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HOW TO USE THE G10FSP ASSESSMENT IN STRESS SESSIONSThis guide is to assist you to use the G10FSP assessment optimally in your stress sessions. It works effectively both with individuals or with groups. The G10FSP is easy to complete, highly practical and clients love its simiplicity
and usability with it’s visually pleasing and instant results.
The guide sets out:
1. What the G10FSP is2. How to complete it3. The 10 areas of the profile and what they represent4. The subsections or topics to explore in your sessions in each of these
areas5. A proposed approach to use in your sessions.
THE PROCESS TO USE THE G10FSP
Explain to your clients
The G10 Factor Stress Profile allows you to use this assessment to determine the stressors in your life and the areas of your life that is stressful. It is useful to determine your stress levels in those specific areas you may be experiencing stress presently. Thus, by completing the assessment now you will have a clear indication of how much you stress and specifically in which areas you stress more. It will show you the areas you are coping well in and you can then use the coping skills you are using in those areas to transfer to the areas you are not coping to well in. The G10FSP will then help you gain insight into how well you have have learned and implemented the skills during your stress intervention sessions - when you use it as a post-evaluation.
Take your time, discover what stresses you out and how you currently try to cope with it. It will pave the way to think about how you could make some changes and learn some more useful stress relief techniques and increase the quality of your everyday life.
1. INTRODUCTORY SESSION
Present the G10FSP
Explain to your client what the G10FSP assessment is, [see the pages following].Explain that it is a pre and post assessment and your client will complete the assessment prior to your stress management sessions and at the end of your intervention sessions. This would give them a great insight into how much they have progressed over time and indicate in which areas they have improved their coping skills. Do explain that the assessment is a subjective representation of life at that present moment - and only a snapshot of how stress affect you at that particular time - and it will change.
The 10 areas of the profile and what they representExplain the Stress Profile Sections:
The profile consist of 10 SECTIONS and signifies areas in your life that is impacted by stress. By assessing your strengths or weakness in these sections, will give you a good indication of how stressed you are or how you are coping with stressors.
1. Stressors: The current stressors [things that is causing you stress] in your life.2. Control: How much control you feel you have over your life and your situation3. Change: How you manage, cope with and adapt to change4. Stress Health: How stress affects your health and your symptoms5. Coping Style: How you react and respond to stress and the skills you use to manage it6. Personal Wellbeing: How you are psychologically coping with life7. Stress Outlets: areas and options in your life for you to relieve stress8. Hardiness: your ability to withstand or cognitively manage demands from stress9. Cognitive Flexibility: How well you are able to adapt and manage your thoughts10. Support: what your support structures are to assist you with relieving your stress
Instructions to complete the assessment:[Please note that for ease of use, these are color coded and instructions are laid out for you.
A: Each of these 10 sections has 10 questions for you to answer. Choose the most appropriate answer from a choice of 5. You are to choose how the question apply to you, and if you;
1. Strongly agree2. Agree3. Sometimes [agree]4. Disagree5. Strongly disagree
Select your answer and you are to place a tick in the appropriate column. [Please select only 1 answer per question]. You are then to add up the number of ticks you made per column and insert them on the bottom row
B. You are then to transfer the total of ticks to the corresponding columns: The ticks added shows your accumulated scores, and would then indicate whether the particular stress section would show you have:P – No problems and you show positive strengths [no or limited stress]A – You have/show adequate skills [or Mild Stress]G – General issues that need to be addressed [Stressed…]N – Need help or significant issues [Highly stressed]C – Critical and Complex issues [Severely Stressed]
NOTE: These colour coded letters are indicated on the Wheel [The included sample G10FSP assessment] and is shown in 5 concentric circles. It indicates how severe [or not] stress is for you in that area in each of the 10 areas of the stress profile [or 10 areas of your life]. [See below]
C. Finally!The scores are then transferred to the Wheel. Notice the areas are clearly marked and colour coded for easy identification. Also note that EACH section has a wheel with THAT section ONLY on it. [They change on every page]. You are to transfer the scores to each page/each section.
After you have completed ALL 10 sections you have to transfer all results onto the complete wheel [just as you have completed the individual section pages] – by making an X in the appropriate circle [P, A, G, N, C] as indicated above.
