What’s trending now?
Can you fix the way I feel about my job? And the way it fits into my lifestyle? How about the way I handle meetings, presentations, cold calls and corporate culture?
Absolutely.
Business therapy is a new way of helping individuals to address the issues that spring up during the nine-to-five. It’s psychotherapy for work.
Different practitioners have different methods, but business therapy pulls in everything from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), sports psychology and even hypnotherapy.
CBT is a mental toolkit which allows a person to view their behaviours objectively. Once a person can see the patterns they create and what triggers them, they can begin to address how they feel about them.
NLP is often used in executive coaching. Existing “self-speak” is reorganised within the brain, to adjust behavioural patterns. Quite simply, it changes the way a person thinks about what they are doing.
The concept of teamwork comes through when an entire department is brought to a business therapist. Their interactions within the team play to perceptions regarding their role within a corporate culture. Sports psychology works with an individual as part of this greater whole.
Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, is a way of convincing an individual, while in a relaxed state, that they can achieve what they set out to do and without the stress normally associated with change.
Business therapy, as a crossover discipline, explores self-limiting practices, and then works with internal mind mechanisms, to overcome challenges.
And, it’s a quick process. A need is identified, as is the language the client uses to define their issues. The following session creates a change in thinking using whichever therapeutic techniques work best for a client. A final session cements the changes. Clients can literally change the way they feel within three one hour sessions.
Why it’s important?
Even while unemployment abounds, most people want a lifestyle, rather than a job.
Many industries have seen traditional business structures fall away with the advent of mobile offices and flexi-time. Today’s employees do not leave their work at the office when they wrap for the day. In addition, more people are pursuing multiple careers and are ensuring that their job works within their lives, rather than running it. The fluidity of these environments creates challenges alongside opportunities.
Stress at work cannot be ignored. Unless business problems are addressed, negative reverberations will spill over into other areas of their lives. Just as a counsellor assists with personal issues, business therapists address challenges in the workplace.
It also provides support for corporate employees where the pressures to conform and perform make the difference in annual raises and promotions.
What’s the butterfly effect?
Employees and entrepreneurs can anticipate their job to blend into their expectations, and for their jobs to work with their lifestyle, rather than against it. With this new brand of psychotherapy, people gain the tools to create that desirable marriage of work and play.
They are also able to overcome negative business practices and (almost instantly) change the way they feel about their career and their current position. It’s the difference between an employee and a happy, upwardly motivated employee.
The pioneers
Executive coaches, with a background in NLP, sensed the need for this brand of therapy. In most cases, simply talking through an issue, or acting as a cheerleader simply wasn’t effective enough.
Within this world, there are general business therapists, and then there are specialists. For example, City Therapy Partners in London developed a niche within this discipline (www.city-therapy.com). Their brand of psychotherapy, Sales Performance Therapy, targets sales professionals, and their unique stresses.
The global hot spots
London is leading the pack, though the United States is catching on to the benefits of behavioural and emotional adjustment. But, in the modern age of communication, practitioners provide consultations to clients in areas as diverse as Russia, India and South Africa through non-traditional communication tools, such as Skype.
By: Katie Schenk
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About Katie
Katie is South African by choice, but she’s proud of being American too. She’s a writer, a producer, and a momma. If she can shut off – she sleeps. Her interests include advertising, home economics, entrepreneurial processes, South African idiosyncrasies, and rugby. (Really.) She’s also a fan of Tudor history – but there’s nothing trendy (or trending) in that.
Image credit: Gallo Images/ Getty Images
