Psychological methods of stress management
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Stress Inoculation Training
- Combination of 2 approaches: –
- Cognitive: key influence on behaviour is how a person thinks about a situation, so cognitive therapy aims to change maladaptive or unwanted thoughts and feelings.
- Behavioural: key influence on behaviour is the previous learning process, so behavioural therapy aims to produce a new set of more desirable behaviours.
- Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy links the two and uses techniques like challenging negative
thoughts and rewarding desirable behaviours.
- We can INOCULATE ourselves against stress, in the same manner as we inoculate ourselves from disease.
- This therapy is called: STRESS INOCULATION TRAINING
A real life example of the skills acquisition phase
A real life case study to demonstrate the commitment and motivation needed for CBT.
Alternative Psychological Stress Management Technique: Hardiness Training
There are three stages in Hardiness training:
1. FOCUSING
The client is taught how to recognise the physiological signs of stress like muscle tension and increased heart rate, and also to identify the source of stress.
2. RELIVING STRESS ENCOUNTERS
The client relives what made them stressed and is helped to analyse the situation and the response they had to them. This gives the client an insight into their current coping strategies and how they might be more effective than they thought.
3. SELF-IMPROVEMENT
The insights gained can now be used to move forward and learn new techniques of dealing with stress. In particular, they are taught to focus on seeing stressors as challenges that they can take control of, rather than problems that they must give in to.