STRESS MANAGEMENT

 

The nature of work in the creative industries is both exciting and demanding, with enormous pressure to deliver creatively and commercially. In these types of environment, a certain amount of stress tends to be inevitable, especially for high-level executives and creatives.

The Arts Clinic offers a sophisticated and flexible approach to deal with the many problems which present simply as stress.

Our main aim is to enable people to achieve Stress Competence i.e. the ability to work in these exciting situations in a balanced and productive way that enhances their performance.

The first step is a computer-based psychological health screening, together with a full personal psychological, medical and occupational history. This takes approximately one hour and forty minutes.

The results of this investigation are then discussed with the client. In certain cases, this process is sufficient in itself and no further intervention is required.

Otherwise, taking into account the cause and nature of the problem presenting as stress, a number of different options may be recommended:-

1.      A Stress Management Programme consisting of five further fifty-minute, weekly sessions specifically designed to suit the needs of those in the creative industries. The programme includes elements from our creative mentoring programme for maximum benefit.

2.      The initial assessment may show that more in-depth counselling or psychological intervention is required, for example when the stress caused by a life event impinges on work performance. This would usually consist of ten to twelve weekly, fifty-minute sessions.

Funding for treatment is often negotiable through a client's individual or company health insurance. In other instances a company takes responsibility for areas of the programme related to training.

Stress Support Programme

The Arts Clinic also offers a specialised support programme designed to help clients facing particular difficulties in the present which would respond to a structured, time-limited support programme. This type of programme is valuable, for example, in enabling a client to cope with a demanding promotional schedule, to deal with anxiety over a film or television shoot, or to work through the difficulties arising from restructuring an organsiation or department.

The programme focuses upon present and future issues and does not concentrate on the client's past.

Following assessment, the programme comprises: Six sessions with a counsellor or psychologist.