Stress

Stress

Although stress is a normal response to challenging situations that can help us perform at our best, high levels of stress across time can seriously negatively impact our physical and emotional well-being. Research shows that elevated stress levels are associated with high blood pressure, sleep disturbances like insomnia, weight gain, and emotional difficulties such as anxiety and depression, which can prevent us from performing optimally and reaching our goals.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) strategies provide individuals with the tools necessary to identify and reduce heightened stress levels in the long term in order to decrease anxiety and sadness and increase productivity and self-efficacy. CBT for stress management begins with a thorough assessment of how one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic stress.

Armed with this understanding of how the client’s stress developed, the CBT therapist assists the client in restructuring patterns of thinking and behavior that maintain the stress and provides the client with a toolbox of coping strategies to manage the physiological arousal associated with stress. Treatment is tailored to each client’s individual needs and specific circumstances and may involve additional interventions such as mindfulness training. Mindfulness training is another evidence-based intervention that has shown to decrease stress levels, increase one’s ability to experience pleasure and joy, focus and improve productivity even during challenging times.