The FINAL results should show a total of 10 Xs marked in the 10 sections. These Xs are then connected by a continuous line to form a wagon ‘wheel’ [of sorts] to show a visual presentation of your profile. [See example above]
The emphasis of this exercise is to show – that the inner circle are the Critical sections and more intense levels of stress experienced. It decreases progressively outward. The key to this analysis is to get the specialist stress skills coaching/counselling/therapy and support to move these Xs to the extreme outer circle [P] and have a ‘wheel’ completely on
the outer circle – and thus totally DeSTRESSED!!!
[These are explained in the sample pages following] 2. FOLLOW UP SESSION:
If your client have completed the assessment you would in your session assess the wheel and view the Key areas they have indicated their preference and determined their coping levels. You would have an overview of all the areas of strengths and weaknesses on the profile assessment. With your client in discussion you could simply earmark which are the areas to be addressed, how many sessions you would need for each area, define the intervention strategy you would use for each session, or which skill you would like to work on with your client, set targets and work with your programme. You could start here:• View the areas of Strengths first - normally indicated by the codedP - No problems of positive strenghtsA - Adequate coping skillsG - General issues to be addressed
• Explore key factors in these areas that are working well.
• Identify the characteristics of why these are working - explore in discussion with your client, why their coping skills are working well here, which approaches, ideas or techniques are working well?
• Explore which anchors or emotions are displayed here, their physiology, non verbals, language use and general demeanor are promoting positive coping skills.
3. COMPLETION SESSION:
Using this information of strengths and coping skills, you would move on to:
View the areas of Weaknesses - normally indicated by the codedN - Need help/Significant issuesC - Critical/Complex issues
Explore key factors in these areas that are NOT working well• Explore what is different here• What is missing or not present as in the stronger areas?• How is it not the same• Measure strenghts and weakness in your clients responses/explanations• What according to your client can be improved?• Explore how your client could use their skills in positive areas to improve
Now Select 1 area of weakness1. Identify or isolate a particular area where your client is not coping well [N, C]2. Explore the stressors in this area your client experience3. Talk through a particular incident they can recall of high stress and explore the
incident; Determine what happened; Who was involved; What could be the trigger; How did your client react; What did they think, How did they rate their level of stress at; How did they respond; Was the incident that bad as they thought, and How can they use that information for a similar incident that could happen again.
4. Help your client identify the particular skills they used in not coping well with the incident [You can use various techniques here: Imagine, Visualization, In vivo, Timeline, Hypnotherapy, NLP, CBT and more - to recall the incident as it were and explore their emotions, physiology, behaviour, thoughts and rituals]
5. Contrast this incident with an incident from an area of positive coping where they cope/[d] well and point out the difference. [You can use techniques here such as visualization, NLP Swish, Skills training for developing that particular skill, NLP Anchoring, etc]
6. Help your client identify their negative anchors and self-barriers - to show them what could be holding them back and therefore not coping well with stress.
7. Let them discover which of these skills to prioritise and set targets/goals to achieve. These become targets to be revisited in your subsequent sessions/homework.
Contract with your client:
1. Set a target to achieve2. How will it be done?3. By when?4. How would they know if they have successfully met or achieved this target?5. How their progress will be monitored?6. How they will test and allign their reactions, reponses, thoughts, physiological
arrousal, appraisal and behaviour - thus changing behaviour?7. How they will use this information to develop this skills to cope better and as
lifelong learning skill?
For You to explore and implement:• Help them to use this positive motivation to explore, discover and improve their
coping skills in all areas• Take these skills and move on to the next area of weakness, wash, rinse and
repeat...• Complete your post-evaluation to let your clients see their progress... Below you can explore:
1. The G10FSP further explained2. The 10 Areas of the Assessment explained3. The optional underlying issues of each area set out for you to explore in session
ControlAs part of the appraisal process, the role of personal control is important in understanding stress and coping, particularly as it is described within Lazarus’
cognitively oriented theory of stress.
Beliefs about the extent to which individuals can control outcomes of importance (i.e., primary appraisals) and the appraisal of the possibilities for control in a specific stressful encounter (i.e., secondary appraisals) play a significant role in the relationship between stress and coping. Given this relationship, individuals’ perceptions of the control that they have over stressful situations may serve as an important predictor of their responses to stress.
For example, one of the most critical variables involved in individuals’ psychological health and well-being is control. Individuals’ feelings that they are in control of their own internal psychological environment (i.e., cognition, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts) and its outward behavioral expression are associated with feelings of psychological well-being. In addition, impairment of control has been implicated as one of the core features in several psychological disorders (e.g., Anxiety Disorders, Eating Disorders, Depression). Research has suggested that psychologically healthy individuals have a greater sense of control than do those suffering from psychological distress or impairment. Further, these healthy individuals have been found to overestimate the amount of control that they have in a situation, to be more optimistic about their ability to achieve control, to overestimate their invulnerability, and to underestimate risk in certain situations.
