Corporate Stress Management

The challenges, importance and impact of stress management in the corporate environment and an analysis of different approaches used in today’s market, and their effectiveness.

According to research from Friends Provident in 2009, "almost two thirds of people (61 per cent) say they feel more stressed, run down and prone to illness than they did three years ago - and more than one in 10 of these busy and pressured Brits say the majority of stress they experience comes from work". Ensuring a working environment that promotes good mental health and encourages supportive and responsive management practices is a core part of sustainable employment practice. While stress itself is not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), work-related stress is a leading occupational health problem in the UK with adverse effects for organisations in terms of employee commitment to work, staff performance and productivity, staff turnover and intention to leave, attendance levels, staff recruitment and retention, customer satisfaction, organisational image and reputation and even potential litigation. Stress related absences are now becoming more and more common and organisations need to understand what stress means and how to prevent and manage it in the workplace.

In addition to the legal obligations, the incentives for organizations to provide a safe environment for its employees to work in are compelling. Once empowered with the tools and resources to effectively manage emotional stress, consider what would become possible for a business if its staff and line mangers were not being held back by fear, indecision, and procrastination. Stress and most stress related symptoms can be easily and effectively managed and overcome with hypnotherapy and self hypnosis. Over the last 4 years hypnotherapy has fast become one of the UK’s leading service providers for stress management and stress relief.

Hypnotherapy is also a formidable tool for motivation and goal actualization. Thousands of pounds are spent every year by organisations seeking to acquire processes whereby to keep their staff motivated and loyal. Corporate coaches are often contracted to work with company managers and key individuals, helping them to think outside of the so called ‘box’. NLP is also taught to staff in an effort to improve communication amongst colleagues and sales performance. Unfortunately, most find that once their sessions are over, they soon revert back to the original way in which they were thinking or behaving prior to the coaching. Why is this? Simply put, it is because their core belief systems that have been built up through years of conditioning have remained unchanged.

Albert Einstein once said "The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them." I believe that this could be equated to the conscious and subconscious mind. Essentially, coaching uses reframing and affirmations on a conscious level to stimulate new paradigms and motivation. NLP provides people with a methodology to model outstanding performances achieved by geniuses and leaders in their field. Whilst this can be effective in the short term, if the core beliefs of an individual are not reprogrammed at a subconscious level, their instinctive behavioural pattern will continue to re-emerge. The subconscious mind is constructed in such a way so as to protect us irrespective of conscious logic. Therefore unless this powerful part of the mind can be convinced that there is no danger when confronted by a situation which in the past has been perceived as threatening, all the productive layers of positive affirmations and reframing will just melt away at the first signs of stress.

Hypnotherapy differs from coaching in that during hypnotherapy, the conscious mind is ‘bypassed’ so that the therapist can communicate directly with the subconscious, and as long as the individual is willing, can affect profound and lasting change. From a cost effective standpoint, a professional coach will want to work with a client once a week for a minimum of 3 months, however a good hypnotherapist will not need to work with a client for more than three sessions in total on a particular issue. Hypnotherapy also makes use of visualisation which is efficacious when dealing specifically with motivation towards goals and future intention. While traditional affirmations usually consist of a couple of well reframed sentences, we all know a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

That said the good work being done around the country by coaches and NLP practitioners alike is highly noteworthy. Any method which encourages self awareness and "finding the answers within" contributes immensely to the self development of the individual. However, organisations looking for fast and effective solutions generally would rather see immediate and longer lasting results. Hypnotherapy meets both of these criteria.

For more information on hypnotherapy please visit Inside Your Mind Hypnotherapy London at http://www.inside-your-mind.net