Your therapist and coach trained in systemic therapy with a masters in psychology - Registered Counsellor: Independent Practice / Private Practice

Coaching - Managing workplace stress in Sandton

Your experience and adventures as well as your goals are my top priority

When stress dominates everyday life

Stress frequently arises in the workplace – workplace stress can be caused by multiple factors. Workplace conflict is a huge reason for the stress people have at work. Employees and management might also experience an increasing amount of pressure, especially in the currently challenging and uncertain times. People experience mental health challenges that might affect their daily work. Or employees need better information or help to solve their challenges at work. Whatever the reason for your stress – it will have a negative effect, not only on your health but also in your personal life, such as putting strain on your relationships as well as your professional life, ultimately your performance at work. It is important to focus on managing workplace stress as early as possible to avoid such negative impact and ensure that you can not only do, but also enjoy your work again. Stress management and therapy can help you in this process.

If any of the following reflects on you, you either need a break, some support, or better stress management – and you've come to the right place.

Your breathing is shallow, more in your chest, and you don't even have to take deep, slow breaths today.
Your body is tense and from time to time you have physical complaints such as stomach pains or headaches
Your thoughts jump back and forth wildly – from one requirement to the next, giving you hardly a chance to consciously perceive and enjoy a moment.
Or you even have trouble sleeping, are increasingly listless or frustrated and hopeless.

As a coach, I help you find a new way to deal with stress – I take a holistic approach and together we will look at the following areas in your life:

Body: Which rituals, exercises and time-outs help you to calm your body again?
Mind: Which areas in your life can you change and which are out of your control? How is it possible to change your attitude and approach these things with more serenity?
Soul: How would you like to shape your life and your everyday life and how much stress do you have to and would you like to expose yourself to?

What is stress?

Stress describes our reaction to the demands of our environment as well as the burdens that we experience inside – both on a psychological and physical level.

Stress can also motivate us, spur us on and at times help us to achieve top performance. However, we often perceive stress as negative, a burden that robs us of joy and lightness.

From a biological point of view, stress has an important function – it helps us to react confidently in extremely stressful situations. We all know the “flight or fight” moments when we breathe short and fast, our pulse is racing, adrenaline is shooting through our body and we are extremely tense and concentrated – our body is preparing to make the right decision and to make the right decision as quickly as possible act. And as soon as we have survived this situation unscathed, our body automatically relaxes.

Our body is perfectly geared towards short, extreme stress situations that require our full concentration, courage and ability to act quickly.

But these moments are rare – modern stress is permanent stress – it is characterized by long-lasting phases with a high workload, often characterized by subtle challenges and latent excessive demands. And that’s exactly where the problem lies – our body’s stress response no longer fits in with today’s world.

Biologically, our body reacts in a very similar way to these modern demands – we have shallow breathing, are tense, get a racing heart, a tepid feeling in our stomach or a feeling of heat – but we don’t relax. And this creates a feeling of physical strain and emotional strain and chronic stress – and if this is long-lasting, health problems can develop – up to and including panic attacks or burn-out.

It is important to understand that burnout is a consequence of our body’s stress response and therefore a physical reaction – this also explains why nobody is immune to burnout and even a positive attitude, motivation or the feeling of being able to cope cannot arm ourselves.

There are stress triggers in all phases of life and we experience them very differently:

Pressure to perform, professional requirements, training and further education as well as conflicts at work.
Responsibility for family members, such as children and dependent parents, difficulties in our relationships or private commitments.
Life crises, such as illness or disability, loss or separation, and identity issues or conflicts.

And more and more often we are stressed because we have the feeling that we have to do our best and function in all areas of life – and therefore a certain pressure or stress can also arise from leisure activities, fitness, personal interests or private contacts – especially if we work every day being reminded by social media of how ingeniously everyone else is doing it.