The Stress Diagnostic is a tick-box list of known stress-related symptoms. The idea is to read through the list of symptoms in the Stress Diagnostic and tick all the symptoms you have been experiencing in the past few weeks. The more symptoms you have and the more intense/severe they are, the more stress you are likely to be experiencing.
A common misunderstanding is that psychologists give you advice. This is not what psychologists actually do - their role is far more complex than that. This poster summarises the difference between giving advice and psychotherapy. You can read more in my article Giving Advice Versus Psychotherapy.
Just Culture is the opposite of blame culture.
Just Culture seeks to identify the cause of an issue, instead of merely blaming the ‘other’. By finding the real cause of the failure (i.e. where the system failed), the correct remedial action can be applied. This approach facilitates information sharing, growth and enhanced productivity.
The Change Wheel shows us the six different stages we go through in response to change and gives us an idea of the thoughts, feelings and behaviour we can expect at each stage. Understanding this change process will help us to adapt to change positively.
Icebergs are deceiving because what you see on the surface is usually only a small fraction of what lies below. Anger is exactly like an iceberg – it is easy to observe on the surface, but it has so many other hidden emotions below the surface.
Read the related article Making Sense of Anger.
The Circles of Control, Influence and Concern model helps us to direct our energy and focus. If we put our time and energy into worrying about the things that are in our circle of concern we will continue to feel out of control and helpless. But if we put our time and energy into our circle of influence and our circle of control we will give ourselves a sense of agency and feel more in control, so this is where we need to focus our time and energy.
Read the related article Circles of Control for detailed instructions
The Wellbeing Wheel breaks our lives into eight different aspects, elements or categories and helps us to see that all the parts of our lives are linked to each other. When we plot our wellbeing on the wheel we can see at a glance which aspects we are paying attention to and which aspects we are not paying attention to, or neglecting in our lives.
Read the related article Wellbeing Wheel for detailed instructions
Do you know how well developed each of your ego states is?
Completing the “My Personal Ego State Chart” will enable you to see at a glance your ego state development.
To refresh your memory about the ego states read: Transactional Analysis – Part I (The Masks We Wear)
There are both helpful and unhelpful ways of reacting to a situation.
The aim of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy is to help you stop the unhelpful reactions which trap you in a vicious cycle of negative thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
The ‘Self-Monitoring Chart’ will help you to do this.
Read Change Your Thinking…. Change Your Life! for more information about how Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy works.
Part of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy involves monitoring your thoughts. Completing the worksheet will allow you to see the effect of negative thinking.
Warning: While it is helpful to see the effects of negative thinking, don’t punish yourself for thinking this way. Punishing yourself merely creates another cycle of negative thinking!
Read Change Your Thinking…. Change Your Life! for more information about how Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy works.
Part of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy involves identifying your feelings. This is not always easy - the more blocked you are from deep, underlying feelings, the harder it will be to identify them accurately. This poster helps you identify and label feelings.
Read Change Your Thinking…. Change Your Life! for more information about how Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy works.
The process of challenging or testing negative thoughts is a crucial part of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy. Challenging your negative thoughts requires you to answer many questions. The more you answer, the more you can ‘test’ your thinking. This poster gives you a list of useful questions to challenge or ‘test’ your negative thinking.
Read Change Your Thinking…. Change Your Life! for more information about how Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy works.
In my assertiveness course, “How to Stand up for Yourself Without Standing on Others”, I show that of the five communication styles – assertive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, manipulative and submissive – the assertive style is the one we should be striving to use most of the time, because with this style you:
This poster is an affirmation that you are being assertive. Use it as a reminder to keep on track.
Based on decisions made in infancy, we assume one of four basic psychological life positions, which to a large extent determines our pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The challenge is to become aware of our life position and if necessary, create a healthy alternative.
The four life positions were developed by Frank Ernst into the well-known OK Corral shown in this poster.
Read Transactional Analysis – Part III (The Scripts We Follow) for details of the four life positions.
When it comes to giving and receiving strokes most of us use a series of repetitive, unconscious patterns – never thinking about what we are doing. Since strokes are fundamentally involved in everything we do, it can be of great help to become aware of what is known as our ‘stroking profile’.
Read Transactional Analysis – Part I (The Masks We Wear) and Transactional Analysis – Part II (The Games We Play) and fill in your profile using the worksheet and guide provided.
A traumatic event is an event that involves a threat to one’s own life or body, or involves witnessing a life threatening event that someone else faces.
If you or a friend have experienced a trauma it is helpful to know what to expect. Most people will experience some of the symptoms mentioned in this list after a trauma - you are not going crazy, this is normal. It is a really good idea to seek professional trauma counselling so that these normal symptoms do not turn into PTSD - a long term and complicated reaction to trauma.
(Presented as part of my How to Stand up for Yourself course & To Thine own self be True - the Confident You! talk)
Assertiveness is about having clear, honest and respectful relationships with others. Part of this is knowing your Basic Rights and standing up for them.
(Presented as part of my YOU-Q: Finding Your Inner Winner talk and coaching journey)
Character Traits are words which you would use to describe someone, or which other people would use to describe you.
Have a look at the list and choose the 5 traits that you would like to be known for.
(Presented as part of my YOU-Q: Finding Your Inner Winner talk and coaching journey)
Knowing your values is important, because values give you direction. If you have to make a decision in life, it is your values that will help you make that decision. Your values act as your compass, and you need to know where your true north is if you want to stay true to your path in life.
Have a look at the list of values and decide which are the most important to you. Choose only 3.
The Step by Step Values Guide on the second page will help you to make your choices.