These healthy individuals also tend to make explanatory attributions [give reasons for their behavior] to protect their sense of control when behavioral control efforts are not successful. Thus, they tend to attribute unsuccessful outcomes to external rather than internal factors. Learn to manage the ocntrol you have in your life.
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
DEALING WITH CHANGEOur individual reactions to stress depend on such factors as our knowledge about the human stress response, our personalities, learned patterns of behavior, and our attitudes about the extent to which we believe our stress responses can be altered and controlled.
Occasionally, when we’re faced with the need to adapt to change, we become stuck - either unable to move forward with decision making, or sometimes unable to behave positively once we have made the decision. Though human beings are able to adapt to change, we don’t always like to do so. In other words, we can sometimes go through change, but not really accept it. Consequences of this inability to adapt may eventually include physical disease, emotional upset, addictive behavior or problems with relationships. More extreme responses to stress - depression, anxiety, substance abuse or thoughts of suicide - are signals that our usual defenses against stress are inadequate. When we begin to feel hopeless, helpless or unduly anxious about dealing with change, our wisest choice is to reach out for help in making tough decisions or charting new directions.
It has been said that change may be the most constant part of our environment today. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and the Third Wave, has noted that the need to “alter one’s way of life, to trade an old job for a new one, social pressures, status shifts, lifestyle modifications ... anything that forces us to confront the unknown ... all set off the chemical and physical changes that result when human beings feel they are under some sort of pressure. Even normal milestones, such as the birth of a baby, having a child go off to school, or retiring may produce feelings of distress.Because circumstances related to such changes vary considerably, the human distress that results may also vary greatly. The degree of loss felt in giving up the old - whatever it is - and the degree of threat, demand and uncertainty perceived in moving toward the new, combine to determine the level of stress felt.
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
Why You’re So Afraid of Change Because new information bothers our brains, we tend to find friends and form groups that reinforce our beliefs—whether they’re correct or not. Our reasoning could be, that when many people agree, it’s easy to discount the opinions of others in the face of undeniable logic. We also tend to believe the same thing about groups of which we are a member. There is safety in numbers or in familiarity.
We Hate to Feel Like We Wasted Our Time and EffortSometimes change involves a significant loss, and our brains hate loss. When we invest ourselves emotionally in anything, it becomes harder to change because we don’t want to lose all the time and effort we already exerted. As a result, we have a hard time letting go of a project we know deep down will fail. We also struggle to end doomed relationships because we’re terrible at accepting the whole thing was for naught. In reality, time isn’t wasted but our brains like to see the entire time as a loss rather than just a part of the inevitable conclusion.
So What makes us change?
• We may have come to ‘the end of our tether’ - reached ‘the final straw.’• We may be suffering so much that we don’t feel we have the option of not changing.• We may be simply bored with how things are.• The energy we put into change is determined by how desirable our goal is and by how likely we think we are to succeed. However, we’re less likely to change if we believe that doing so would cause us a great deal of upheaval. • Commitment = (desirability of goal X probability of success) - the upheaval of change
Remember...Change doesn’t always progress smoothly, one improvement following the one before it. More often we take two small steps forward and a step backwards. Don’t expect to make the same progress every day, we all have good and bad days. Change can be hard work - most of us underestimate the amount of time and effort we have to put into our recoveries!
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
How People CopeCoping occurs in response to psychological stress—usually triggered by changes—in an effort to maintain mental health and emotional well-being. Life stressors are often described as negative events (the death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, etc.); however, positive changes in life (marriage, birth, moving, a new job, etc.) can also constitute life stressors, thus requiring the use of coping skills to adapt. Coping strategies are the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that you use to adjust to the changes that occur in your life.
Coping StylesThere are many coping styles that people use, and some may prove more effective than others, depending on the nature of the stressful situation and the person who is employing them. Ineffective coping mechanisms, also referred to as maladaptive coping, may also be applied to stressful events or internal conflict, often unconsciously. Maladaptive coping mechanisms are counterproductive.
Coping styles are commonly assigned broad categories that draw distinctions between methods.
For example, 1. instrumental coping (referred to as problem-solving) focuses on ways to tackle the issue in order to reduce stress around a given situation, 2. while emotion-focused coping gathers tools to nurture one’s emotional health during the stressful period.
