Work-Life
Work-Life counselling is the process of unhooking from potentially crazy-making situations such as a toxic boss, unrealistic expectations or difficult co-workers so that … individuals can respond differently and more effectively to distressing workplace situations.
About Work-Life Counselling
Unlike in personal relationships, where individuals can often choose to simply walk away, we rely on our workplaces for our livelihoods and it’s often difficult to do anything other than stay and “stick it out”. Even under distressing conditions, individuals are expected to produce. Employees can often feel stuck and at times may be bullied – they can’t leave and they are dependent on another’s view.
As a counsellor and on-site workplace consultant, Sara has witnessed many work sites which operate in dysfunctional ways and has seen the devastation that these situations and relationships can create. At times, workplace distress can be more potent than the difficulties of a personal relationship.
As a consultant and employee assistance counsellor, Sara has worked with employers and employees to improve workplace relationships. She has had success improving the dynamics between colleagues and has worked with managers and supervisors to improve their capacity for handling workplace issues with more skill and tolerance so they and their employees achieve their desired results.
Though in her counseling role, she can’t enter the workplace and change the system, Sara can help individual employees better manage their responses to improve their situation. Sara strongly believes that no employee deserves to suffer the results of an imbalanced, unjust workplace.
What to Expect
In the first session, Sara explores the workplace dynamic with the client to clearly understand what s/he is experiencing and to understand the reasons for the distress the individual is experiencing.
An early goal is to identify whether the situation is uncovering or triggering in the client any emotional vulnerabilities that pre-dated this particular job.
Sometimes, the vulnerabilities could have been the result of a past job or even from childhood. If this is the case, Sara will work with the client to understand and deal with those emotional wounds so that going to work will be more manageable and less distressing.
Sara will also help the client understand a clearer view of what circumstances might be underlying the behaviour of the individual’s — co-workers, supervisors, clients — who are the source of distress. In this way, the employee can make sense of the situation and disconnect from the meaning/ power that they give it. This can aid in depersonalizing the behaviour and makes it less hurtful.
With a clearer picture of the dynamics, Sara helps the client develop resilience and more effective coping strategies to lessen the impact and to allow the employee to continue at this workplace. Alternately, Sara might work with the client to help him/her determine whether this workplace is the best fit and support the client to explore and develop alternatives.