This theory focuses on ones cognition of a stressor which influences their emotional response. Person’s personal interpretation of an event determine their emotional reactions. Psychosocial stress is the result of Cognitive Appraisal, and it affects us regularly. Basically, when we look at the social threat in our lives (educating my daughters and make them stress-free—financially) and discern that it may require the recourses we don’t have (money) (Scott, 2018). For my client, Mr. Roy’s perception of not being able to fulfil the typical duties that father possess in his community of paying his daughter’s tuition bills are his biggest fear and the reason behind his stress. Goal: Mr. Roy wants to be capable enough (financially) to help his older daughter with her future tuition bills Objective:
- I am going to set aim by tonight on how much money he can save in reality without overloading my life
- I will ensure to take enough break on my double shifts to eat and relax
- I will try not to make my community’s “ideal father” role overwhelm me anymore Goal:
Mr. Roy wants to be happy Objective:
- I am going to talk to my daughters in two days, clarify with them on why he is not able to spend enough time with his family—so at least he has a stress less about home
- I will be going home early from next week or at least be at the family dinner with my daughters
- I will be going to set up a follow-up appointment with my PA after one months and try not to reschedule it
- I am going to write down five things I successfully did as a single father when I start to lose my self-confidence
- I am going to pay attention on what I say to myself and every time when I have a negative thought, I am going to replace it with a good and positive ones
Action Plan Being a Primary health care provider, it is my duty to familiarize my client with different stress management skills, so I started brainstorming some of the methods during our communication. I familiarized Mr. Roy with many techniques and strategies to manage his stress, such as physical activities—breathing techniques or exercise, mental techniques—meditation. However, I ensure that also concurrently do some of the other changes in his everyday schedules to make this techniques effective, such as improving time-management skills, decreasing or in fact eliminating drugs and alcohol use, and/or improving diet. I reminded Mr. Roy that communication plays an important role in our lives, explained via Berlo’s Model of Communication. Fundamentally, the model states that the first: sender encodes a message, second: it decoded by a receiver, who later gives feedback to the sender; and failure in these process causes stress.
I felt anxiety also plays a huge stressor in my client’s life, because anxiety develops by the fear caused by imagining the worst case scenario. One of the best strategies that might work for Mr. Roy was discovered by Joseph Wolpe, called systemic desensitization. This theory includes analyzing situations that causes stress and break it down in smaller pieces and deal with them one by one. This will give an individual the ability to control a situation and become confident. After my client gets well-informed about both of these theories, communication and systemic desensitization, he affirmed that “I think I could use these theories and get my best out of it”. Mr. Roy wants to work on them as soon as possible without wasting time in listening to other strategies. Therefore to get started, I directed Mr. Roy to write all of the possible things/goals he wants to achieve and we can prioritize some of them and organize them to make them achievable. I made sure that he understands the importance of communication and how can it gradually help us lower our stress levels, and realize him that family is his biggest strength; and they are the ones who will support you and encourage you when you are feeling down and definitely not judge him.
Results, my client finally convinced to talk to his family about the doubts he is been having on his ability to help them financially. Conversely, my client did have concerns with some of the techniques such as he didn’t have enough time to exercise, have negative thoughts, and don’t know how to meditate. Therefore I recommended him to download a motivational app called “Daily Quote”, in which we can set the time and the app will send you a notification on that time with a unique motivational quote of the day. I informed him that I personally use this app and it is really helpful to read short quote first thing in the morning. I also advised Mr. Roy to walk in between his shifts and use stairs as much as possible for exercise. I alternate method of meditation is to listen to the audio on the YouTube with soothing sounds such as waterfall, take few deep breathes and try taking nap for 20-25 mins while listening to them— don’t forget to set all of the problems aside while listening to those audios and taking nap. In addition, he was also informed to only use this alternative method of meditation until he finds enough time to learn how to meditate, since learning this skill is valuable in the future too.
At last, my client committed that he will use this methods of relaxation as soon as possible, and he understood that how the prolonged stress might affect his health in the future. He will identify his stressors of his life—write/list them, so he can focus on managing them one at a time. Stress is a part of a life, but learning how to manage them is essential to live happy and a healthy life, therefore, my client will take the first step towards reduce some of these stressors by effectively communicating with his family. Overall, Mr. Roy will take a time off as recommended to praise and reward himself after finishing his work to inspire his mind and body to get ready to face the next task. Mr. Roy’s homework includes different approaches to his long working days such as ensuring that he takes enough break to rest and eat, and at least have few hours set aside to spend some time with his family. Overall, Mr. Roy needs to focus on things he can do right now to gain control of his feelings.
My goal was to challenge my client’s core assumptions which contributes to his interpretation of an event as stressful or not; and him committing to write his goals down will make him re-think about activities he is been stressing about, resulting that he might interpret that those tasks are not that difficult to achieve if he works on them one by one, instead of overlapping all of them together. There will situations that can make us stressful and one can’t avoid that, so the best thing we can do is to find a way to correct our faulty perceptions and develop a better sense of control over the events at work as well as at home. As a result, one will not only be protected from coronary disease or other stress-related disorders, but that individual can also improve his/her quality of life and make it fun and worthy of living.
