Stress Management Workshops: UCA
Revolution Psychotherapy & Counselling teamed up with Hypnohealth earlier this month when we were invited to take part in UCA's Wellbeing Day. If you've never been to UCA before, it's The University of Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey. We delivered a stress management workshop to staff and students, demonstrating to them how self-hypnosis and talking therapy could be used to manage their stress levels.
Revolution and Hypnohealth felt privileged to be invited to take part in the university's wellbeing day on the 19th of April. You may recall that day: it was the hottest day of the year so far! Despite the heat, we delivered two 90 minute workshops: one to staff and one to students. Our subject? Stress management; something which was much needed for the students, whose end-of-year deadlines were looming, and staff, who have to balance the stresses in their lives outside of the classroom with the pressures of getting all their students through the academic year.
In the workshops, we started by discussing what the delegates understood about stress, drawing out the fact that its effects are cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioural. Importantly, we made it clear that everyone's experience of stress is very personal and invited delegates to reflect on their own experiences.
The workshops were very interactive and full of variety: Vivienne Evans, of Hypnohealth, talked to delegates about the science behind stress, emphasising that stress is a natural, chemical, part of human life. She offered ways of managing stress levels which revolved around self-hyposis and mindfulness - even bringing along her special 'hypno-chair' so she could demonstrate a PMR [progressive muscle relaxation] on one lucky attendee!
Integrated with Vivienne's hypnotherapy-based tips for stress, I enabled delegates to explore ways in which talking therapy could be used to manage stress, demonstrating strategies taken from CBT [Cognitive Behavioural Therapy] that could be used to gain perspective and clarity. My favourite segment of the workshops was helping the staff and students to reflect on how their use of langauge might be perpetuating stress and how they could start to change these patterns. You can take an English teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the love of langauge out of her!
Both Vivienne and myself really enjoyed working with the staff and students of UCA, and we were bowled over by how much they enjoyed the workshops and how useful they found the techniques we demonstrated. We only wish we could have had more time!
If you would like to learn more about our stress management workshop, or would like to make a booking, please go to my contact page and fill in the contact form.
