Counselling Articles

Are you suffering from too much stress? If you answered “yes” then here are some easy stress reducing remedies, which you may not have thought of, to help you in your busy life.

Stress can be defined as your body’s response to external pressures you experience in your daily life. So what exactly can you do to limit its negative effect on you?

• Cry: Though it may sound strange, crying is healthy and helps to remove stress.

• Laugh: Laughing releases positive hormones which help to lower stress levels.

• Reduce intake from media sources: Try not reading, or listening to media sources for a day or more.  Limiting the access of negative “news” in your life may help to lower your stress level.

• Leave your desk: Physically remove yourself from your desk and allow yourself to breath.  Try concentrating on the rhythm of your breathing.  This is a simple meditation technique and also effective at lowering stress levels.

• Talk with someone: Speaking with someone else about your stress can help to reduce your level of stress.

• Tense and release your muscles: Did you know that by tensing and then releasing the muscles in your body you will rid your body of stress?  Systematically tense, hold and then release the muscles in your body; starting at your head, then working your way down to your feet.  By the time you get to your toes you should be feeling more relaxed.

• Turn your phone and computer off: Try taking just a few minutes to yourself and just do nothing.

• Have an orgasm: Whether with someone else or by yourself, an orgasm will lower stress levels and you will feel better.

Try some of these tips for stress relief and see if you experience a difference.  Finally, if you are concerned about the effect your level of stress is having in your life, speaking with a therapist can sometimes help.

By Justin Duwe, MBACP Psychotherapist

You may wish contact Harley Therapy: Psychotherapy and Counselling to schedule a consultation with a stress management counsellor in London. If so, call 0845 474 1724. 

In workplaces across the country, the major responsibilities of a business often ride on the shoulders of the executive staff. While this can result in high praise and reputations of efficiency, it can also bring incredible amounts of pressure and workplace stress. Further, the individual often has to juggle these high workloads with time spent with their families and time for themselves. Consequently, is it any wonder that executive staff are the main sufferers of workplace stress and burnout?

The Diathesis-Stress Model

A current perspective on understanding the interaction between stress and psychological/physiological health problems is the ‘Diathesis-Stress Model’.

It is believed that a Diathesis is a predisposition for a health problem that is inherent within an individual as a result of genetics or a childhood experience. This diathesis may reside within an individual undetected for their entire life. However, stress in everyday life may trigger this diathesis and result in a mental health problem or physical health issue. (more…)

Addiction: How to Spot it and What to do About it.

At certain times the need to belong can lead us to make choices that have dangerous consequences. This is especially true of the environment in which we work and the choices that we make during work and after. The ever-present list of demands and pressures we face in the work place may be so great that we want run away and escape at the end of the day.

For many, staying ahead of the game means hard work as well hard play.  In the professional world, escape is often found at the bottom of a whiskey bottle, or through the £100 note used to snort a line of Columbia’s finest. But when does letting loose and escaping really become a problem?

Substances, such as alcohol and drugs can help lower inhibitions and induce intensely pleasurable feelings. This is why so many people turn to them at the end of a hard day or when things get tough and as such is one of the reasons why they are so addictive. The quicker the substance reaches the brain, and the more pleasurable a substance is, the more likely you are to become addicted, hence  drugs which are administered by snorting, smoking or injection are considered more addictive than drugs taken orally.

Here are six common “red flag” signs for addiction: (more…)

The Concept of Facebook

Created in 2004, Facebook is a popular free social networking website where members can add “friends”, upload photos, leave comments on friend’s “walls”, send private emails, talk live on “chat” and subscribe to pages of interest. What is the psychological impact of this method of interaction? Is Facebook psychologically harmful or beneficial on the whole?

Disadvantages of Facebook

Facebook has some commonly discussed disadvantages.

• Evidence has been found of a significant relationship between Facebook addiction, low-self esteem, depression and lack of social skills. Some people have replaced human interaction with cyber interaction, which often fails to satisfy the need to belong.
• There  are reported cases of Facebook being used as a method for cyber bullying, which is generally targeted at young adolescents. This often leads to depression and in extreme circumstances, cases of suicide. Although a very serious issue, theses incidences are fairly uncommon and do not pose as a major threat to the majority of Facebook users.

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