Psychotherapy for Work Related Stress: 4 Realities
Psychotherapy for work related stress is increasingly essential for many people. In our present era of privation and job uncertainty, it is abundantly apparent that work stress has more than purely psychological consequences, and deeply impacts the physical well-being of workers — for stress is a mind-body phenomenon. A recent article from the Manchester Guardian on a report on a U.K. survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows that worries about job losses have caused stress to become the most common cause of long-term sick leave in Britain.
Now, these statistics are for the U.K. Is it similar in North America? The fact is, it is similar enough.
Here are 4 factors pointing to the urgency of finding ways to address work related stress.
1. Work Related Stress Can be a Personal Crisis
Stress related to work accumulates in ways that cause emotional damage to workers. In particular, there is a growing body of evidence that shows that continued anxiety over job loss is even more damaging emotionally than actual job loss.
2. Self Esteem is Involved
When dealing with something as fundamental as work identity, continual anxiety about job loss can easily engender endless anxiety about the self. The question of self-esteem can be relentless for someone dealing with these issues.
3. Work-Related Stress Can Bring Serious Illness
In a similar way, serious stress can and does lead to serious illness. Stress reduction research has clearly established the connection to coronary disease, ulcers and many other illnesses. It’s essential for the individual facing such stress to avoid these extremely negative consequences.
4. There are Deep Questions Within Work Stress
Work stress opens up questions that we would rather not face. The most fundamental of these are around resilience in the face of great fear and stress, and also around maintaining a sense of abiding personal identity, in the face of grave assaults on personal dignity, our sense of ability to control our lives, and our self worth. It is in these areas that case studies can have the greatest and most lasting effect. The particular message of Jungian case studies, that the Self is something greater and more lasting than the ego, and is drawing us towards a meaningful wholeness that we cannot fully anticipate, can be something that is essential for us to experience in our turbulent and demanding times.
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