise and love for her fellow men (and women) to The Stress Book.  “In my opinion too many people are suffering from preventable and needless emotional trauma and stress because they are unaware of the simple precautions and techniques they can use to keep their Mind, Body and Spirit in harmony. Our aim is to show you straightforward and relatively easy practices you can use right now to look and feel GREAT!”