CORPORATE COUNSELORS

We get it because we lived it! Managing workplace stress.

Prior to our transitions to counseling, JoAnna was a financial center manager and Joe was a circuit design engineer and managed a semiconductor chip business for two multinational corporations.

Unless you work in rare circumstances, work life is at best filled with a myriad of daily challenges: unrealistic expectations, unfulfilling tasks, stress, incompetent colleagues and managers, too much email, efficiency-killing bureaucracy, and competing political agendas. At worst, it’s an environment of humiliation, long hours, deception, cynicism, powerlessness, and toxicity that can be nearly impossible to face every day. You may even feel trapped – you can’t quit but staying seems unbearable. 

Of course, we can and should make efforts every day to improve the situations we find ourselves enduring. That said, the reality is that we aren’t going to be able to alter most situations to the extent that we would prefer. We can’t change people very effectively and, consequently, we will also find it difficult to change an environment regardless of how toxic or dysfunctional it may be. Toxic work environments don’t just happen, they are created and sustained via a complex interplay of many factors and forces. In short, we can’t change ‘the system’ and frustration, stress, and even sadness will inevitably result if this is our only strategy for dealing with the circumstances. 

So, what can we do, realistically and practically, in order to thrive? What path is guaranteed to be effective? We can do the one thing all humans are experts in: we can adapt. We can grow until our internal capabilities exceed those required by the situation. We can grow in our ability to cope with difficulty and grow in wisdom so that there is less to cope with over time. In so doing, we can become an example to others – often the only thing we can realistically do to change the situation anyway.

The somewhat blunt reality is that there is always a large component of our unhappiness that results from a less than ideal approach to the circumstances. You may even be able to see that better reactions seem possible for others but can’t figure out why they aren’t available to you. At Mind & Bodhi Therapy, we help you understand why things are as they are and why you feel and react in the ways you do. Most importantly, we help you develop the skills you will need in order to feel a whole lot better and, dare we say, thrive within difficulty. We aren’t miracle workers, nor are we suggesting that you are going to come to love painful meetings, unrealistic deadlines, or your toxic boss, but you will learn to work within all of it and be comfortable and content no matter how things go. 

Call for a short consultation. You are the expert on your life, it won’t take long for you to determine if we have anything interesting and substantive to contribute to your journey towards wellbeing. We are confident that you will, and we look forward to working with you.