Additionally, coping is identified as being either active or avoidant. 1. Active coping strategies involve an awareness of the stressor, followed by attempts to reduce the negative outcome. 2. By contrast, avoidant coping is characterized by ignoring the issue, often resulting in activities that aid in the denial of the problem (e.g., drinking, sleeping, isolating).
Become aware of how you cope.
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
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Stress outletsWhy a Stress outlet?
Stress has now become a regular part of life. It can be of varying intensity, can be caused by innumerable factors and at any age. To get relief from such stress, we try to find other outlets. That is the reason why we yearn for holidays, recreation and entertainment so that we can relax and enjoy life forgetting the day to day chaotic troubles.
The ideal to reduce stress would be to create a healthy Work-Life Balance
Striking a healthy work-life balance is a difficult challenge even in the best of times, but it is all the more daunting and necessary during times of economic stagnation and uncertainty. Adding to the pressure, today’s portable electronic devices have obliterated the line between work and home. Gone are the days when leaving the office or shop meant leaving our work behind. Today employees are available to their supervisors, co-workers, and customers around the clock.
The coupling of increased workloads with technology that keeps us constantly connected to our jobs finds an increasing number of workers feeling overwhelmed, discouraged and depleted. Today work-life balance ranks as one of the most important workplace attributes - second only to compensation, and workers who feel they have a better work-life balance tend to work 21% harder than employees who feel overworked.
How do you let your stress out?
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
DEVELOPING STRESS HARDINESS
“You can’t always influence what others may say or do to you but you can influence how you react and respond to it.”
(Unknown)
Research has shown that some people are more resistant to stress and better able to cope with it than others. This is partly due to the fact that some people have a number of personality traits that protect them from the effects of stress; psychologists call this the stress-hardy personality.
One researcher in the stress hardiness field is clinical psychologist at the City University, New York, Doctor Susan Kobasa PhD. In the late 1970s she carried out a study on a group of executives who were under a lot of stress whilst their company, the Bell Telephone Company in the USA, was undergoing radical restructuring. On completion of the study, when the data was analysed, she found that certain personality traits protected some of the executives and managers from the health ravages of stress.
These stress hardy personality traits included: 1. Commitment2. Control3. Challenge
The executives who had these stress hardy personality traits decreased their risk of developing a stress related health problem by a massive 50%.
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITYis the ability to restructure knowledge in multiple ways depending on the changing situational demands (i.e. difficulty
or complexity of the situation) (Spiro, 1995).
Cognitive Flexibility and Control is the ability to change what you are thinking about, how you are thinking about it and even what you think about it – in other words, the ability to change your mind. Cognitive flexibility is required in multiple ways throughout life.
To function you have to switch mental gears when moving from one activity to another, abandon one way of thinking about a problem when it does not lead to a solution and adopt another way of thinking, and even give up erroneous information to accept new and correct information. Cognitive control is the ability to switch ways of thinking, either automatically or deliberately, in situations requiring flexibility. Cognitive control requires the ability to resist the impulse to perseverate and keep thinking in a previously active but no longer appropriate manner.Cognitive flexibility helps you Interpret information in multiple ways, Change approaches, Select a new strategy if the first one is not working. This develops an ability and a willingness to look at things in a new light, to hold more than one conceptual framework in mind.
Cognitive flexibility is a critical skill for us to embrace new ways of thinking. To embrace new ideas most fully requires an ability to “see” that there may be more than one explanation or process operating simultaneously. To hold one idea in one’s mind while at the same time seeing another. Cognitively flexible individuals shows greater speed and accuracy in cognitive flexibility tasks - which were meant to assess the ability of a person to “switch” from one task to another, and is a strength in high creative or successful people.
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
Having Cognitive Flexibility in a stressful situation means having the ability to assess through cognitive appraisal, cognitive alternative thought patterns and have a high efficacy ability to adapt to the new requirement or environment.
How well you respond depends on
1. Your level of accepting change2. Your Hardiness3. Your Self-awareness and Confidence levels4. Your thought management5. Your emotion management skills
Factors influencing your Cognitively Flexible
• I have many things that bother me and causing worry and fears• I have doubt in my own ability• I am struggling with making decisions• I have poor self-esteem• I am not flexible in my thinking• I am not good with managing change• I am poor at problem solving• I am no good at having an alternative perspective• I cannot stand losing face and have to win at disagreements• I am not good at completing or following through on my targets or goals• I am not at all motivated to face new challenges
Assess how cognitively flexible you are...
