Managing Stress in the Therapeutic Space

 It is a known fact that stress has a significant effect on the long term physical and mental health of many people in our society. For many people, unhealthy stress has become an accepted part of life, many employers, either deliberately or coincidentally foster high stress environments by reaching for ever greater productivity even in the face of extraordinary circumstances. If there is one thing that working in a pandemic has demonstrated, it is how important it is for people to learn to manage their stress. By manage, I mean recognise, understand, and address the signs, symptoms, and causes of unhealthy stress.

Firstly, it is important to recognise that not all stress is bad, in fact we all need a certain level of stress in order to grow and develop. The very nature of the cause desire, Lacan’s “object a”, is based in the knowledge that we must all strive towards something that can never be reached. That reaching out is the most evident source of what might be called normal or healthy stress. It is the source of curiosity and a desire to connect with people and the wider world. Stress is a normal reaction to a dynamic and sometimes threatening environment, the systems involved in the stress response are the result of eons of evolution designed for the purpose of allowing humans to adapt and thrive in different environments and situations.

Stress becomes unhealthy when high stress levels become a permanent feature of daily life, feelings of impending doom, trouble sleeping, distress at the slightest problem or deviation from a plan, or digestive problems can all indicate that a person may be experiencing chronic stress and that they may have inadvertently reset their baseline stress levels so that they are constantly one step from panic. In this situation, every small problem becomes much more difficult to solve and the line between normal life and disaster becomes steadily narrower. High levels of stress trigger the bodies defensive systems, sometimes referred to as the fight-or-flight reaction. The body releases large amounts of adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) which impact heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood sugar and also affect other aspects of bodily function. These changes have a single evolutionary purpose, surviving the immediate threat. They are not meant to be permanent changes, and in the cases where people are constantly exposed to high stress environments the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and a myriad of other health problems increases.

An important part of learning to manage stress, is first learning to recognise the signs of stress on your own body. This can represent a challenge initially as many people experience a level of separation from the internal processes of the body. This loss of connection to the body may be a result of the analgesic effects of certain stress hormones or it may be what Thomas Hanna called sensory-motor amnesia. This forgetting of the bodily sensations not only dulls our perceptions of stress but also prevents us from listening to our instinctual responses to different situations which can in turn lead to additional levels of anxiety as we become more uncertain in our reactions. Hanna also suggested that the disconnection from the body leads to reductions in movement and premature aging. By reconnecting with our own bodies, we regain not only the ability to detect the earliest signs of excessive stress but also a level of organic wisdom provided by the unconscious mind through its manifestations in the body.

In my practice I use various methods to help clients to reconnect with their bodies and identify the key stressors in their lives. By beginning to identify stressors, clients are able to take steps to minimize the negative impacts of stressful events or even in some cases to make changes to their lives that eliminate certain stressors altogether. At the most basic level, I help clients to learn behavioural triggers that can help them control the activations of the autonomic nervous system which lead to increases in stress levels and anxiety. Over time these behavioural triggers build on each other from breathing exercises to guided meditations and progressive muscle relaxation and other techniques which are used to relax and reconnect with the body. For many people, these techniques combined with an awareness of the physical sensations that accompany the activation of the stress response can be enough to make significant progress towards a lifestyle that is free from some of the negative impacts of stress. For others, these techniques can help to form the basis through which they can more fully engage with the process of therapy in the longer term.

Stress management classes can be arranged online or in person. Individual classes cost €40 online or €50 in person. Group classes are available from €100 per hour depending on numbers. Contact differentsidetherapy@gmail.com for availability and bookings.