Alert 1
Alert 2

Test Alert 2

Navigating Stress and Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

Stress is an ever-present aspect of our daily lives. It is unavoidable, yet it profoundly influences how we think, act, and respond to things that occur in our everyday lives. The key to dealing with stress is in how we respond to it. By embracing healthy coping mechanisms and maintaining a balanced perspective, we can achieve personal growth and learn how to better handle stress.

Stress can appear in many ways. It may manifest itself as bigger problems such as job loss or major life changes, but can also present itself as smaller issues that tend to build up. Common smaller stressors often include juggling a hectic schedule or keeping track of getting chores done. In addition to this, joyful or positive events can also present stress. For example, even a big promotion at work can feel stressful because it throws your system off balance. There is a limit to how much your nervous system can regulate before it shuts down. When stress happens too often or is too big, it begins to deplete your body. This is called an allostatic overload, and it moves your body out of your window of tolerance.

While we cannot eliminate stress, our bodies are designed to adapt to and manage stress. The process of adapting to stress and bringing the body back to balance is called allostasis. When a client takes on a stressful load, their body releases stress hormones into the body. This increases their blood pressure and heart rate. Ideally, this process helps them deal with stress, and then it returns their body to its natural state. This is called homeostatic self-regulation.

On top of normal stress, many people encounter repeated stressors. This could be going to a toxic work environment or returning home to an uneasy partner. The body begins the release of stress hormones prior to even encountering stress. This makes it difficult for the body to self-regulate itself. Because the body can’t self-regulate, many of us attempt to calm ourselves down by engaging in activities that cause even more stress in the long run. These activities may include drinking, binge eating, smoking, or misusing drugs. In the moment, it may feel like just one drink, but these activities are making things worse.

This problem can best be visualized with the ancient Buddhist parable of the first and second arrows. The first arrows come from the initial problem that stresses our clients out. The second arrow represents the coping mechanism used to handle the first arrow. These second arrows represent the unnecessary suffering your clients add to their lives. When a client gets hit with the first arrow, the next step is in their hands. Do they add another arrow by engaging in unhealthy coping mechanisms? Or do they properly heal from the first arrow by seeking help? This help could be speaking to a therapist or someone they trust.

To assess the amount of stress in a client’s life, ask them to look back at their calendar and mark the date six weeks ago. Since then, what stressful experiences have they faced? Ask them to write them down.

These stressors may include:
  • Small daily stressors (getting stuck in traffic, missing your morning coffee)
  • Large stressors (fighting with a partner, loss in the family)
  • Positive stressors (buying a new home, getting a new job)
  • Repeated stressors (toxic work/home environment)
  • Societal stressors (political unrest, war, racism, systematic bias or oppression)
Now that they are all written down, ask them what they did to cope with each of these stressors, and what impact they had on their day. Were they easily irritated the day they missed a morning coffee? Did they head to the liquor store after a fight with a partner? Now ask them if any of these coping mechanisms solved the problem causing the stressor.

Day-to-day life is inevitably stressful. While the body does have a natural response to stress, too much can throw our clients out of the window of tolerance, which can make them feel as if the stress is too much to handle. In this case, people often turn to bad habits as a coping mechanism. These bad habits do nothing to fix the problem at hand and just make things worse in the long run. Speaking to a therapist a good first step to solve the issue at hand and reduce stress. Speaking to a therapist is a good first step to solve the issue at hand and reduce stress. In addition to speaking to someone about their stress, healthy eating, exercise, journaling, meditation, and breathing exercises may help the body self-regulate the stress more effectively.

Use these free printable worksheets straight from The Embodied Healing Workbook with your clients so they can gain a deeper understanding of their stress and learn how to self-regulate their body in healthy ways.

Book:
The Embodied Healing Workbook
POS055415
In this workbook, renowned trauma therapist Catherine Cook-Cottone provides a step-by-step, sequential process for embodied healing that will teach you to work through your trauma, reconnect to your body, and begin thinking about what is next in your embodied path forward.

