Working life today is more stressful than it has ever been. Whether you work in a business, the public sector, health, education or for a charity, the pressure to perform is relentless. However well you do your job, they always want more – and give you less time and resources to provide it.

No job is safe. You may have experienced redundancy, or you may live with the threat of it every day of your working life. This increases the pressure to deliver results, to make sure that, if the axe falls, it won’t be your neck it falls on.

Even those who are relatively secure may wonder if they’re in the right job. Is this really how I want to spend the rest of my life? So many jobs these days seem artificial, cut off from what really matters in life.

How does it feel?
We respond to these problems in various ways. We may be so stressed we cannot sleep, or suffer one of the many stress-related diseases. We may look for something to give us relief, like excessive drinking. We may take it out on our partners and families, or maybe feel guilty that we cannot devote the time and energy to them that we would like. Relationships may break up, parents may be separated from their children.

We may spend much of our lives in a state of anxiety, worrying about our work, about our future, about money. This may affect our work, setting up a vicious circle and making us even more anxious. We may find it difficult to enjoy anything in our lives.

How can counselling help?
By talking to a counsellor, you can come to understand what really matters to you. Ways of dealing with a particular colleague, or of striking a better balance between work and home may occur to you. If you are thinking of changing job, you can get clear in your own mind what would be the advantages and answer those “Yes, but” questions. ork is a central part of our lives. Counselling can help it to play a positive, rather than a negative, role.