Stress Management Counselling

Stress management counselling. People experience stress from time to time and for varying reasons. Stress is quite common these days because people have to figure out ways to combine daily life activities, such as maintaining the home, family, etc with work routines which can be hectic sometimes and stress can get out of hand if a person does not learn to create some balance.

Stress management counselling has proven useful to people who find themselves constantly under a lot of stress and having difficulty managing their daily activities such that they now feel overwhelmed. There are many situations which can be considered to be stressful such as the loss of a job, having a baby, etc and it is important for people to seek help when overwhelmed.

Stress management counselling uses cognitive behavioural therapy to help people develop better ways to manage stressful situations because it offers a safe space for people to let out negative thoughts or feelings that may be the root cause of the stress they may be experiencing. Talking to a professional can be really helpful when looking for ways to deal with stress.

Too much stress can be damaging to people’s health and can make them resort to unhealthy means of coping. Stress management counselling helps people develop healthier ways to cope with stressful situations and manage them because letting them get out of hand can lead to more serious problems which can affect a person’s mental health, behaviour and emotional state.

Coping Strategies

Coping strategies. There are so many things that can cause stress in our daily lives which can range from experiencing loss, and trauma to having a baby, preparing for a wedding and so on and many people often resort to unhealthy ways to deal with the stressful situations they may find themselves. We will discuss some healthy ways to cope with stress briefly.

Many people find that stressful situations make it harder for them to sleep, and manage their emotions and sometimes they may develop eating disorders as a result. Let us look at some coping strategies that may be helpful when dealing with high levels of stress.

1. Practice Calming Strategies.

During stress management counselling, your counsellor or therapist will teach you some important calming strategies to help you better cope with stressful situations. Examples are:

• Finding a quiet place, breathing in deeply, holding for at least five seconds and then exhaling slowly, which can help slow down your racing heartbeat.
• Meditation and yoga
• Listening to some soft music while sitting in nature
• Practice progressive muscle relaxation.

2. Practice Emotion-focused Coping Strategies

In this strategy, your counsellor will help you cultivate or improve your level of optimism so that you can see stressful situations as challenges and not threats, especially in situations which you have no control over. Some examples you will learn during stress management counselling are;

• Maintaining a sense of humour and optimism
• Engage in activities you love
• Write a journal about your emotions
• Spend time with people who trigger happiness

3. Practice Solution-focused Coping Strategies

This is very effective in relieving stress, especially in situations in which there is nothing you could have done to change. Focusing on a possible solution can help you feel more relaxed as many times, as a little effort to change things can help you feel more relaxed and uplift your mood. An example is using problem-solving skills to tackle stressors.

Anxiety

Anxiety. This is often considered to be the body’s default reaction to stressful situations. It is, however, very important to manage it because it has the power to interrupt your day and make it difficult to get through. It can cause sweaty palms, nervousness, intense fear, rapid heartbeat, panic and many times shaking.

Research shows that everyone experiences some level of anxiety in their everyday lives because there are many factors that cause stress. People with high levels of anxiousness can manage it through stress management counselling because if left unchecked, can become worsened and may become a mental disorder.

Feeling anxious can be normal as there are several situations which can make one feel that way such as attending a job interview, having a baby, etc, but when a person finds that they constantly feel anxious which may be born from irrational thoughts, they may have an anxiety disorder which will require them to sit with a therapist to help them overcome the source of the fear.

Anxiety disorders can greatly affect a person’s daily life and relationships. It is a mental health disorder that can make people respond to certain situations with excessive fear and panic. People often require cognitive behaviour therapy and medications to deal with and overcome it so they have a better life and build stronger relationships.

Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation techniques. When going through stressful situations rather than using unhealthy coping mechanisms, there are some techniques that can promote relaxation for you when you experience stress or if your daily routine causes you to be stressed often. We will look at some techniques that can help you better cope with stress.

Some relaxation techniques which your counsellor will help you learn to help you reduce the amount of stress you feel. They include;

• Breathing Exercises

This is one of the easiest to practice because it helps you focus on your breathing. Taking deep inhales through your nose and exhales through your mouth is one of the breathing exercises you may learn during stress management counselling as it has a positive effect on stress levels and the heart, slowing down rapid heartbeats and helping you feel relaxed.

• Mindfulness and Meditation

This is one of the relaxation techniques that help you focus on the present; bringing your awareness to the happenings around you or on a single object such as a candle flame which is called mantra meditation. It requires constant practice to perfect because your mind may wander but with time, you will perfect it.

