Stress Management Coaching
"Stress occurs when pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope." — Stephen Palmer
Our ability to cope varies from person to person. One person's pressure is another person's stress. Too much pressure leads to anxiety and burnout, too little and we become bored and depressed. The key to successfully managing stress is to balance your workload and manage your response to perceived stressors.
If you are feeling irritable, surviving on caffeine, feeling anxious, constantly getting colds and minor illnesses and feeling physically or emotionally drained, it may be that you are approaching burnout. The next pressure could be the straw that break's the camel's back.
Our own personalities can make us more susceptible to stress. We can place high demands upon ourselves, expect to succeed all the time, beat ourselves up if we show any weakness and expect to be in control all the time. Type A individuals thrive at work until an event happens beyond their control (like redundancy) and they feel utterly derailed. A "fit" worker on the other hand, has a sense of control of workload, realistic expectations and a support system in place.
Stress coaching helps you to map out your sources of stress and change your reaction to them in order to create more helpful coping strategies. Working with a coach can help you to identify your negative thinking patterns ("I can't stand this," or "I've got to do everything perfectly," or "There's no point in me applying for that job because I won't get it.") and replace them with more helpful, realistic ones. The philosophy behind this isn't new: first-century philosopher Epictetus wrote:
"People are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them."
We have coached individuals who have been on long-term sickness absence with stress-related issues and this has enabled them to return to work. We also coach individuals to reframe their response to potential stressful situations so they can manage their reaction to them if they occur.
Reference: Palmer, S. & Cooper, C. (2010), How to Deal with Stress. London: Kogan Page.