Filled with over 100 embodied practices, worksheets, and meditations, you'll learn how to befriend your body and build your inner resources for healing, be with and work with your trauma memories and symptoms, reconnect to your body's wisdom, and so much more. True healing comes from reconnecting with your body. It is courageous work that requires commitment and practice over time to create a new way of being. By taking this journey, healing is possible.
Online Course:
The Ultimate Trauma Treatment Certification (CCTP/CCTPII) Course
CRS001890
Learn to treat trauma and complex PTSD with EMDR, DBT, Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Somatic Psychotherapy and Parts Work. Includes two free e-books on Post-Trauma Growth and Integrative Trauma Recovery. PLUS, walk away with our highest level of Trauma Certification, CCTP-II, completely free!
Online Course:
Integrative Somatic Psychotherapy Master Class
NRS001766
Join somatic healer Abi Blakeslee to master body-based skills for today’s trauma cases. Through real in-session videos, you’ll experience somatic healing in action with generational trauma, trauma-induced guilt and shame, trauma within couples therapy, and trauma in a client with autism. You’ll not only learn somatic interventions you can apply right away in your practice – but you’ll also get insight into key therapy decisions that lead to true trauma breakthroughs.
Catherine Cook-Cottone PhD, C-IAYT
Catherine Cook-Cottone, PhD, C-IAYT, is a licensed psychologist in Colorado and New York, yoga therapist, and professor at University at Buffalo, SUNY. Dr. Cook-Cottone is a trauma therapist, trained in EMDR, and teaches courses in psychopathology, mindful therapy, advanced counseling techniques, and counseling with children and adolescents. She has written/edited 15 books and published over 100 research articles and chapters on mindful self-care, yoga, embodiment, self-regulation, eating disorders, and trauma. Dr. Cook-Cottone is co-founder of Yogis in Service and has researched and consulted with the Africa Yoga project, Give Back Yoga Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation to develop and deliver trauma-informed, mindfulness-based resilience training for yoga teachers and humanitarian workers in North America, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2018, she was awarded the American Psychological Association’s Citizen Psychologist Presidential Citation.


Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Catherine Cook-Cottone has an employment relationship with University of Buffalo and receives compensation as a consultant. She is the Co-editor in Chief of Eating Disorders and receives royalties as a published author. Catherine Cook-Cottone receives a speaking honorarium and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Catherine Cook-Cottone is a member of the American Psychological Association, the International Association of Yoga Therapists, the National Association of School Psychologists, the Western New York Yoga Association, the Yoga Alliance, the National Eating Disorder Association, and the Association for Eating Disorders.

 

Sign Up and Get a Free Course

Get exclusive discounts, new training announcements & more!

You May Also Be Interested In These Related Blog Posts
2295 20240904 082521 Bh Blog Understanding And Shifting Away From Toxic
Understanding and Shifting Away from Toxic Productivity
Through personal insights and behavioral psychology, Israa Nasir highlights how a results-driven culture can lead to toxic productivity—where productivity becomes a measure of personal value, overs...
2247 20240213 122357 Bh Blog Nurture The Caregiver 380X290
Nurturing the Caregiver: A Guide to Parent Self-Care
Time for yourself, as a parent, should never be a luxury—it’s a necessity. Andrea Dorn, MSW, LISW-CP shows us how to best take care of ourselves, which, in turn, will help support our kids!
2187 20230412 102246 Pbh Blog Helping Clients Deal With Infertility Through
Helping Clients Deal with Infertility Through Affirmations
Summary: Caitlin Slavens and Chelsea Bodie help parents dealing with the emotional pains of infertility with these FREE affirmation exercises. Their highly-anticipated Not Your Mother’s Postpartum...
2184 20230404 010029 Pbh Blog Why Self Love Is Hard For Women 380X290
Why Self-Love Is Hard for Women
Self-love is a challenge to define and develop, particularly for women. Taking unique contexts into consideration, clinicians can help women identify "shoulds" and empower them to choose what self-...
2295 20240904 082521 Bh Blog Understanding And Shifting Away From Toxic
Understanding and Shifting Away from Toxic Productivity
Through personal insights and behavioral psychology, Israa Nasir highlights how a results-driven culture can lead to toxic productivity—where productivity becomes a measure of personal value, overs...
2247 20240213 122357 Bh Blog Nurture The Caregiver 380X290
Nurturing the Caregiver: A Guide to Parent Self-Care
Time for yourself, as a parent, should never be a luxury—it’s a necessity. Andrea Dorn, MSW, LISW-CP shows us how to best take care of ourselves, which, in turn, will help support our kids!
2187 20230412 102246 Pbh Blog Helping Clients Deal With Infertility Through
Helping Clients Deal with Infertility Through Affirmations
Summary: Caitlin Slavens and Chelsea Bodie help parents dealing with the emotional pains of infertility with these FREE affirmation exercises. Their highly-anticipated Not Your Mother’s Postpartum...
2184 20230404 010029 Pbh Blog Why Self Love Is Hard For Women 380X290
Why Self-Love Is Hard for Women
Self-love is a challenge to define and develop, particularly for women. Taking unique contexts into consideration, clinicians can help women identify "shoulds" and empower them to choose what self-...