Managing Workplace Anxiety - Adelaide

# Managing Workplace Anxiety Adelaide

## Course Outline

### Overview

Millions of Australian workers experience workplace anxiety, making it one of the most misunderstood issues in our professional lives. This course, which aims to give a well explained overview of the field, is built on the belief anxiety is not weakness - it is a normal human response that, when handled right, can actually improve performance rather than cripple it.

Taking the science behind fear and nervousness at work and how it's holding you back and backing it up with real examples from the office and applying evidence based principles in this area, this course gives you real tools and practice to managing anxiety at work (and thinking forward – it's a set of internal strategies that you can reuse over and over again whenever anxiety shows up, right?). So be it nerves about presentation, deadline, social or personal workplace stress management, you will create a personalised toolkit that is relevant to your role and industry.

The course is delivered in a non judgemental and empathetic way, valuing anxiety as a part of the workplace rather than a personal weakness. Participants will discover the difference between positive stress that drives and negative stress that paralyses and will acquire the skills necessary to work with the former, whereas the latter has to be dealt with in order to be able to take the former with you.

### Curriculum Based Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

**Understand Personal Anxiety Triggers:** They understand individual workplace encounters, people and situations that trigger a fight or flee response.

**Use Immediate Calming Practices:** Use discreet evidence based breathing and grounding exercises at stressful high tension times.

**Reframe Negative Thoughts:** Turn catastrophic thinking into realistic problem solving thought trends

**Establishing Boundaries:** Clear communication of what is needed or permissible, without jeopardising the professional relationship

**Moderate perfectionism:** Learn to set and maintain high standards for yourself that are in proportion.

**Conversations that Matter:** Tackle tough topics and uncomfortable dialogue with confidence and clarity

**Develop Lasting Resilience:** Establishing sustainable habits can prevent anxiety spiral and help maintain happy and healthy workspace into long term

### What You Will Learn

**Module 1: About Your Anxiety Reaction** Discover how to stop the physical, emotional, and behavioural symptoms of workplace anxiety in their tracks. Know the difference between beneficial alertness and harmful anxiety, and figure out what personal stressors are related to your particular work and work environment.

**Module 2: Proactive Response Strategies** Learn physical and mental strategies for turning the tables in your favour and overpowering threats on the spot. These are methods of controlled breathing, grounding exercises and rapid cognitive reset strategies that work in open plan offices, in meetings.

**Module 3: How to THINK: Cognitive Restructuring for the Workplace** Learn to take on and reframing the catastrophic workplace fueling thoughts. Learn to differentiate between genuine concerns and anxiety driven worst case scenarios, finally replacing these distorted thought patterns with more realistic, balanced thinking.

**Module 4: Communication and Setting Boundaries** Learn how to communicate what you need to ask for help and set those crucial boundaries without feeling unprofessional or difficult. Role play and responses to common workplace issues.

**Module 5: Working with Perfectionism and Performance Pressure** Turn perfectionistic tendencies from anxiety sources into quality motivation. Discover how to establish realistic standards, deal with mistakes in a positive manner and find the balance between high performance and overbearing pressure.

**Module 6: Managing Workplace Relationships and Conflict** Learn to be assertive in difficult conversations, deal with difficult behaviours from your colleagues, and maintain professional relationships without damaging your mental health in the workplace.

**Module 7: Develop your Personalised Resilience Plan** Develop your own personalised set of practices including day to day shifts, break glass in an emergency and strategic changes in scenario specific mental wellbeing.

### Concluding Remarks

This course recognises that there will always be stressful situations in today's working environment, deadlines, difficult colleagues, performance pressures and unforeseen demands are part and parcel of working life. Instead of seeking to remove these stressors, trainees develop resiliency to them.

It is a mix of Psychology meets Business underpinned with the practical, so you can take away everything I teach and use it in your Organisation straight away. Attendees walk away with a clear picture of their personal anxiety, as well as an arsenal of best practices to navigate workplace stress.

More to the point, this course changes the conversation about workplace anxiety away from shame and silence, and toward empathy and action. And that managing anxiety isn't about being perfect, or never feeling stressed out, but about developing the skills to navigate the stress of the workplace with more ease, and with more confidence.

The ultimate aim is straightforward: to support you in feeling more in control of your work life, freeing up your energy for what really matters – being productive while looking after your health.