Coaching and stress management

Coaching is a term that we have been hearing a lot of for the last 10 years or so and life and performance coaching has become the 'in thing' to embark upon, especially when addressing stress, panic attacks, obsessions and compulsions. Increasingly people are turning to coaching for help to move away from problem states of mind and behaviour towards positive life, work, personal or work goals.

"Coaching refers to the activity of a coach in developing the abilities of a coachee. Coaching tends to focus on an existing issue (from which to move away from) or a specific outcome that the individual wishes to achieve (move towards). In both cases, the coach aims to stimulate the coachee to uncover innate knowledge so they can achieve a sustainable result." [Wikipedia – Coaching]

When stress is increasingly applied to anything, then it will ultimately bend, buckle and finally break. Humans in our drive to high achievement and high standards are no less vulnerable to this universal truth than any other element - so we bend, buckle and break in our own ways. This can result in drinking too much, getting ill in some way or heading like a run-away train towards burnout.

Health and wellbeing is now of increasing concern to us, particularly as achievement and stress go hand-in-hand. As with the world of sports, in our domestic or commercial worlds we are increasingly driven to achieve in a number ways which have brought greatly increased pressure and high levels of stress to our lives.

The term coach is thought to be derived from sports coaching but draws its influences from diverse backgrounds. Increasingly those theories and models used in coaching are being drawn from the world of health psychology and psychotherapy. Coaches help people achieve goals. It is a solution focused activity; in a sense, coaching is really a style of helping. Coaches who are not trained psychologists might argue that coaching isn't therapy, although coaching can most certainly be a type of therapy or approach to therapy if applied to areas of health and wellbeing.

What is essential to understand about modern coaching is that it is a powerful and proven effective method of helping individuals and groups better understand their problems and difficulties and to set and achieve their goals. Coaching is an action-oriented method of assisting clients to get where they want to be.

At the Freedom Therapy Clinic we are qualified and experienced in helping people achieve their life goals and change their problem behaviours, thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Our job as coaches is to help our clients achieve success, through achievement and fulfilment of their deepest desires.