Too much stress can have a serious impact on your physical and mental well being.  Stress can:

• Interfere with normal daily activities; it can impair relationships, reduce self-esteem,  decrease work and academic abilities, increase the risk of accidents   

• Cause people to become anxious and depressed, it can raise blood pressure and have detrimental effects on gastrointestinal and immune functions. 
• Lead to self-doubt, self-blame and burn out.  We know that 80% of visits to a physician’s office are for stress-related conditions and complaints and nearly 50% of adults experience adverse health effects from stress.
• Stress is linked to 6 of the major leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.

Ø      In the workplace, stress accounts for a tremendous amount of personal misery and billions of dollars lost annually due to reduced productivity, absenteeism, worker’s compensation and disability claims.

Ø      Employers are realizing that job stress management makes sense from both a health and a financial perspective.

Ø      Understand what stress is, the impact it can have on health and how to effectively manage stress.

Ø      Learn how to feel calmer and more capable when anticipating stressful events and how to relax before and during stressful situations.

Ø      Through interactive and informative power point presentation, questionnaires will be used to assess each person’s level of stress and coping mechanisms, and participants will be encouraged to participate in various interactive activities and exercises throughout the workshop.  Stress markers, such as blood pressure and heart rate can be checked on interested participants.

Workshop Outline:

Understanding Stress

·        What is Stress?

·        Sources of Stress

·        Your Body’s Reaction to Stress: The Fight or Flight Response

How Does Stress Affect You?

·        Identify your Symptoms and Sources of Stress

·        Body Awareness:  The Mind – Body Connection

·        Identify How You Respond to Your Stressors & Set Goals to Respond More Effectively

How to Manage Your Stress:  Achieving Mind & Body Balance

·        Living a Balanced Life (the importance of social supports, realistic goal setting, positive attitude & productive planning will be discussed)

·        Relaxation Skills (breathing exercises, progressive relaxation and visualization exercises will be taught, voluntary blood pressure checks)

·        Nutritional Well-Being: 10 Steps to Positive Eating

·        Exercise: How to Rev Up Your Routine to Reduce Stress

Workshop Duration: 3 hours,            Maximum Participants: 15  

Facilitator’s credibility: background in Career Coaching, Certified Medical Professionals

Handouts: Presentation and exercise handouts, Canada’s Food Guide, What to look for in a Financial Planner, local resource contacts; Health unit, EAP…

To learn more about our programs, please contact: Julie @ 519-537-3709, 519-209-2999 Julie Oliveira-Werby, Founder-President, www.consultpep.com

TESTIMONIALS:

On average, people who participated in the Stress Management Workshop rated the overall effectiveness of this workshop as: 4.5/5 (where 5 = very satisfied and 1 = very dissatisfied)

Comments made by participants:

• Wonderful presentation – it taught me new and easy techniques to cope with stress

• Great detail; well thought out

• What an eye opener!  I will be much more aware of my stress level and how I’m managing my stress now.

• Great presentation and demonstration of relaxation techniques

• Very informative; covered potential stress causes and many stress alleviators

• Great information, well presented and focused on beneficial stress information

• This information will be very helpful in managing my stress -- Great health tips!

Comments made by participants:

• Excellent presentation skills and group interaction

• I enjoyed the group interaction & discussions – the workshop made me realize that I’m not alone in dealing with stress

• Great job; well presented, very knowledgeable

• Great information, presentation and communication skills

• You stressed all the key points very well!

• Excellent – thank you!

·         I now have an understanding of what the effects of stress can do to me and how I can better manage my stress before it affects my health

·         I found the stress management activities to be most useful

·         I most enjoyed learning the relaxation/breathing techniques and learning about how to use healthy foods

·         The most useful part for me, was learning how to manage my stress and using foods that can help

·         The breathing exercises put everything into perspective – the exercises were quick, easy, and effective!

·         I found the group discussion and activities very useful

What action steps did participants want to undertake as a result of their experience with this workshop?  These are actual comments left by participant.

·         I will exercise more, eat breakfast and relax!

·         I’m going to get walking, eat healthier and pay more attention to how stress is affecting my health

·         I didn’t realize how badly my stress was affecting me until I had my blood pressure taken by Crista this afternoon.  She advised me to see my doctor right away – which I will be sure to do.  I’ll also be using the exercises and diet changes we learned about today to help bring down my blood pressure.

·         I will take more time for myself!

·         I will change how I handle my stress by going back through the activities and exercises we learned today

·         I’m going home to share this information with my family so that we can all manage our stress better

For information on our Stress Management Workshop or to discuss other available workshops, please contact:  Julia Oliveira-Werby, President

Phone: (519) 537-3709 or email: peptalk@execulink.com