A degree of stress is inevitable and can be healthy if one learns how to deal with it. However, many people report excessive stress and increasingly extreme reactions to it. Indeed stress is currently reaching epidemic proportions in advanced Western countries. It has become a major negative economic factor through lost and inefficient work time and is implicated in much family breakdown, disputes and violence.

Both chronic and acute stress can lead to:

• panic attacks
• hypertension
• high blood pressure
• accelerated heart rate
• inexplicable pains
• insomnia
• addictions
• relationship difficulties
• depression

and a variety of other symptoms including proneness to physical illness through compromised immune systems, digestion problems, ulcers and IBS. In extreme cases, it leads to premature death through heart attacks, strokes etc..

Human Givens therapists may start with immediate relief from stress symptoms and go on to develop a thorough understanding how stress reactions work, negotiating practical medium and long term strategies for dealing with them. Unhelpful life circumstances can be reviewed and ways of making useful changes evolved. In some cases, negative and troubling past experiences will need to be dealt with through highly effective de-traumatizing techniques.

Common therapeutic strategies include:

• relaxation techniques
• developing new patterns of work and rest
• developing effective ways of planning and balancing activity
• dealing with extreme reactions
• rehearsal through guided imagery and metaphor
• realistic goal setting

The choice and the balance of these depends on individual need and is never automatic.

Treatment commonly requires between 2 and 5 sessions unless there are multiple related concerns.