Therapy for Stress: Why It's More Than Just Talking
Rethinking Therapy for Stress
Many people assume therapy is just talking about problems, but it’s much more than that. Therapy offers a space to understand emotions and practice mindfulness, especially when it comes to stress and anxiety. Everyday, we face countless stressors and “what if?” scenarios that may become increasingly difficult to challenge.
Therapy for stress and stress relief counseling not only provide mental health support but also practical tools to manage stress effectively. Therapy helps develop coping skills, emotional regulation, and long-term stress management strategies.
Understanding Stress and Its Impact
What Is Stress?
Stress is the body’s response to external pressures. Both types—acute and chronic—can adversely impact mental and physical health.
Acute stress is short-term stress resulting from a specific event, usually a temporary situation. Perhaps, you have a sudden deadline at work or you’re about to have a difficult conversation. These situations typically cause acute stress, a “fight-or-flight” feeling.
The other type of stress is chronic stress, long-term stress caused by ongoing situations. Potential causes of long-term stress can include a demanding job, financial difficulties, or chronic illness—any situation where there seems to be no relief in sight to the “fight-or-flight” feeling.
The Cost of Unmanaged Stress
Improperly managing stress can have long-lasting detrimental impacts.
Short-term stress affects sleep, concentration, and overall well-being. It can be difficult to stick to a routine and focus on work and relationships if your mind is preoccupied with a temporary stressor.
While acute stress can make it difficult to focus or sleep for a night or two, chronic stress often leads to more severe health problems. Chronic stress may last weeks, months, or years. Remaining in the “fight-or-flight” mindset for longer spans of time wears on the body and mind. Long-term stress can lead to cardiovascular disease, anxiety, or depression.
Why Professional Support Matters
People often have their own methods for managing stress, like exercising at the gym, reading, baking, or trying a new hobby. These activities may help distract your mind and keep you grounded, so that you feel ready to take on whatever is the source of your stress. Self-help strategies can be helpful, but therapy for stress and stress relief counseling provides structured, evidence-based approaches. A therapist can help identify triggers and develop sustainable coping mechanisms, which can equip you with skills to remain mindful during both temporary and longer-term stressful situations.
Why Therapy for Stress Is More Than Just Talking
Common Misconceptions
The idea that “Therapy is just for venting” is a myth.
Therapy is more than just talking; therapy is taking time to work on you and improve your ability to face, understand, and manage short- and long-term stressors in life. It’s a space for you to reflect and practice coping mechanisms, such as mindfulness. The reality is, therapy teaches skills, changes thought patterns, and builds resilience.
Therapy as a Skill-Building Process
Therapy helps with stress and our therapists use evidence-based techniques like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help you develop effective coping strategies for stress and other stress management techniques.
CBT and DBT are evidence-based psychotherapies aimed at helping individuals manage their mental health by addressing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. CBT focuses primarily on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors—it aims to help you restructure your thinking. While similar, DBT puts more emphasis on emotional regulation, such as thoughts and feelings.
Therapy for stress management includes developing skills that can help you navigate stress. Sessions are structured to create long-term stress management strategies, not just emotional release.
How Therapy Creates Lasting Change
Therapy helps retrain the brain’s response to stress and develop healthier coping mechanisms. Your therapist can work with you to continue practicing these skills, identify where you can reprioritize your efforts, and check in with yourself. The goal is to help you develop the skills that work for you, while making sure you are engaged. Developing more effective skills and coping mechanisms to manage stress takes practice. Supportive accountability ensures individuals integrate these tools into daily life.
Practical Stress-Relief Strategies Learned in Therapy
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques
Mindfulness is the practice of remaining centered and focused. It’s important to remain “present,” since this can help you keep calm during stressful situations. Your body and mind welcome relaxation. Techniques such as guided breathing, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation can promote increased mindfulness in your life. These grounding exercises are effective tools for stress reduction, providing individuals with moments of relaxation and calm to counteract the negative impacts of stress on the mind and body.
