Stress Management

Stress management is the ability to recognize stress triggers and respond to them in healthy, constructive ways that maintain emotional, mental, and physical well-being.

Why It Matters

Effective stress management improves focus, decision-making, productivity, relationships, and overall health — especially important in high-demand work environments. At the IE Group, we can measure your stress levels and provide you with strategies to remediate stress factors, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, enhancement of positive neurons in the brain, techniques to shift negative cognitions and goal-setting techniques to craft your future.

Book a Session

Step 1: Re-lable

Which means to put a label on your experience (mental; emotional; behavioural), and specifically deceptive brain messages that take you away from your long-term goals or pursuit of your values. So, if you experience yourself feeling worried/anxious, say, “I am worried or (anxious) right now”. So, you remind yourself of what you are experiencing right now, including potentially habitual responses like checking social media over and over or comfort eating;

Step 2: Re-frame

This means to change your perception of the importance of the deceptive brain messages. Say why these thoughts, urges and impulses bother you, i.e. that they are ‘false brain messages. An example would be all or nothing / black and white thinking, e.g. catching yourself thinking or saying, “This is great or this is terrible”. Remind yourself that most of the time you want to be thinking somewhere in the grey zone. This will stop you from throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Step 3: Re-focus

So, after you get your mental field clear, using re-labeling and re-framing, focus your attention in the direction of where you want to go. Direct your attention toward a mental process or (preferably) an activity that is productive and wholesome and aligned with your top values – even while the false and deceptive urges, impulses, thoughts and sensations are still happening. This could be something constructive, which will help you to not react in a knee-jerk fashion. It is through the focusing of attention toward something constructive, and away from your error messages/cognitive distortions, that your brain gets rewired. This changes your thoughts, too.

Step 4: Re-value

As you use the above three steps, the 4th step tends to kick in almost automatically. This means you are developing an adaptive value system of re-labeling; re-framing; and re-focusing, without having to break it down into steps. You start to recognize the thoughts, urges, and impulses for what they are, i.e. simply sensations that are the result of untrue deceptive brain messages that pull you away from your values and goals, i.e. your authentic self. When done consistently over time, this gets you into a pattern whereby you ‘wire’ your wise advocate into your brain’s habit centre. The wise advocate knows what you are thinking and why; can see the deceptive brain messages for what they area; where they come from and what you feel, as well as how destructive your habitual responses have been for you. S/he can see the bigger picture, including your strengths and resolve and encourages you to pursue your true self and the values that comprise it. Re-valuing then reflects the fact that your valuations are more constructive. The wise advocate now effortlessly becomes part of the choices that you make.