Work Stress Counselling

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.  William James

The Centre for Stress Management executive director and senior psychologist Dr Mark has worked in substance abuse and addiction for over 40 years in the U.S. and Asia as a clinician, consultant to drug rehab centres, guest speaker at schools and businesses internationally, in-house wellness provider to banks-law firms-business, clinical supervisor for psychology master-doctorate degree programs, and research and author of treatment programs with evidence-based science in wellness and well-being. Dr Marks recognize that work has many physical, cognitive and emotional components that require careful assessment to reduce work-related stress and increase overall work performance. Concurrently we also take a careful look at the workplace risk factors that can lead to fatigue and burnout, ensuring our clients can prevent future harm. Our employment serves many purposes for each of us, from meeting our basic needs, a place where we can find meaning and purpose, a sense of community of like-minded colleagues and how we can continue to grow and flourish. Centre for Stress Management strives to teach and sustain well-being practices for a better work-life integration.

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.  Will Rogers

We also understand that the type of work we do (the job, career or calling) plays a key role in our overall daily well-being behaviors and personal wellness (our quality of life). Research continues to demonstrate each year that as technology gets better/faster/easier and the workforce becomes smarter, we actually spend more hours "working" than we did 20 years ago due to long hours at the workplace and bringing work back to the home by way of our wireless "smart devices" and hundreds of work-based apps. A key focus with our counselling in work and stress is helping our clients better understand how to detach from work, find space and time for play and relaxation, have conversations with others that does not relate to work, and set boundaries with work and home life. Our experience with work performance stress also highlights the number one source with unhealthy stress - relationships and conflicts at work. One of the most common reasons why a person resigns from his job, career and calling is not so much the workload or salary as it was 30 years, but instead, relationship dynamics with co-workers, leadership and customers/clients that cause unhealthy stress and mood disturbances that cause a desire to leave that work space.

A long-standing source for work performance stress is the workload our clients must manage on a regular basis regardless of their title and roles. On one end of the spectrum when the workload is non-challenging or stimulating, clients can experience what we call boredom stress that leads to increasing non-productivity behaviors due to stagnation and no inspiration. In short, what we call "check out stress." The other end of this spectrum is when the workload is too demanding and/or complex that increases the risk of what we call performance stress, leading to simple mistakes, lower quality of work, organizational conflict, fatigue and eventually burn-out. In short, what we call "freak out stress."

Noted below is a very brief overview of the three types of work and how it generates the various types of unhealthy stress we discussed above:

THE JOB (SURVIVING STRESS): work we perform that is seen as a "job" is in simplistic terms something we do on a regular basis to meet our basic needs like housing, food, paying the bills and basic household and hobby expenses. The job is more so about how can we "survive" and keep our stress levels at a healthy level. Those who come in with job-related stress are usually experiencing stress due to fear of losing their job, poor performance reviews, toxic work environment, workplace bullying, inadequate income to pay their bills, no opportunities for advancement;

THE CAREER (THRIVING STRESS): work we perform that we see as a "career" is not only about meeting our basic needs, it is more so about seeking a company and/or a profession where we can find opportunities to strive in pay, position and challenges. For example, from a career - thriving stress perspective, a person may pursue a degree in finance where they desire to move up the ranks from an bookkeeper to an accountant to one day a chief financial officer. The company - career thriving stress is frequently where a person is more focused on how they can remain in the company and not only have career advancements, but the employee also focuses on factors such as title, power, authority and money;

THE CALLING (VALUES STRESS): work we perform that we embrace as a "calling" does include elements of surviving and thriving, but a key focus that causes work stress from a calling perspective is more on the values we attach to meaning, having opportunities to acquire deeper knowledge, and purpose, with that deeper knowledge having a space to apply that greater K. Concurrently, we also see how a person who has a calling may have different values and work assumptions than his or her family and friends that can also be a source of stress such as the value of money, time spent on the calling and limited interests outside of their calling.

The three types of ways we can work in our lifetime is not limited to just one typology. All of us have the human potential to do a job, pursue a career, or find a calling but each type of work will have similar and unique types of work stress. Our approach with work performance stress also includes performance coaching, conflict management skills, teambuilding and teamwork training, thought leadership, personality testing, decision making - problem solving competency building as well as how to prevent, reduce and/or manage work related stress.