‘Companies on the Couch’

In this issue, Veronica Walsh of www.CBTandFeelingGood.com, explains how CBT (cognitive behaviourial therapy) can be used to develop ‘smart’ coping skills in the workplace.

All reports indicate that the global downturn is escalating incidences of anxiety and depression in people  – not just for those who find themselves unemployed, but also those who remain in an unstable workforce – unsure of what is going to come next… trying to cope with the change the situation has wrought, and juggling with new financial constraints and a fear of the future.

What’s happening? When we perceive situations as scary and a danger, our bodies turn on our fight or flight systems and we often feel an inability to cope. If this continues over a period of time the fears can grow and become unmanageable, and we may develop unhealthy negative automatic thinking distortions, and our coping skills may break down. Thus our physical and psychological health suffers, and we experience emotional disturbances (or to put it simply, we feel awful!), and we behave in ways that are unproductive. That’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) 101! So… given these facts – shouldn’t we acknowledge that this recession may very well bring depression and anxiety to large numbers of people? Now that our emotional resilience is being tested in unprecedented ways, is it time to normalise psychotherapy, and make it ‘no big deal’? To destigmatise it and bring it’s teachings proactively to people in a ‘non therapy’ educational way?

Is psychotherapy just for people who have obvious mental health issues? No - smart modern psychotherapy tools are, or should be, for everybody! Besides, often people who are suffering don’t label themselves as ‘ill’ – and/or they feel they should be able to handle it themselves – or feel it’s ‘just the way things are’ – or don’t have the time or money or inclination for months of weekly traditional therapy. And of course there are many people that can be prevented from a future emotional illness if there is early intervention and they are given the knowledge and tools now to stay off that road, (the World Health Organisation says that one in four of us will suffer with a mental illness at some stage in our lives, but nearly two-thirds will never seek help.).

Prevention is better than cure. We know that personal development is a good thing. We know that education and learning is a good thing. Hey, it’s not so long ago we learned we needed to exercise regularly and eat sensibly for our physical health – so why shouldn’t our schools and governments and doctors and bosses now automatically offer us modern (and proven) psychotherapy methods and techniques that help us to take care of our emotional health? Such learning might save us from years of an emotional rollercoaster that disables us from living life to the full. Apart from the obvious benefits on personal lives and the workplace and society, it would also enable savings on the enormous monetary costs of anxiety and depression (a recent report showed that mental illness cost Ireland €3 billion in a given year, and that two thirds of that is ‘economic output’).

Are we talking about actual Group Therapy? No. That wouldn’t be a good idea for the workplace - there’s sharing and there’s sharing! No – an effective and inexpensive start to the introduction of psychotherapy to employees might be in the form of a ‘learning by discovery’ workshop – which is fun and interesting and educational – that promotes positive mental health, and uses general hypothetical situations to encourage discussion while learning the basic principles and theory and practices of the worlds leading psychotherapy ‘CBT’ – which is a psycho-educational model and has proven to lend itself well to ‘self-help’, effectively teaching participants to become their own therapists, and to develop new skills in self-management. (The NHS in the UK have a much more significant spend on research and treatment of mental health than Ireland – and their commissioned studies have determined CBT to be the preferred/first choice of treatment for all mental illness related issues – they are even setting up CBT in their jobcentres to proactively help the unemployed!).

Ongoing options: some employees might use this learning as a stepping stone to one to one ‘deeper’ CBT counselling if they think it necessary - either through an employee assistance program, or privately by their own means. Alternatively, they may decide to continue the learning and development as ‘self-help’ – using the workshop handouts and exercise worksheets and journal tips, and accessing the recommended reading list for further development. There are also various ‘computerised cognitive behavioural therapy’ options available for further study.

CBT explains what is happening around your particular anxiety – it teaches you to think about thinking, and gives you practical methods and techniques to change dysfunctional and unhealthy thinking and behaviours… it will give you a mental toolbox to effectively become your own therapist.
 
About CBT and Feeling Good
CBT and Feeling Good train individuals and employee groups in how to use CBT to develop new smart coping skills to deal with life stress and anxiety – promoting psychological health and wellbeing through education.

With thanks to Veronica Walsh from CBT and Feeling Good. If you’d like to get in contact with Veronica, please e-mail her at veronica@CBTandFeelingGood.com

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