Identifying stress and remembering things that can help you to cope better is great. But what do you do when these self-care methods are no longer working? Unmanaged stress can lead to anxiety and depression. It is always better to seek help early to prevent things from getting worse. Fortunately there are therapies that can help with stress management.
At Select Psychology we offer a range of talking therapies that can be used with to help manage stress. Below we have outlined a sample of the therapies that we provide. We always recommend booking in for a free telephone consultation to guide you to the therapy most suited to your needs.
CBT
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) teaches you new ways of thinking that help you to challenge your perspective on the things that happen to you. It provides you with a toolkit that helps your brain to think logically rather than emotionally when presented with a problem.
This can mean, even when difficult situations arise, you have the tools to take a more rational outlook. This in turn can to help you to decide the best course of action. This enables you to manage stressful situations much more effectively and your symptoms will consequently reduce.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness allows you to gain perspective on an issue by creating a bit of mental ‘distance’. The practice grounds you in the here-and-now. Too often we live in our heads and neglect the world around us. Mindfulness helps you to anchor yourself to your senses. This is done by noticing what you say see, hear, smell, feel while paying attention to your breathing. Bringing yourself out of your head and back down into your body helps you to get through any difficult thoughts by allowing them to pass, hence alleviating physical symptoms.
This is great for stress as stress takes place in the mind and then the body responds. Allowing the bodily senses to take over for a moment readjusts the brain, allowing the space to see things more clearly. Usually this allows for the ‘fug’ of stress to lift, illuminating a clearer path.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
This therapy helps you to accept what is, instead of trying to change it. Put simply, it is making peace with the way things are. Accepting the things that are out of your personal control frees you to commit to action that improves and enriches your life.
In terms of stress, this allows you to accept a situation is stressful and acknowledge the things about it that cannot change and look at what you can do to make things better for yourself and to improve the overall situation.
If you are starting to feel overwhelmed by stress and would like to explore therapies for stress management you can book a free 15 minute consultation to speak to our team of mental health professionals. As a team of psychologists, CBT therapists and counsellors all providing a range of different therapies we aim to match you up with the professional that is best suited to meet your needs.
We hope that you have found our series of blogs for Stress Awareness Month helpful. Recognition is the first step in helping you to take steps to improve your wellbeing.