Gary Sprouse MD

Dr. Gary Sprouse – the Less Stress Doc – is extremely passionate about bringing happiness into people’s lives through humor, compassion and understanding. He helps people have less stress, feel happier and more fulfilled, and be more productive through innovative tools he developed to reduce stress, worry, guilt and regret.

Dr. Sprouse has a unique perspective on stress that no one else is talking about. He has uncovered a groundbreaking new way to define where the majority of human stress originates. This new insight and the tools he developed to deal with stress are changing lives.

Dr. Sprouse is a retired primary care physician who retired from private practice in Maryland after 38 years. He now spends his time working with clients to help alleviate the stress in their lives with the goal of living in their Happy Place. He graduated from George Washington University Medical School in the top 10% of his class and is a member of Mensa. He has become a holistic doctor where he can address physical and psychological needs of the people he works with in his effort to help people live in their Happy Place. He has been certified in hypnosis and NeuroLinguistic Programming, a tool he uses to help people adjust their perspectives and reframe their past to improve their future.

He has taken everything he has learned from hundreds of books, attending seminars, talking to thought leaders and crafted his award-winning book, Highway to Your Happy Place: A Roadmap to Less Stress. In this book, Dr Sprouse outlines the components of a Happy Place that are common to everyone. This gives the reader a destination to reach. Then he delves into 6 of the major stresses that humans have that keep them from living in their Happy Place. He redefines worry, guilt, regret, boredom, self-esteem and being overwhelmed and then gives practical tools that can be implemented immediately to reduce or eliminate the stress caused by these issues. He has written the book so that the reader can have a positive change even if they only have time to read one chapter.

Best-selling author and motivational speaker Jack Canfield reviewed the book and said: “In the span of getting to know Dr. Gary Sprouse and reading his book, I have been introduced to many new concepts and ideas. His ideas and models for stress reduction are life-changing. You will absolutely love this. A must-read.”

Awards he has earned for this book include:
Gold: National Indie Excellence® Awards
Gold: Independent Publisher Book Awards
Gold: Goody Business Book Awards
Bronze: Stevie® Award (book and e-book)
Finalist: Eric Hoffer Da Vinci Eye Award for superior cover artwork

Dr. Sprouse also collaborated on a Number One Bestselling, award-winning book with Jack Canfield. The new book, Mindset Matters, became a best-seller on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In this book, along with 29 other authors, he explores some of his own stresses and how his mindset made the difference in how he was able to continue to function and help his patients despite the pressure he was under from multiple sources of stress. His chapter in the book is a testament to the effectiveness of the stress reduction techniques that Dr. Sprouse uses to help his current clients.

Awards for this book:
Quilly® Award for contribution to Mindset Matters

Dr. Sprouse started a podcast, Happiness Highway, in 2025. He interviewed multiple guests with his wife as his co-host. The show was successful in bringing stress-reducing information to a new audience in a format that many people find popular. His podcast won an Expy award. The podcast is currently paused while Dr. Sprouse is busy helping clients in other ways.

Awards for podcast:
Visible Voice Expy for Happiness Highway podcast

Dr. Sprouse is currently recording a radio show, 5 Minutes to Health and Happiness, for a local radio station. He offers insight and advice in a 5-minute chunk to help the audience have less stress and more health.

Dr. Sprouse was recently honored by the Stevie Business Awards. Out of 3,800 applicants from around the world, he was chosen for a Silver Medal for Lifetime Achievement International Business Award. This prestigious award was given for his long-term commitment to his community. He developed the first multi-professional clinic and the first walk-in center in his area to bring healthcare services to the people in his rural community. He and his wife renovated a 120-year-old hotel that had fallen into disrepair and repurposed it to be a model for sober living houses to help patients with addictions to transition back to their everyday lives. He also developed a new model for addiction, The Stress Reducer Loop model, that he successfully used to treat over 100 patients with heroin addiction with a 95% success rate.

Award for lifetime achievement:
Silver: Stevie® Lifetime Achievement International Business Award

In his lifetime effort to help people have a happy and healthier life, Dr. Sprouse is currently writing two more books, Highway to Your Happy Place, Mile Marker 2 and a book describing his new approach to addiction called New Outcomes, The Stress Reducer Loop. He continues to see clients that are in need of his help to handle their stresses. Dr. Sprouse appears on numerous podcasts and speaking engagements to share his stress-reducing message with as many people as possible.