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
With respect to just exactly what social support means, perhaps one of the best definitions was given by the psychiatrist Sidney Cobb. He proposed that social support was a subjective sensation in which the individual feels, “That he is cared for and loved. That he is esteemed and valued; That he
belongs to a network of communication and mutual obligation.”
The Positive effects of strong Social Support
Social support buffers the adverse effects of stress on cardiovascular and immune responses, which can provide numerous health benefits. Laboratory studies show that when subjects are subjected to stress, emotional support reduces the usual sharp rise in blood pressure and increased secretion of damaging stress related hormones. One report demonstrated that middle aged men who had recently endured high levels of emotional stress but had little social support were three times more likely to die over the next seven years. Lack of social support has been found to increase death rates following a heart attack and to delay recovery following cardiac surgery. Conversely, a happy marriage or good long term relationship at age 50 was a leading indicator of being healthy at age 80, whereas having a low cholesterol level had very little significance. Emotional support also reduces the risk of coronary events in individuals with Type A behavior.
Strong emotional support reduces the immune system abnormalities that contribute to numerous disorders due to the stress of caregivers for spouses with Alzheimer’s disease. It also boosts immune system function in AIDS and HIV-positive patients. Breast cancer and malignant melanoma patients who receive group emotional support from strangers also live longer and have a better quality of life. Similar emotional support is responsible for the success of Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Shoppers Anonymous and other groups that deal with addictions to drugs, smoking or reducing compulsive behaviors. This comes from sharing things with strangers, getting things of your chest, and learning how others have been able to deal with or conquer the same problem you have. Such groups often provide addition emotional support by utilizing a “buddy system” – someone you can call at any time if you feel you are slipping into your old habits and who can provide support when you need it the most.http://www.stress.org/emotional-and-social-support/
SOCIAL SUPPORT
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
Social support means the people and other sources of physical and emotional comfort in our lives. Benefits of social support include:• warmth, • intimacy, • sharing accomplishments, • self-esteem, • self-identity, • solace, • comfort, • and the easing of loneliness.
You may find that each person - or even a pet — provides you with a different type of social support. However, the quality of your social support is more important than the quantity. A single individual can serve as the source for all your social support needs.
Three Major Types of Social Support
1. Psychological/Emotional: Offers encouragement, comfort, someone to share your burdens with 2. Informational: Offers assistance with making decisions3. Practical: Offers help with chores, financial assistance, work schedule adjustment, child care, etc.
Typical sources of support
• Family (spouse/partner, children, parents, grandparents, siblings)• Close friends• Coworkers• Acquaintances (casual friends or contacts from church, school, neighbors, etc.)• Pets
How are you being supported?
THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
Congrats on knowing where to start now!
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THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
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THE G10 FACTOR STRESS PROFILE
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It helps to identify the Causes of Short-Term Stress:
Stress Diaries are important for understanding the causes of short-term stress in your life. They also give you an important insight into how you react to stress, and help you to identify the level of stress at which you prefer to operate. The idea behind Stress Diaries is that, on a regular basis, you record information about the stresses you are experiencing, so that you can analyse these stresses and then manage them. This is important because often these stresses flit in and out of our minds without getting the attention and focus that they deserve. As well as helping you capture and analyse the most common sources of stress in your life, Stress Diaries help you to understand:
* The causes of stress in more detail;* The levels of stress at which you operate most effectively; and* How you react to stress, and whether your reactions are appropriate and useful.
It comprise the most comprehensive assessment, analyis and skills training strategies, to explode your referrals, intervention strategies and success rate. Find out more about it here.
THE STRESS DIARIES RANGEWhat are the Stress Diaries?
The Diary/Journal is an effective stress management tool. It will tell you exactly: Where you stress, When you stress, Who you stress with, What you are stressing about, For how long, and how intensely you stress, and Why you stress. It will identify the patterns of your stress, it’s causes, places, incidents and reasons for why stress occurs. It will offer you options to adjust or rectify your behaviour, thoughts, and attitude and it does it effectively, as it allows you to write your entries, in your own time, and even if you do not feel comfortable talking to someone about your difficulties – you are free to do so in your Stress Diary/Journal. Your Diary/Journal is proof of your progress and growth…
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ALL RIGHTS EXCLUSIVELY RESERVED: GINO NORRIS AUTHOR, STRESS SPECIALIST, TRAINER AND THERAPISTThe Stress Diaries I Stress Training Academy I Stress Coaching Dorectory I Stress Coaching Association