• Autogenic Training

This technique helps to create feelings of physical and emotional calmness by focusing on feeling warmth and heaviness in different parts of the body and repeating pleasant words. During stress management counselling, your counsellor combines it with guided imagery and breathing exercises, to help you reduce stress and slow down a rapid heartbeat.

There are other relaxation techniques that can help reduce the high-stress level and make you more relaxed such as; Yoga, massage therapy, music therapy, Tai chi, exercise, etc.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness. Wikipedia says, “it is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training”. It is the ability to be fully present, it involves being aware of where you are and what you are doing in order to reduce the overwhelming feeling of the happenings around you.

Mindfulness is a form of meditation which involves being focused on being aware of your feelings and emotions. It is the awareness that comes from purposely paying attention to the present moment without judging. Practising mindfulness means involves breathing exercises and guided imagery to help reduce stress in order to relax your mind and body.

Mindfulness exercises can help take away your attention from situations that cause you to feel depressed, stressed or anxious and appreciate the world around you better. This practice can help you create more balance in life and reduce the amount of stress you may be experiencing, live in the moment and take things one day at a time.

Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation. Everyone feels different types of emotions daily, both positive and negative ones and creating a balance in these emotions such that they do not negatively affect our daily lives is important. A lot of people struggle with regulating their emotions, including people with borderline personality disorder and they often require help to address it.

Emotional regulation can be more difficult for some than it is for others. This can be affected by painful past experiences people had as children including abuse, trauma, and not being taught how to manage or show emotions and this can be identified in stress management counselling by a counsellor in order to help you improve and learn better ways to manage your emotions.

Emotional regulation is the ability of a person to enhance or reduce their emotions as needed which is necessary for people to keep their emotional health and system in a functional and healthy state. Regulating your emotions is highly important in different settings because there are things that may provoke you to anger and being able to manage your emotions will be important.

Emotions naturally fluctuate throughout the day because they are not fixed and are dependent on our experiences which is why emotional regulation is important because it helps you regulate your feelings and reactions to situations whether negative or positive.

Self-care

Self-care. This is often mistaken for being selfish or self-indulging and is totally different from these terms because it involves taking care of oneself in order to be healthy, happy and able to foster better relationships with other people. Taking care of oneself is highly important to be able to function optimally in other areas of one’s life.

Self-care is highly crucial and important to different areas of a person’s life including mental health. It involves exercising, eating healthy, having positive thoughts, maintaining good hygiene and nutrition and taking care of their mental health and other aspects of health. Self-care means that a person prioritises their health including physical and mental and their overall well-being.

During stress management counselling, counsellors will help people focus more on self-care because it is highly important for them to be able to function better in other aspects of their life. People can only give as much as they have and when a person does not care for themselves enough, they will have difficulty caring for others.

Therapy

Therapy. This is a medical treatment that is used to remediate a health issue mostly following a medical diagnosis. It is effective in dealing with several kinds of illnesses including physical, emotional and psychological and could be in form of stress management counselling that will help people suffering from elevated stress levels, anxiety, emotional difficulties or depression.

Going for therapy may be the biggest and most rewarding decision a person can make when looking to heal themselves from disturbing behaviours, relationship problems, emotional difficulties, beliefs and other issues because it can help them not only heal but also become the best and healthiest version of themselves and have a happier life.

The major type of therapy used to treat depression, anxiety, and stress is called psychotherapy and there are different types recommended for treating different issues relating to physical, emotional and mental health.

Types of Therapy

1. Cognitive behavioural therapy – for treating depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
2. Counselling – for depression, fertility problems, dealing with loss or bereavement, etc.
3. Interpersonal therapy – is used as an alternative for treating depression when other therapies fail.
4. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy – used to prevent recurrent depression, some anxiety disorders and stress
5. Psychodynamic therapy – is used to treat thoughts, feelings and behaviour which are deeply rooted in childhood experiences and are the root causes of problems in relationships today.

Resilience

Resilience. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional and behavioural flexibility and adjustment to internal or external demands”. A person is considered resilient when they have good coping skills.

Resilience is the ability to stay strong in the face of challenges and recover from setbacks. Resilient people are known to have a calm demeanour during challenges and often use all available resources to them, ask for help when they need it and always look for ways to manage the situations they may be faced with.

People who have resilience also experience the same amount or type of stress, distress, anxiety or grief, the difference is that they use healthy coping mechanisms to handle the difficulties that make them feel strengthened and foster growth which makes them come out stronger and better than they were before the challenge. Resilient people see challenges as opportunities for growth.

