Stress Control Course

Is this course right for me?

This course is perfect for you if:

• You are feeling overwhelmed, under pressure, or stressed
• Have one or more of the following: anxiety; depression; panic; poor sleep; poor self-esteem / low self-confidence; irritability; burnout
• There is no one problem area that feels bigger than the rest
• You want to learn how to manage current problem areas, and how to prevent the chances of getting in to difficulty again in future

What will I learn?

This course can teach you:

• How to better manage a range of different problem areas
• Each session will help you to learn a new skill to help tackle stress
• When to use a skill, or when to combine skills, to overcome a problem
• How to gradually start making positive changes in your life
• How to improve your mood; reduce anxiety and panic; increase sleep; and overall feel better in terms of both physical and mental wellbeing

What does the course cover?

Session 1: What Is Stress? (introduction)

 ‘How Stress Control works’ (overview of the course); information about stress and what difficulties are covered on the course (panic; poor sleep; poor self-esteem / low self-confidence; irritability; burnout); how common stress is; typical symptoms; what keeps stress going (known as the ‘vicious circle’); and case studies of people who have experienced stress in different ways.

Session 2: Controlling Your Body (how stress impacts upon the body, and how to reduce physical symptoms of stress)

Looking at how the body feeds into your stress; the impact of excess caffeine on the body; breathing relaxation and progressive muscle relaxation exercises to help you to unwind; the benefits of exercise on your mental and physical wellbeing.

Session 3: Controlling Your Thoughts (the impact of stress on the way you think, and techniques to reduce unhelpful ways of thinking)

Learning about unhelpful thoughts you might experience when feeling stressed, and how to recognise and challenge these before they cause you problems.

Session 4: Controlling Your Actions (how stress impacts behaviour, and ways to change what you do to overcome stress)

How actions (what we do, or do not do) can feed our stress, bodily symptoms, and thoughts; the impact of avoidance on stress, self-confidence levels, and self-esteem; the importance of facing up to our fears / the things we have been avoiding.

Session 5: Controlling Panic Feelings and Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

Dealing with feeling overwhelmed – focusing on the role breathing plays in physical symptoms of panic; how controlling breathing and challenging thoughts can help control stress levels; tips to help prevent the likelihood of further panic attacks.

Looking at the importance of getting a good night’s sleep; the role of sleep; and the problems lack of sleep or poor quality sleep cause. Revisits relaxation, along with sleeping tips, and how to re-set or re-train your sleeping pattern.

Session 6: Wellbeing and Controlling Your Own Future

The importance of strengthening wellbeing in combination with removing stress; ways to improve wellbeing; recapping the course and skills learned, to help reduce the chances of relapse in the future.

How does the course run?

• We invite you to attend 6 sessions of the Stress Control course
• We will be meeting once a week for 1hr 30mins (same day and time each week)
• The sessions are non-interactive – you will not be expected to share your experiences with the group
• We expect 50+ people to be on each course, and information is taught in a lecture / seminar style
• Between each session you will be asked to go away and practice a skill that will help you to learn how to better manage your stress. Each skill is part of the jigsaw, to help equip you to face day to day difficulties
• You will be expected to attend all 6 sessions in order to gain full benefit from the course
• Please be aware that if you miss 2 sessions of the course, you will be discharged from Talk Liverpool back to the care of your GP.

Interested?

If you are interested in this course you can self-refer to the service by clicking HERE and we will contact you to arrange an initial telephone assessment.