1. Stress
Management and
problem solving

2. Aims
• To understand the term stress and be able to
describe how levels of demand, control and
support affect how much stress a person feels
(knowledge)
• To practice using tool managing stress and
explore options (skills)
• To understand that other people experience
feeling differently, and to appreciate how stress
is the result of differing reactions to situations
(attitudes/values).

3. What is stress?

4. What puts you under
pressure?
• Demand: This refers to the level of challenge
or difficulty. A little bit of challenge is good. It
helps us to strive to be better, and helps us
grow. However, where a challenge is very
great, or there is a very difficult situation that
we are facing, it can be a major contributor to
stress.
• Examples: exams, tests, moving, bullying,
pressure to look or act a certain way

5. What helps when you are
under pressure?
Taking Control: when things are out of
control we are likely to experience more
stress. For example, a teacher may give
you some homework. You may not be
able to control what homework you are
given but you should have some control
over when you do it and how.
Examples: solving the problem, positive
thinking, choosing not to react, planning

6. What else helps?
• Support: the one thing that will help the
most, if demands of life are high, and we
are experiencing a lack of control, is
support. Generally support comes in the
form of friends, relatives, teachers. They
can help us to cope with the pressures
and lower stress.
• Examples: talking to friends, counselor,
teacher, family

7. Stress management- Case
studies
Stress is a very general word to describe all sorts of
pressures. Each person in the case studies is feeling
under pressure for different reasons, and has decided to
visit the counselor just to talk things through.
Work in pairs, take role of counselor and try to work out
answer to the following questions
1.How is the person feeling?
2. What is causing the stress, what are they worried
about? List their thoughts.
3. How is the stress affecting their behavior and life?

8. Action Planning
When people feel stressed it can be
tempting to tell them what to do. No
one really likes to be told what to do. It
is hard to really understand all the
details of someone else's situation. It
can be better to help them explore
what the options are so that they can
make their own decisions.

9. Option 1
Fill in the planning grid
•What could the person do to improve their
situation?
•What would be the consequences of making this
choice?
•Usually you would ask the person what they
want to do, but in this case you will have to
choose.
•Suggest an action plan for them

10. Option 2
• Work in pairs, using role play
• One person is the counselor and one person is
the case study.
• The aim is to come up with an action plan to
help them improve their situation.
• The counselor has a difficult job because they
are not allowed to suggest any ideas.
• You should explore the options using open
questions.

11. Readings and viewings
Spend some time reading and viewing
the links on my blog.
OR
Spend some time looking at
information about stress on the
internet, article or videos. Post anything
interesting you find on your blog.

12. Write a reflection
• People who are stressed often change the way
they act, have you experienced this?
• We need to talk to stressed people about how
they are thinking and feeing. Have you ever had
to do this?
• Do you ever feel stressed and not know why?
• What are some good ways to deal with stress?
• How could NIS help HS students manage stress?