Mental Health

Mental health. This is a very critical aspect of human health as it determines the well-being of other aspects of a person’s health. According to Wikipedia, mental health encompasses emotional, psychological and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception and behaviour. It goes a long way in determining how a person handles and responds to stressful situations.

Mental health deals with the well-being and mental state of a person which determines how people respond to the stressors in their lives, build relationships and contribute to the settings they find themselves. Having a great mental state can foster success, happiness and positivity in other areas of life, challenges notwithstanding.

Mental health affects how people think, feel and act. It determines how people relate with others, how they deal with challenges and stressful situations and how they make choices. There are several factors that can affect your mental health and stress management counselling can help overcome stressors which may be negatively impacting your mental state.

Burnout Prevention

Burnout prevention. Stress is something people will experience at some point which can be caused by different factors and elevated levels of stress can cause people to feel helpless and completely worn out. This feeling is called burnout which can happen as a result of not managing or properly handling stress levels.

Burnout prevention is important and can only come into effect when stressors are managed. Constantly being stressed often leads to burnout and it is important to speak with a professional if you feel constantly stressed to the point of being worn out, stress management counselling can also prove helpful in preventing burnout.

Burnout is a state of being mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted due to prolonged exposure to stressful situations. Burnout prevention is crucial if you want to create a life balance and be more efficient in other aspects of your life. Burnouts occur when people do not manage their stress levels.

Burnout prevention requires the three R technique or approach, which are;

• Recognise – watch out for the signs of burnout or stressors in your life
• Reverse – address and undo the stressors by managing stress through stress management counselling and other means of support
• Resilience – take care of your emotional and mental health which is a way to build resilience to stress.

Stress Reduction Techniques

Stress reduction techniques. Stress is a part of life, but people must learn to keep them in check so that they do not go out of hand and lead to other problems which can affect their physical, emotional and psychological state. Challenges can range from minor to major and many of them can be beyond our control, but we can control how we react to them.

There are some stress reduction techniques which are helpful in tackling and managing stress levels. Let us look at some which may be helpful to you in case you are currently experiencing high levels of stress in your life and need some tips to live better. Some of these techniques are effective in the short term while the effects of others will be long-term.

• Meditation – this is one of the short-term stress reduction techniques which has lasting stress relief and management benefits.
• Breathing exercises – this short-term technique can help to calm your mind and body in a matter of minutes and is one of the techniques people will learn during stress management counselling.
• Taking walks – this is a technique which can cause stress reduction in minutes as it can put you in a much better and different frame of mind.
• Eat healthily – this is one of the long-term stress reduction techniques which can help you manage stress by consuming food that supports mood regulation like walnuts, avocado, etc.
• Engage in relaxing activities – this is another technique that works in the long term to reduce stress.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy. This is a form of psychotherapy or talk therapy that is used to manage problems and change the way people think and behave. It helps people change disturbing and negative patterns that have a negative impact on their behaviours and emotional patterns.

According to American Psychological Association, (APA), describes cognitive behavioural therapy as a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders and severe mental illnesses.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of psychotherapy and talking therapy which helps people manage emotional and psychological problems by changing the way that they think and behave. It is also used to treat common illnesses relating to anxiety, depression and other forms of mental health disorders.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, Schizophrenia, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and other forms of mental disorders.

Self-help

Self-help. This is the process of improving oneself and overcoming one’s own problems without the help of other people. The Oxford dictionary defines self-help as using one’s own efforts and resources to achieve things without having to rely on others.

Self-help is highly crucial in managing high-stress levels and it has to do with the intentionality of the person affected. This has to do with making conscious efforts on your own to learn ways to improve, tackle and manage stress.

Self-help can include engaging in ways or activities that can help to reduce and manage stressors in your life, including eating a healthy diet, exercising and practising relaxation techniques to help reduce stress levels. It can help you think about and focus on your goals with a view of the bigger picture.

Work-life Balance

Work-life balance. This is typically the amount of time you spend doing your job compared to the amount of time you spend with loved ones and pursuing your personal interests or desires and hobbies. Many people who are unable to create this balance often experience problems because parts of their life may suffer for others to thrive.

Work-life balance is the state of having an equilibrium in which a person gives equal priority to the demands of their career and their personal life. Having a work-life balance can help people thrive because this means that all aspects of their lives are properly taken care of and no part suffers.

