Therapy for Stress in Manchester

Stress, overwhelm and poor work/life balance – psychotherapy and coaching can help

Stress, overwhelm and poor life balance – with work dominating – is happening now to more people than ever before. Some don’t even recognise the toll it takes on them and their relationships. For others, overwhelm is forcefully disrupting their lives: they know they are stressed or that work is out of control.

People react differently to overwhelm. Some lose their concentration and attention. No matter how much they do they find it is never enough – or maybe not even a start on what has to be done. Others can get fixated on a task – ‘put their heads down’ – and not deal with anything else, including their loved ones.

Is feeling stressed normal?

There is so much complexity and trauma in our world – delivered hourly via the media into our individual lives. That’s stressful water we swim in, regardless of what additional complexities and trauma occur in our personal and professional lives. Technology helps us but also tyrannises us – look at how email and instant messages make us reactive. Some stress is necessary; too much is overwhelming.

The tricky thing with stress, overwhelm and imbalance in our working life is how differently people handle. Some stress of course is to be expected. We all encounter setbacks and unexpected changes and these can rattle or agitate us.

When is feeling stressed a problem?

When too much stress, overwhelm and work dominate our lives, the consequences will show in signs in and around us – and this is the point where psychotherapy and coaching can help. Some signals of overwhelm include:

• our own impatience when others want to help us and we feel they are simply distracting our pursuit of what needs doing. But we are coming across to them as compulsive or obsessed, even intolerant – not as caring or useful

• fatigue and constant exhaustion are a clear physical sign: we just don’t have the ‘get-up-and-go’ we used to have. Life feels a very BIG effort

• we find it increasingly hard to change our long working hours: we say we will stop or agree we won’t work late – but we don’t change. We continue to feel we have to get on with it

How can therapy for stress help?

Both psychotherapy and coaching can be effective in helping you shift things into fresh perspective. Part of this is from standing back. Our sessions give you a chance to re-evaluate what is important in your life at this moment, both at home and at work.

How have you coped with challenges and drawbacks in the past? Looking at this can also provide fresh insight in what is similar and different from how you are dealing now with stress. Even exploring how overwhelm and work/life imbalance were dealt with historically in your family when you were growing up can offer clues to improving the present.

What if I feel I don’t have the time to invest in this? I’m simply too tired all over or too busy with everything else I have to get done

As an experienced psychotherapist and executive coach I know this ‘stuck place’ in people hesitating to take a first step. The very way forward feels like another burden, not a relief. I also know that feelings can change – they’re not a complete reality for always during your lifetime.

So while empathising with that current block, I am confident I can help you, as I have helped many others move beyond it.

Already you have made a small step by reading this (and it has taken some of your time too!).

Are you ready then to take another small step to manage your stress or anxiety?

Contact me and we can discuss the ways we can work together, using therapy for you to manage the sress in your life with more pleasure and satisfaction