Psychotherapy for Working Life Issues

Our work takes up a big part of our lives. Professional life can be fulfilling but there are times when we find it challenging and stressful. Psychotherapy for work related  issues can help you  find a  fresh perspective and  better understanding of  what may drive the unhelpful dynamics  in your workplace with the hope of  finding  more  creative  ways to manage  your working life.

The pressures and challenges of working life

Just as you can hit a turbulent patch in your personal life, this can also happen in your work life. Work and career issues can become unsettling and even disruptive to our ability to function. Current work environment is highly pressurised and requires engagement with constant change making great demands on individuals’ internal resources who need a great deal of psychological robustness in navigating the complex organizational dynamics.

Do you feel unhappy, stuck, uninspired or unable to make a decision about your work life?

Are you struggling with identifying what it is that you enjoy about your career?

Perhaps you are suffering from low confidence or you are concerned about your future career prospects?

You may be thinking about changing jobs or considering a new career direction, attempting to achieve a better work-life balance or having difficulties with managing stress, relationships at work or the nature of the work itself.

How can psychotherapy help with work and career related issues?

Psychotherapy can be of help by focusing on the emotional challenges that you can encounter in your career at every stage of your professional life. Professionals in high stress, high pressure roles find this is an opportunity to explore areas that are troubling them in a confidential and non judgmental space where they can be open and honest about their feelings and anxieties without fear of repercussions.

Any aspect of the working life can present a challenge but professionals often bring the following career related issues to their sessions:

• Anxiety about performance and unhealthy drive towards perfectionism
• Lack of confidence and feeling like an impostor- so called ‘Impostor Syndrome’
• Difficulties with Assertiveness & Setting of Boundaries
• Bullying or harassment in the workplace
• Difficulties with communication
• Conflict at work
• Managing relationships with colleagues and managers
• High-stress levels & Burnout
• Job dissatisfaction, feeling stuck, lack of direction
• Redundancy
• Retirement & losing your purpose
• Work-life balance

By examining underlying anxieties and unhelpful patterns of behaviors that may be affecting your performance and work relationships therapy can help you.

• Develop more effective personal boundaries
• Develop a more robust sense of agency leading to greater inner strength and resilience
• Find better work –life balance and recover sense of meaning in your life
• Improve your relationships at work and home
• Discover more effective ways of managing change and transitions
• Feel more confident when dealing with conflict
• Understand better what changes you need to make so that you can enjoy work again

In allowing yourself this time, you can begin to reflect on your work experience and explore the roots of these difficulties with the hope of eventually finding more positive ways to manage the challenges of your working or professional life.

Psychoanalytic approach to dealing with work and career issues

As a psychoanalytic practitioner I am interested in helping you to understand your own emotional experience in order to explore what may be driving the unhelpful dynamics that you encounter in your working life. At the core of my approach lies the development of a trusting therapeutic relationship that will allow us to work on the deeper dynamics underlying the overt difficulties. I have substantial experience of helping individuals working in highly pressurised environments to manage personal and organisational stress. My training and work experience across different cultures has given me special understanding and insights into issues of transition and cultural diversity. I have a particular interest in helping individuals to face issues of change, transition and conflict and the emotional dimension of organisational life.

Helpful information about dealing with some of the workplace difficulties

Bullying.co.uk
Is a really helpful website with articles, ideas and resources to help anyone being bullied or supporting someone being bullied
Bullying.co.uk

Mind Tools Video
This video explains clearly the difference between being assertive and being aggressive and gives some simple advice on how to be more assertive and set your boundaries.
Mind Tools video

Oliver Burkeman: The Guardian
Oliver Burkeman often has a light-hearted take on emotional matters. Here he gives his simple but easy to understand take on Impostor Syndrome and how society should try and tackle it.
Oliver Burkeman