Intervention in Occupational Stress
A Handbook of Counselling for Stress at Work
- Randall R Ross - Organizational Development Consultant, Target Stores
- Elizabeth M Altmaier
This practical guide focuses on the intervention strategies which can be employed by counsellors to help individuals suffering from emotional and physiological stresses engendered in the workplace. With key points illustrated by case studies, chapters define the nature of occupational stress and provide information about the emotional, behavioural, physiological and cognitive symptoms which can occur.
The authors also discuss the factors influencing the problem: factors which can be tied to the individual, to the work setting and to the larger social context. Specific coping strategies explored are targeted both at the individual, for example relaxation training and stress management programmes, and at the workplace, for instance job redesign and career planning. Finally, methods that practitioners can use to evaluate their interventions are presented in detail.
`An excellent introduction.... Readers of this journal looking for a brief but comprehensive introduction to the field of stress management will find this book to be more than adequate for this purpose. Perhaps the book's greatest strength is the way it has managed to combine insights and research from both occupational psychology and clinical psychology to tackle workplace stress. Cary Cooper would surely be pleased with the authors' efforts at what he has termed "clinical occupational" psychology' - International Journal of Social Psychiatry
`Practitioners in a range of settings will find this practical guide for the treatment of emotional and physiological stresses in the workplace to be theoretically sound and surprisingly complete in its outline of an intervention model... the authors have offered a first-rate manual that goes into considerable detail regarding types of interventions that may be used in the workplace... The volume is highly readable and well organized... the authors have done an excellent job in orienting readers to theoretical constructs underlying each section, and there is a clear attempt to integrate theory and practice... Although the volume is specifically geared to the workplace, the concepts and materials included therein could be easily applied to stress management applications in other settings and with only minor modifications. The wealth of information provided for the practitioner who wishes to design stress management programs in the workplace is well worth the modest price of this book' - Contemporary Psychology
`The book opens with a particularly valuable historical review of conceptualizations of stress and then proceeds in a beautifully clear way from "factors tied to the individual, factors tied to the workplace and the interaction of these factors" through to corresponding interventions. A model treatment' - Counselling, The Journal of the British Association for Counselling
`This book focuses on intervention strategies which can be employed by human resource and occupational health professionals, stress management specialists and, of course, professional counsellors, to help both individuals and organizations to recover from, manage, and most importantly, to prevent or minimize stress-related problems in the work-place... although based on well-founded research, the book is easy to read and practical in its approach... although the material is American, the issues focused upon are in the main universal and it could, most certainly, be applied in a UK organizational setting. I would recommend it thoroughly' - Counselling News
`This book is a reminder of the oft overlooked aspects of occupational and social support. It also does much more. Chapters set out numerous paradigms to aid the counsellor to assess sources of stress for clients, accurately... of interest to the general reader, for a counsellor it could prove a useful aid to clarification of where a client might begin to make constructive change in the work place' - Journal of the Irish Association for Counselling and Therapy
`This book provides a good amalgamation of the various areas which affect and contribute to occupational stress... a valuable resource for the rehabilitation professional to assist them to gain an understanding of the stress factors which their clients may be experiencing in or outside of the workplace' - National Association of Rehabilitation Professionals in the Private Sector (NARPPS) Journal