Managing Stress

Are you ever stressed? You're not alone. Newly qualified teachers are bound to feel stressed sometimes, but rest assured: so do experienced teachers. And help is at hand.

In 1851, Victorian thinker John Ruskin wrote:

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.

This is as true today as it was then, but if you're a teacher, you have to cope, right? With everything your job might present you with, regardless? After all, teaching is your chosen profession and you're in it for the good and the bad, for better and for worse.

The answer, of course, is that you don't have to 'cope' - at least, not on your own. Workplace counselling is becoming increasingly common. Although the reaction to the suggestion that someone may need counselling can be surprise, defensiveness even, when you work in a challenging environment where personal needs often come second to those of your pupils, it's important to view it as a potentially helpful option.

The Teacher Support Line (08000 562 561 - formerly Teacherline), a national counselling support and advice service, has been available for all teachers in England and Wales since September 1999. Since its launch, the service has been used by over 30,000 teachers, and many more have been able to access workplace counselling through employee assistance programmes provided by their employer or local authority. Evidence, surely, that most, if not all, of us have times in our lives when we need help getting our problems into perspective.

Workplace counselling has been proven to have a direct effect in reducing sickness absence. In Counselling in the Workplace: The Facts, McLeod found that provision of workplace counselling could reduce absenteeism by as much as 50%. And in a survey carried out by the Teacher Support Line, 77% of teachers said they believed that counselling had improved their personal insight and understanding, while 70% of teachers believed that counselling has been beneficial for exploring coping strategies and techniques for the workplace.

There are key repeating themes that teachers are bringing to the Teacher Support Line. Stress and depression, conflict in the workplace, workload and change, loss of confidence and relationship problems are just some of the issues that the Support Line has helped teachers through, and feedback has been incredibly positive:

I have found counselling to be really helpful. It has made me focus more clearly on my problems.

My thinking about returning to work has been clarified for me. I now feel more in control, I know what I can expect and what is expected of me.

I was given sympathetic support and sound advice. I was made to feel important - that I actually mattered in school.

This is all evidence that, as a spokesperson for the Teacher Support Line explained,

Seeking help is not the sign of a failing individual: providing access to help is not the sign of a failing school. Both acknowledge the importance of taking responsibility for our own health and that of our workplace.

If you feel that speaking to someone, possibly unknown to you, would help in easing any anxieties, don't hesitate to call the Teacher Support Line, or any occupational counselling service that your LEA may have provided.

There is certainly a need for further research into counselling in the workplace across all sectors. The potential impact of counselling is especially significant in the education sector, where absent teachers must be replaced without loss of cover and schools and LEAs do not have the option to let work lie unattended.

While there is a steadily developing body of academic literature into the causes, levels and results of stress among teachers, there is little research carried out into interventions intended to tackle the problem. But there are basic steps that all teachers and schools can take to make sure that workplace counselling is viewed as a useful tool in improving job satisfaction:

• Create forums for the discussion of work-related problems with a focus on developing solutions.
• Provide the channel to a counsellor, whether that be on-site, within the area, or a national support service such as the Teacher Support Line.
• Create a culture of nurturing within the school community. This can be effectively led by leadership teams, perhaps through the development of buddying systems where a small number of teachers are grouped with the purpose of being particularly mindful of each others' wellbeing.
• Encourage the understanding that use of workplace counselling is a constructive, if not essential, dimension of the job.

Workplace counselling can not only help to minimise the sources of stress in the profession, but can improve resilience to pressure from both work and home life. More specifically, the Teacher Support Line is playing an important role in assisting teachers who are experiencing problems to gain perspective and talk through their concerns with counsellors who have education expertise. Early intervention can often mean the difference between remaining in the profession or leaving, between thriving and enjoying the job, or merely 'coping'. That has to be a positive thing.

For further information visit www.teachersupport.info.

Originally published on Teachernet