Work-life balance deals with the prioritisation level of a person’s personal and professional life. Having this balance can greatly reduce or combat stress because there is a balance in the demands placed on a person’s life and is usually a result of properly dealing with issues as they arise.

Meditation

Meditation. This is one of the effective ways of managing stress levels and dealing with stressful situations. It is one of the short-term stress reduction techniques which has proven very effective in helping people prevent burnout. Meditation involves focusing on the present and one’s surroundings rather than on the stressors.

According to Wikipedia, meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought or activity, to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

Meditation is the act of being in a calm state of mind which can reduce stress, increase clarity and creates calmness and promote happiness. This is a practice that can be done by all by simply taking a deep breath and relaxing one’s mind.

Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises. These can be really helpful in reducing the amount of stress a person feels as it has the ability to reduce rapid heart rate which is associated with feeling stressed or anxious and can leave a person feeling relaxed within minutes.

Breathing exercises can be practised anywhere and the effect is usually evident in just a matter of minutes. It does not take so much time to practice this exercise, you can set aside five minutes of your day to practice this and it is very effective in reducing stress levels.

Some breathing exercises you can practice include;

• Pursed lip breathing
• Diaphragmatic or belly breathing
• Breath focus technique
• Lion’s breath
• Alternate nostril breathing
• Equal breathing
• Resonant or coherent breathing
• Sitali breath
• Deep breathing
• Humming bee breath

These breathing exercises can get you relaxed during a stressful day in a matter of minutes and they do not take the whole day. You can spend five minutes practising them.

Time Management

Time management. This has to do with a person’s ability to use their time in a productive and efficient manner. It deals with being able to manage your time so well that you have sufficient time to do all that you plan to do in a day.

It is said that everyone is constantly chasing time because there is always so much to be done and there are only twenty-four hours in a day, but having effective time management skills prevents people from running after the clock because they know how to use the time allotted to them daily in an effective manner such that they achieve all they need to daily.

There are four Ps in time management which can help people better manage their time in order to avoid stress. We will look at them briefly;

• Prioritisation – this is an important step which can relieve the burden of trying to complete so many tasks at once and in turn relieve stress.
• Planning – whether it is getting a diary, sticky note or creating a to-do list, planning can help you with effective time management and complete tasks faster.
• Productivity – as the world keeps going towards the direction of technology and AI, there are many tools available to help people increase their productivity and complete work faster.
• Positivity – maintaining a positive physical and mental attitude is highly important especially in the face of challenges whether in the workplace or in personal relationships.

Positive Thinking

Positive thinking. There are several problems that can cause people to be stressed and people around may spread negativity, but in all the challenges, it is important to maintain a positive perspective as this can make a big difference in how you feel or how a bad day or stressful situation affects you.

Positive thinking is simply seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. It is very important in reducing and managing stress and can improve the overall well-being of people whose daily lives involve a lot of stress.

People who practice positive thinking often approach challenging and stressful situations with a positive outlook, looking on the brighter side. It is having an optimistic attitude and focusing on the good in any situation a person finds themselves in.

Positive thinking does not mean that you should ignore the difficulty in situations, rather it involves making the most of problems, focusing on the good in people and looking at yourself and your abilities in a positive light.

Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene. When thinking of how to reduce stress, getting enough sleep is one way, because getting good rest has been shown to improve productivity. Having good sleep hygiene is very crucial to both your physical and mental health, making you more relaxed and ready to take on challenges.

Sleep hygiene refers to having good sleeping habits. If you have poor sleep hygiene, it can affect your mental and physical state, causing brain fog, irritability, etc. you can improve your sleep routine or habit by creating a sleep schedule, ensuring the room is dark, relaxing with the right temperature, remove gadgets, avoid caffeine towards bedtime, etc.

Exercise

Exercise. Regularly exercising has been shown to improve a person’s mood and boost that morale throughout the day. It is important to create time to exercise and take care of yourself as it can help you better deal with stressful situations and promote overall well-being.

Exercise is any bodily activity that aims to improve a person’s physical fitness and improving overall health and wellness. It has been shown that exercise can improve a person’s mood and reduce feelings such as stress, anxiety, and depression because it creates changes in parts of the brain which regulate stress and anxiety.

Stress Management Counselling Conclusion.

Stress management counselling conclusion. There are many situations that cause people to have feelings of stress and anxiety. However, it is important to keep the levels of stress in check and you can do this by talking to one of our professional therapists who can help you learn better ways to deal with stressors so you can have a much happier and healthier life.

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