A stress management workshop can be an event or a program specifically designed to assist individuals to overcome psychological stresses including fear, anger, worry and sorrow. Many stress management workshops are aimed at helping people change and adjust their behavior so that they can better cope with everyday stressful situations. These workshops not only have the ability to alleviate symptoms of stress but also to teach skills in assertive communication and problem solving. Stress has many effects on the body and mind and is therefore just as important to manage as it is to combat its adverse effects.
A stress management workshop can be a session lasting an hour or more depending on the desired objectives. Most workshops offer some basic information about the illness and how it can be treated and remedied. The first two to four hours of the workshop generally deal with educating the participants about what stress is, how it can affect our health and how we can manage it. During this stage the therapists encourage the participants to think about some of their past experiences that may have contributed to the development of stress and offer advice about how to deal with it. Some workshops even go so far as to assign a meaning to the different signs and symptoms of stress and how they relate to the overall stress management goals.
The role of the therapist during these workshops varies according to the specific stress disorder being addressed. Some specialize in dealing with stress that arises from traumatic life experiences like the bereavement or divorce of a close loved one or of a friend. Others specialize in the treatment of patients who suffer from depression, social anxiety, or obsessive compulsive disorder. There are even workshops that are designed for people who experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
The first step in any workshop is for the people to understand what stress is and what its symptoms are. Stress can arise in a number of different circumstances and individuals must be aware of each of them and be able to recognize when they are already at a high level of stress. This requires a lot of introspection on the part of the participants. After all, if many people did not recognize their stress symptoms, then why would any workshop recommend that everybody go through such a workshop? The presence of the symptoms of stress does not mean that someone is already stressed out, only that the person has experienced something that is contributing to his/her stress and is not aware of it.
In addition to recognizing the existence of symptoms of stress, the participants of the stress management workshop must also be able to identify and distinguish between normal and unhealthy stress. This is very difficult for people who are used to living in a world where everything is relative. Stress management workshops teach people to look beyond relative trends and consider the true definition of stress, which is the emotional, physical, mental, or social impact that an individual has on himself/herself or others. If the stressors in one's life are not considered abnormal, then the stress must not be considered as abnormal either.
A stress management workshop will teach its participants the things that they can do in order to lower their levels of stress. Each individual will be encouraged to make some changes in his/her habits and lifestyle in order to lower their stress levels. For example, a person who is used to drinking a glass of wine with dinner may now consider having a cocktail on a Friday evening instead. Some people may choose to stop smoking, while other people may choose to quit doing yoga. Regardless of the chosen change in lifestyle, these changes will help the participants to reduce their stress level.
Through the use of stress management techniques, stress will be recognized and taken care of before it causes more problems. Once these are recognized and handled, the person will start to live in a stress free environment. However, just because a person is living in a stress free environment does not mean that they are away from stressful experiences. There are still unavoidable situations that people will have to face and they will have to deal with them. Stress management workshops will teach participants how they can handle these situations better.
Stress management workshops will also teach their participants ways in which they can reduce their stress levels. The workshop will usually focus on how a person can change their attitude towards life. By changing one's attitude, a person will be able to see and treat stress positively. Once a person learns how to treat stress positively, they will be able to live in a stress free environment. If the stress management workshop that one takes does not include any stress management techniques, it will be wise for one to look for another one that does.