Cognitive Reframing
Cognitive reframing requires individuals to question their own thoughts. It involves identifying and challenging negative thought patterns to understand why you think the way you do. Often, it can feel impossible to prevent negative thoughts from taking over. Our minds may be conditioned to always think the worst. Giving space to negative thought patterns without questioning how much weight they should hold can fuel anxiety and often add more stress to a stressful situation. Cognitive reframing requires a shift from stress-inducing to solution-faced thinking. Pausing to interrogate these thoughts can challenge their impact; focusing on how to manage the issue at hand can empower you.
Behavioral Coping Strategies
No matter the situation, it’s important to identify and practice behavioral coping strategies as a form of stress management. These strategies equip you to more confidently address stressors in life. Learning to manage stress without avoidance or unhealthy coping mechanisms requires practice.
However, strategies like setting boundaries, improving sleep hygiene, and building self-care routines help to combat the effects of short- and long-term stress by prioritizing you. For example, your job may ask you to be available beyond normal working hours, which could eat into time you need to relax. Establish boundaries with your boss or manager. Let them know when you are available. Getting adequate rest is an effective way to help your brain recover, recharge, and remain present. And dedicating time for you to explore what brings joy to your life is necessary—it’s a method to relieve the mental and physical effects of stress.
How Different Types of Therapy Help with Stress
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify triggers and reframe unhelpful thinking patterns. This form of therapy is often best-suited for individuals with anxiety, depression, or other conditions where negative thoughts or behaviors are more prominent, but it can also be an effective method for managing stress. Negative thought patterns can work against you, making it difficult to remain present. These thoughts may elevate feelings of stress, rather than help you to find a solution. CBT focuses on problem-solving and stress reduction techniques.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and mindfulness. Emotions can be powerful and overwhelming. And when you’re overwhelmed, it can feel nearly impossible to navigate and understand emotional distress. Your response to stress may not prioritize your health and well-being. Your response may even lead to increased stress during an already stressful situation. DBT helps individuals handle intense emotions and stress without impulsive reactions.
Other Approaches
Therapy for stress and stress relief counseling may include additional approaches. Somatic therapy involves body-based techniques, such as body awareness, breathwork, and movement exercises, to relieve stress. This form of therapy promotes a heightened awareness of bodily sensations and stored emotions, like stress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of values-based stress management. Through ACT, individuals learn to accept thoughts and feelings without judgment, focus on the present, and reflect on what is important and meaningful in life.
When to Seek Therapy for Stress
Signs You Could Benefit from Therapy
Stress impacts individuals everyday, and may be derived from any aspects of our lived experience. It may be time to seek therapy for stress when the stress is now interfering with your daily life, work, or relationships. Often, individuals find they are unable to focus or adequately rest, including sleep at night. Symptoms of stress, like feeling constantly overwhelmed, exhausted, or unable to relax can lead to long-term health problems. But chronic stress is not the only reason to seek stress relief counseling. Therapy can help with managing acute stress by providing mental health support and coping mechanisms to keep you present.
Therapy as a Preventative Tool
You don’t have to wait until stress becomes unbearable—therapy can help build resilience before burnout occurs. You may not yet even feel heavier symptoms of stress. Therapy can be a preventative tool to prepare you to manage stress in your life. It is a skill-building exercise that leads to long-lasting changes. Methods such as CBT and DBT can prepare you for addressing future stressful moments, either acute or chronic. Therapy for stress positions you to nurture mindfulness and give space to problem-solving thoughts, rather than stress-inducing thoughts.
Taking the First Step
Seeking therapy is a proactive, empowering decision that prioritizes your mental and physical well-being. Insight Northwest Counseling in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, provides expert support for stress management, including stress therapy for work-related stress, mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy, and CBT for stress and anxiety.
Finding Strength in Therapy
Everyday, we face countless stressful situations. Whether it’s work or our relationships, stress can become increasingly difficult to address if we don’t have the most effective techniques for managing stress. While we all have our own coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, therapy offers evidence-based techniques to remain present. Therapy provides more than just a space to talk—it offers real, effective stress management tools. Therapy helps develop coping skills, emotional regulation, and long-term stress management strategies.
Importantly, therapy is not only for when you feel constantly overwhelmed, exhausted, or unable to relax. Rather, therapy is a proactive approach to mental well-being. Book a free consultation today to explore stress relief counseling as Insight Northwest Counseling. Take the first step to develop more effective coping mechanisms for the management of stress in your life.