Priscilla Partridge de Garcia Celebrating the varied interests of women is the goal of Women's Expo Ventura County, March 13 to 15 at Seaside Park in Ventura.

"It's not just about her being a professional or a mom," organizer Beth Sutherland said. "It's about her being a woman. . . . There are so many hats that a woman wears. That's the purpose of Women's Expo—to celebrate all that she is."

As many as 3,000 women are expected to attend the first event of its kind in Ventura County, Sutherland said. She hopes women will come away feeling confident and inspired.

"It's really totally worth it," she said.

The three-day expo will feature a variety of workshops, including business, finance, fashion and relationships. Speakers will include a Cal Lutheran University professor of finance discussing the relationship between women and money, and a former model explaining how to dress and feel like a supermodel.

Psychologist Priscilla Partridge de Garcia will present "A Nervous Breakdown is Not for You."

Prolonged stress causes toxins to be released in the body, Partridge de Garcia said; it reduces the circulation of air, water and food in the body and leads to physical ailments—headaches and backaches in the short term and immunodeficiency illnesses, such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, in the long term.

The key to controlling stress is to control the mind through regular exercise and positive thinking, Partridge de Garcia said. For inspiration, she recommends reading Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." The Nazi concentration camp survivor teaches how the power of the mind can help someone to survive the most dire of circumstances, she said.

"How many of us are in (figurative) concentration camps right now," she said. "You must fight back. The battlefield is the mind, and your mind is either in fear or peace—(it) can't be in both at the same time."

Partridge de Garcia practiced psychology for many years in Ventura County and has taught at Cal Lutheran University, headed the student reentry center at Oxnard College, hosted a radio and cable TV show, and written a newspaper column and parenting book. She moved to Tennessee with her husband in 2000.

Partridge de Garcia maintained a practice in Tennessee and Ventura County during the past eight years. The couple recently moved back to Camarillo.

For more information about the expo, call Beth Sutherland at (805) 861-8341 or visit www .womensexpovc.net.