All About Stress and How to Cope With it using Psychological Therapy & Counselling

What is Stress?

Stress is the feeling that we experience when we are actively coping with challenging situations, either in our personal or business lives.

Despite the way it is described in the popular media, stress is NOT an illness, it’s an emotional response although, as with many human emotional experiences, it has become medicalised as an illness in recent years.

Technically, stress is our reaction to a threat where threats can be existential, social, personal or financial.

We all experience stress in our daily lives and many people believe that they perform more effectively when they are under stress, but some people find it intolerable and when this is the case, our health can start to be affected in a negative way.

Different people are able to tolerate very different levels of stress and this is probably due to the types of personality that we have, and to the general experiences that we have gone through in our lives.

However, anybody CAN learn to manage how they react to any given stressful situation.

Stress Symptoms

The symptoms of stress may be expressed in several different ways:

• Physical symptoms: Stress can cause a variety of physical symptoms, including headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, chest pain, and gastrointestinal problems.

• Emotional symptoms: Stress can also affect a person’s emotional well-being, causing symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, mood swings, depression, and feelings of overwhelm.

• Cognitive symptoms: Stress can interfere with a person’s ability to think clearly and concentrate, leading to symptoms such as memory problems, poor judgment, and racing thoughts.

• Behavioural symptoms: Stress can also affect a person’s behaviour, causing symptoms such as social withdrawal, restlessness, substance abuse, overeating or undereating, and procrastination.

• Sleep disturbances: Stress can interfere with a person’s ability to sleep, causing symptoms such as insomnia or oversleeping.

• Increased heart rate: Stress can cause the heart to beat faster, which can lead to feelings of palpitations or racing heartbeat.

• Sweating and shaking: Stress can cause a person to sweat excessively or shake, especially in high-stress situations.

It’s worth noting that everyone experiences stress differently, and some people may have different symptoms than others.

If you are experiencing symptoms of stress that are interfering with your daily life, then get in touch to find out how we can help you.

The Long Terms Effects of Stress

Un-managed stress can have a direct effect on well-being as well as physical health.

The study of how it effects our bodies is known as psychoneuroimmunology or “PNI”.

Biological illnesses in which stress can be cited as a significant factor include:

• Diabetes.
• Hair loss.
• Heart disease.
• Hyperthyroidism.
• Obesity.
• Sexual dysfunction.
• Tooth and gum disease.
• Gastric ulcers.

Remember, stress is your reaction to situations in which you feel pressurised and responds well to psychotherapy.

Therapy & Counselling for Stress

We offer a number of different types of therapy and counselling for stress-related problems.

Choosing the most suitable therapy depends on a number of different considerations including factors such as:

• How long you have had the problem.
• Your personal preferences.
• How your problem is affecting you today.

You can read more about the different types of therapy we offer on the following links:

• CBT for Stress
• Counselling for Stress
• Pluralistic Therapy for Stress

Although all therapies use slightly different approaches, the one thing they all have in common is the relationship that is formed between the client and therapist.

Research suggests that this therapy relationship may be the most important factor in achieving a good therapy outcome.

Behaviour Change Framework – BCF

All of our stress counselling sessions and programmes are enhanced by applying the Behaviour Change Framework (BCF).

This scientifically proven protocol clearly defines the incremental stages of behaviour change that you need to go through in order to achieve long lasting and sustainable change.

Drawn from the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change (TTM), the framework provides a roadmap that not only gauges the current stage of progression through the change process, but also indicates if more change is required before entering the next phase of therapy or coaching.

In this way, we are able to ensure that you get the best possible level of support in overcoming your problems as well as ensuring that we don’t terminate the change process prematurely.

You can read more about the Science of Change here.

Arrange your FREE initial consultation here.

If you’d like to find out more about overcoming stress or recovering from any of your mental health problems then why not arrange a free initial consultation with us.

During this consultation we will discuss your particular issues and the different types of mental health counselling we offer without you having to commit to any counselling going forward.

The consultation lasts around 50 minutes and is a great opportunity to meet with either Paul or Joan and decide if you would like to proceed with any support.