Techniques used by Coaches to minimize stress
Posted on September 08, 2019 by Kristi Alcouffe, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
One thing is sure..when we are stressed, our ability to think clearly declines, rapidly! How will a Coach help you to minimize your stress?
Be honest with yourself.
How often would you say that your stress level at work has a negative affect on your performance?
For years I helped professionals in Paris with their English. In France, using English at work is a huge stress, and rightly so! Many French have studied English in school for +10 years, yet never actually spoke English during that time. In fact, one of my very first trainees 25 years ago told me that her boss had informed her that she would lose her job if the upcoming presentation with the team from California didn’t go well…Talk about stress!!
A certified Coach uses many techniques to help their clients minimize stress.
Perhaps the most powerful technique is simply being there for their client. A certified coach is fully present, deeply listening to that client. Knowing that another kind, caring human being believes you have all the resources necessary to find your own solutions and who really listens without judging or offering advice or suggestions, is a great beginning to reduce stress. How often do we have the luxury of someone listening like that?
The beauty of working with a certified coach is that in addition to being fully present for their client, a Coach knows how to help a client think through what exactly it is that is causing the stress (a specific event? a particular person?) and then how to deal with this stress. Often, just taking a little bit of time to prepare for an upcoming “stressful” event can greatly help to minimize the stress. Another technique certified coaches use is called “disassociation”. With disassociation, a Coach guides their client to see the situation from the outside, as if it were someone else. One more helpful tool is a sort of “Self-Care Checklist” that helps a client determine how to practice good self-care. The fact is, without the basics including enough sleep, good nutrition, healthy personal relationships and exercise, emotional regulation becomes difficult. Finally, we are hearing more and more about neuroscience and this better understanding of how our brains operate can also minimize stress. In fact, brain imagery shows that actually naming an emotion and looking at that emotion from a detached perspective greatly minimizes the stress associated. This allows the “rational, thinking” part of the brain to do its job!! And what about taking some time to breathe! We feel better when we increase the oxygen taken in and our heartbeat slows….
Experience coaching today and start practicing these techniques among others, to minimize the stress in your life and maximize your thinking capabilities!!
