When: Wednesdays 12 June - 17 July Inclusive
Time: Day or Night Sessions available, 1330-1500 or 1830-2000
Where: The Pickaquoy Centre
What is Stress Control?
Stress Control is a free class, over six weeks, which helps develop skills to manage common issues such as stress, worry, burnout or poor sleep. We will never need to speak about our own issues, there is no attendance sheet, just turn up, take a seat and listen. Feel free to bring a friend or family member for support.
Read below for further details:
- Stress Control is run by either a cognitive-behavioural therapist or a clinical psychologist.
- It is for people who want to learn some great ways to control common problems such as anxiety, depression, panic, poor sleep, burnout, loss of confidence or low self-esteem (in other words, ‘stress’)
- Stress Control is currently running at the Pickaquoy Centre on six Wednesdays from 12th June – 17th July 2019
- You can choose either the Wednesday evening (6.30-8pm) or Wednesday afternoon (1.30-3pm) class. Classes run at the same time so you can switch between the two if you want. Although it is best to start at Session 1, you can join a class at any session.
- It was devised 30 years ago by Dr Jim White, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and researcher
- As stress is such a common problem, a typical afternoon class has between around 30-40 people on it. The evening class often has around 80-120.
- You do not talk about your problems in the course (not many people want to talk in front of others) and there is no writing to be done in the class
- Feel free to bring someone with you, either for a bit of support, because it would help get them on the same wavelength or if you think they could also benefit from the class.
- There are booklets that are given out at the class
- The class will teach you to ‘become your own therapist’ so you must work hard at practising the things you learn in each session
- There is no attendance sheet – just turn up, take a seat wherever you want, then sit back and learn some great ways to control stress.
The Six Sessions
Week 1: Information about stress
You will find out what stress is and what it is not, the main signs, the vicious circles that keep it alive and how Stress Control works. We will show you a video of people talking about how stress affects them.
Week 2: Controlling your body
We get down to tackling stress in this session. You will learn how your body signs feed stress. We look at why we get stressed and how the body reacts to it. You will learn three skills - breathing retraining, exercise and progressive relaxation and look at caffeine.
Week 3: Controlling your thoughts
You will learn how your thinking feeds stress. We will teach you ways to ‘think your way out of stress’ – first of all by ‘building the foundation– ‘Wait a minute’. Then you will learn ‘The Big 5 Challenges’ and, finally, you will learn a way to nip stress in the bud – ‘Breaking stress up’.
Week 4: Controlling your actions
This session looks at how the way we act feeds stress. You’ll learn ways to face your fears and a great skill called ‘Problem Solving’. Also we will look at why some people, who seem to be doing all the right things, still don’t get over their stress. We will then teach you how to overcome this (‘Stepping out your comfort zone’). These skills are really useful for building up self-confidence.
You might start to see the big picture in this session – seeing how all the skills you have learned so far fit together.
Week 5: Controlling panicky feelings, Getting a good night’s sleep
Panicky feelings are part and parcel of stress. This session teaches you ways to control them. We will teach you about using your breathing to calm your body and, hence, your mind. We will also look at some great ways to prevent stress. We will look sleeping tips and a great skill called ‘Retraining your sleep’ for those of you who feel your sleep is poor.
Week 6: Wellbeing, Pulling it all together and Controlling your future
Wellbeing starts the final set of skills as we look at ways of staying on top of stress. You will learn about Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning and Giving. Mindfulness is a useful skill to help you live more in the moment. Compassion and gratitude complete the wellbeing skills. We will then pull together everything we have learned, look at the importance of values and look at how to control your future.