Whether you find your identity in your career or it is just something that pays the bills, there is no arguing that employment likely plays a significant role in your life. It is common for people to spend more than 90,000 hours (as much as a third of their lives, on average) at their place of work, and this immense time commitment can bring with it stress and the many health problems that arise from it. The good news is that individual therapy can help!
Stress is more than just emotional discomfort or a feeling of overwhelm. It is a physiological process with real consequences for both the body and mind. While stress at work is common, it can become even more intense during periods of transition. Managing these challenges in a safe and healthy manner can be difficult on your own. Instead, consider the power of therapy to help you through this complicated segment of your life so that you come out the other side emotionally strong, mentally resilient, and happy with your trajectory.
Why Are Transitions So Stressful?
To understand why workplace responsibilities and transitions cause such significant disruptions in people’s lives, it is useful to learn what makes them a source of stress in the first place. Shouldn’t a person be excited about new opportunities and success?
While it is true that a workplace transition can be an exciting time, even positive excitement can elicit a stress response. Consider how a child feels when the family car pulls up to Disney World; they will likely struggle to even stay in their seats! This intense energy is still stress, even though it is directed positively. Ultimately, the body responds in the same way.
The biology of stress
Life transitions and major events are stressful because they require the body to exert extra effort to cope with the demands. The body is preparing itself for new responsibilities and environments that it does not yet fully understand, and in order to equip itself with the tools it needs to succeed, it must allocate all its resources toward the new task or event.
Your body is anticipating that you might need extra energy to handle this new responsibility. It does not know the difference between changing which office you sit in and your human ancestor moving to a new place where sourcing food, water, and shelter should be treated as an emergency.
To generate this energy, the body requests cortisol from the hypothalamus. Often called the stress hormone, cortisol is responsible for processes such as the fight-or-flight response. It can raise blood glucose levels (your main source of energy) and constrict blood vessels. When the body is burning all of its stored energy, it is no wonder people feel physically tire and emotionally exhausted.
Even if you’re not actively making a transition at work (e.g., from a normal employee to manager, from one job to another), simply performing your normal career tasks can lead to stress. Managing that stress is essential to help you return to a healthy baseline and succeed in your role at work, and by proxy, at home.
Signs You’re Stressed
Transitions and general workplace stress biologically alter how the body responds to its environment, and that can lead to numerous side effects. You are likely suffering from abnormal or unhealthy levels of stress if you:
- Have recurrent physical pain, such as headaches or muscle tension
- Struggle to concentrate
- Notice mood swings with no apparent cause
- Have difficulty falling or staying asleep
- See a decrease in work quality, even if tasks were formerly easy for you
- Do not want to eat as much, have digestive issues, or are experiencing a compulsion to eat
- Feel exhausted all the time, even after resting
- Feel overwhelmed or numb
- Cannot control your thoughts as they race out of control or spiral
- Have difficulty remembering basic things or recent events
Even if you do not believe that stress is negatively impacting your life (that is, that you are good at “dealing with it”), it can cause long-term problems. Those suffering from chronic stress are at an increased risk of developing health issues such as hypertension and Parkinson’s, and prolonged stress over numerous years can increase a person’s risk of premature death by as much as 43%. Addressing career stress both during normal work and throughout important transitions is essential for living a long, happy, healthy life.
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy is a diverse field that can approach the challenge of stress from multiple angles. However, it does not need to stop at stress management. Therapy can also be invaluable for teaching you how to proceed through difficult transitions, equipping you with skills that will serve you for a lifetime. In general, therapy will:
Tackle stress first
Before you can address your career transitions or responsibilities, you will need to manage your stress. Individual therapy offers numerous options for doing so. The therapist will likely recommend identifying the source of the stress first; by naming your stressors, you take the first step toward mitigating their influence.
From there, the therapist can brainstorm with you to reduce the impact of those stressors. For example, if you find yourself already stressed by the time you get to work because of the commute, what other options are available? Can you rent an apartment closer to work? Buy a bike to avoid traffic? Transition to a hybrid work schedule? Listen to a podcast or practice breathing exercises in the car?
A therapist’s recommendations for reducing stress will depend on your specific lifestyle, habits, preferences, and goals. This is why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to therapy.
Develop a plan to transition
If you are going through a career transition (or any other significant life event), therapy can be an invaluable tool for creating a plan. By establishing a framework for the transition process, a therapist can help you eliminate numerous sources of stress, such as uncertainty, the need to retain too much information in your head, and unexpected demands that you previously did not foresee.
Breaking down a stressful event into smaller, more manageable pieces is essential to success. For example, suppose you will be moving to a new city to start a new job in an elevated position. A therapist can help you break apart this large task as follows:
- Housing
- Transportation
- Arrival
- Packing
- Paperwork
These are the main areas you will need to focus on as you make your plans. From there, break them down further. For example:
Housing: Decide what type of housing you want (apartment, condo, etc.). Create a budget, choose a neighborhood, and establish minimum requirements, including square footage and amenities.
By breaking seemingly large tasks into smaller steps, you can create an actionable plan that continues to move you forward without feeling overwhelmed. Your therapist is invaluable in helping you manage your stress through intention and action.
Shore up supports
Another important aspect of therapy is the ability to develop supportive structures. Your therapist can offer resources to help, such as local groups struggling with similar issues, or they can assist in gathering your friends and family to support you. How do you ask for help without imposing too much on others? How do you enforce boundaries so you can support yourself? These are the types of questions that a therapist can help you process.
Learn new skills
One of the most important parts of therapy is learning new skills that will help you succeed and overcome stress even when you are away from the therapist’s office. Examples of skills that you can cultivate in individual therapy to manage stressors include:
- Breathing exercises
- Practicing self-compassion
- Journaling (or art, or whatever suits your personality)
- Body awareness practice
- Vulnerability
The skills that work for you depend on your distinct personality. Part of the power of therapy is working with a professional who can identify the strategies that can work for you and which types of stress skills are suited to your specific stressor.
Adjust thought patterns
Another core skill learned in individual therapy (usually through cognitive behavioral therapy) is how to adjust one’s thought patterns. In many cases, a person’s thought processes directly drive their stress responses.
For example, suppose that you have been informed that you have a performance review coming up at work, and you are struggling to sleep because of the stress. CBT can help you to identify the thought patterns that are negatively influencing your mental state:
- I fear that I will be penalized for poor performance
- I fear that I will lose my job
- I fear that my boss or coworkers will think less of me
Then, the skills learned in cognitive behavioral therapy can equip you to reframe these thoughts into ones that serve you:
- I have done my work to the best of my ability, and my performance review should reflect that
- I followed protocol when performing my tasks, so I can explain any confusion
- Work performance reviews are a normal part of employment; I am not being singled out
By learning how thought patterns actively contribute to stress and being able to redirect them into something useful, you can reduce your chances of burnout and overwhelm.
Try Individual Therapy to Manage Your Career Transitions or Stress
Individual therapy is an invaluable resource for individuals struggling with life’s stressors, particularly due to employment or significant life transitions. From learning new coping skills to developing novel thought patterns, you can create a strong foundation to approach any stressful situation with confidence. Contact Aquila Recovery Clinic to schedule your therapy session and learn more!