Chris & Elizabeth Clarke
Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT and Stress Management
Est (1995)
including
Personal and Organisational Stress Management Solutions

01179692281

Stress Management

What is Stress?

Our modern lifestyle has resulted in many people experiencing increasing amounts of pressure in their lives. This life pressure can come from many sources however it is both the aggregate of this life pressure and the endurance which are significant in affecting our well being.

Whilst some life pressure is essential to motivate us and give us a purpose in life, above a certain point that pressure turns into an oppressive force (STRESS) that starts to take control of our life away from us. 
There are people who do not experience sufficient life pressure; people who are under motivated, under achieving, under productive, under stimulated. The effect of feeling under valued can be just as damaging for our health as being over pressured.

In 2001, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defined Stress as:

“The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demands placed on them.”

How would I know if I had Stress?

The point at which the life pressure becomes Stress varies from person to person, and varies according to our lifestyle, our expectation of pressure, and our level of motivation.  While one person will cope easily with a particular level of pressure and simply be “busy”, others may find that same level of pressure overwhelming and could be in need of assistance to learn to manage the stress in their life. 

Just think about the traumatic situations experienced by Firefighters, Paramedics, Police and the Armed Forces.  The armed and emergency services personnel are trained for, and have an expectation of traumatic events and can therefore cope much better in those situations.  However they may not cope so well in a different situation such as a long term caring situation for instance.   

The Symptoms of Stress include:

Constantly feeling overloaded.
Alternatively, feeling bored.
Always tired.
Tense.
Aggressive.
Angry.
Worried.
On edge.
Deteriorating performance.
Relationship problems.
Exhausted.
A feeling of a loss of control.
Perception of being unable to cope.
Increased incidence of minor ailments (colds and coughs).
Backache.
Loss of short term memory.
Irritability.
Sleeplessness.
Over/Under eating.
Being unusually emotional.
Resorting to negative coping props (Tobacco, Alcohol, prescription or other drugs).

We are all able to absorb stress for a short period of time (acute stress).  When that stress is continuous (chronic stress) and we start to experience negative psychological thoughts and behaviours, and uncomfortable physiological symptoms as our health begins to deteriorate, that we need to take action to restore balance into our life and and regain our health.

Chronic stress can lead to:

absenteeism.
increased staff turnover.
loss of performance.
increased levels of sickness.
panic attacks
phobic responses.
depression.
suicide.

The effects of Stress are being increasingly recognised by employers.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimated that stress related conditions caused the loss of 13,800,000 million working days in 2006/7 with an everage of 30.8 working days lost per case per year.  Overall, it was estimated that 530,000 people (13.8% of the workforce) reported that stress was adversely affecting their health.  13.6% of all workers reported that their job was very or extremely stressful. 

Due to Government statistics released in June 2008, the overall cost to the UK economy by stress was £13.6 Billion in lost productivity due to illness, replacement staff or overtime, and replacement staff training.  It was also estimated that 70% of all visits to the GP and 85% of serious illness was trigered or aggravated by stress.

In a seperate survey carried out by University College London(UCL) released earlier in 2008, it was revealed that 39% of the workforce in the UK had taken time off work due to stress, and that people experiencing stress were much more likely to develop heart disease.

Chris and Elizabeth Clarke are qualified Stress Managers having qualified with Lambourn Court International Stress Management in 1995.  They both hold a Diploma in Personal Development, Mentoring and Stress Management accredited by Anglia Polytechnic University.

They are founder members of Stressmanagers (SM), an organisation which provides Training for Stress Managers, and Continuous Professional Development, Supervision and mutual support for a nationwide network of highly qualified independent practitioners working in the field of Stress Management, Coaching, and Personal Development. 

Chris and Elizabeth are both members of the International Stress Management Association (ISMA).

Chris and Elizabeth are also associates of AMC Mentoring (AMC), an organisation which provides total stress solutions for business.

For more information, click here to contact Chris and Elizabeth.

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