Work Environment Stress

Stressors for mental health professionals in the work environment include:

Time Pressures


Negative Colleagues and/or Supervisors


Organizational Politics


Excessive Paperwork


Type of Clinical Setting

• private practice
• Group independent practice
  
• community mental health agencies
• residential treatment facilities
• hospitals

Higher levels of stress have been reported in public agency settings rather than solo or group independent practice.

Higher levels of stress have also been reported due to:

Role Conflicts

• In private practice, this could mean more time being spent on billing or advertising than conducting therapy.
• In an agency setting, problems may occur with supervisors, agency policies, paperwork or being assigned tasks unrelated to clinical work.

Primary Causes of Job Stress

The term job stress refers to the stress derived from one's career, work or place of employment.

Job stressors are the demands made in the environment, both internal and external, that upset balance and affect a worker physically or psychologically.

A worker's characteristics and the work environment have been identified as the primary causes of job-related stress.

Worker's Characteristics (internal)

1. Personality Traits
2. Coping Style

• Emotion-focused coping involves trying to reduce stress-related symptoms emotionally; better for short-term or unchangeable stressors.
• Problem-focused coping involves trying to eliminate or change work-related stressors; beneficial for long-term social or environmental factors.

Work Environment (external)

Examples include:

• Excessive workload demands
• interpersonal relationships
• work role conflicts
• environmental conditions
• different styles of management personnel
• the design of work-related tasks

American Psychological Association Research Study (2007)

Individuals working in education and health service industries experienced higher levels of stress than those working in other professions, with four out of ten people experiencing extreme levels of stress.

Stress Reduction Techniques

Stress reduction techniques recommended by numerous stress management training programs include:

meditation

yoga

visual imagery

muscular relaxation

aerobic exercise

listening to music

Some of these stress reduction techniques may be beneficial for your stress management. Please remember, some techniques may be effective for you but not for others.  

Begin to include at least one of these techniques into your regular routine.  You could bring an iPod to work and take a 15 minute break by relaxing in your chair, closing your eyes and listening to music.  (Stay off the computer during your break!!)  If you are able, you could take a 15 minute walk outside on your break, incorporating 2 stress reduction techniques - aerobic exercise and listening to music. 

On weekends, give yourself time to relax.  If your schedule is so full that you don't have a minute to breath, then you will need to add scheduled breaks to your calendar...and make sure you keep those "appointments" because they may end up being the most IMPORTANT appointments you'll ever have.

Choose Wellness!

Stressors for Counseling Students

Graduate school can be a wonderful experience; however, it can also become a stressful experience for students juggling academics, jobs, internships, families, finances, health issues, etc...!  Categories of student stress include competition, organization of time, administrative concerns,  instruction, finances and adjusting to a new social environment.  Grades, exams and studying can be the most critical stressors.  In addition to academic stress, graduate counseling students must also devote time and energy to complete practicum and/or internships necessary for graduation.   With all these stressors, self-care can take a back seat.  Counseling graduate students spend years learning how to help others in the therapeutic process but can neglect their own needs.  Students can become proactive in preventing stress-related and lifestyle-related chronic disease by becoming their #1 Client in utilizing self-care strategies to develop a holistic and healthier lifestyle.  Will you choose to become your #1 Client??

Choose Wellness!