Phobias, Professional Burnout, Vocational Assessment Mindfulness approaches

Phobias, Professional Burnout, Vocational Assessment

Phobias are classified as irrational fears that impede on normal daily life. While everyone has one or two irrational fears, they are minor. However, if irrational fears become so intense that they cause extreme anxiety that interferes with normal life, it is time to get therapy to help overcome these fears.

The most important thing people should understand is that phobias can be controlled and even cured. Between self-help strategies and professional phobia therapy, anyone can overcome irrational fears and start to live a life of freedom from phobias.

Phobias can interfere with life when you are forced to face them on a regular basis. People with phobias are generally afraid of things that pose little to no real danger at all. People with phobias generally fear heights, clowns, flying, driving, insects, small spaces, wide open spaces or needles.However, phobias are not limited to this, but to anything about which the fear is highly exaggerated.

While phobias are usually developed during childhood, adults may also develop new phobias. People will go to extreme lengths to avoid exposure to whatever they are phobic about.

The good news is that phobias are easily treated using a range of therapies. Cognitive behavioural therapy can help a person recognize their phobias and find different ways to react to their exposure to the things they fear. Desensitization therapy helps a person to learn how to manage being exposed to what they fear in a safe environment. A therapist will help the person understand that their fears are unfounded and as such, manage and eventually cure the phobia.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers phobias and related issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Professional burnout is becoming more common in people who have to carve careers in this competitive economy. While there are more and better opportunities for people to advance their careers, there are also more issues that add to stress in the workplace.

Typically, professional burnout is caused by issues such as endless tasks, under-employment, inadequate pay, difficult clients, bureaucracy, conflicting roles, and perfectionism. Some of the more difficult causes include deficits in emotional and social skills and conflicts between workplace and personal values.

A person who is dealing with professional burnout will usually feel extreme physical and emotional exhaustion, as the result of prolonged stressed. Cynicism and low levels of career satisfaction, or even indifference are common symptoms of professional burnout. People with professional burnout will struggle to concentrate and have poor problem solving abilities.

Professional burnout can cause a range of health problems as a result of chronic stress, and symptoms may include insomnia, headaches, and frequent colds. People often self-medicate and start using substances such as sleeping pills, alcohol, mood elevators or cigarettes, which pose more serious health risks.

A therapists who offers professional burnout will be able to help the person to identify issues that could lead to burnout. He or she will help identify stressors and find solutions, or even help you define the best career for you by using standardized tests that measure strengths and weaknesses.

Some careers predispose people to professional burnout, such as police officers, customer care consultants, lawyers, nurses, social workers and teachers. Emotional involvement in high stress environments make professional burnout prevalent in these professions.  

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers professional burnout counselling and other career-related issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Vocational assessments can help you learn a lot about yourself and your career choices. People who have been successful in their careers, but lack the sense of fulfillment use the results on their psychometric tests as an indicator to implement changes necessary to become happy in their fields. One sign of a lack of fulfillment is when someone has had several jobs, but has not yet found their feet in a specific niche.

If you are looking for a career transition, or if you are a school leaver who wants to start out on the right track, vocational assessments can help you make the right decisions. Mothers who want to re-enter the workforce after taking a break to raise children, might find that their priorities have changed, and that they might flourish in a new field.

No matter where you find yourself, a psychologist or counsellor with training in psycho-diagnostic counselling, vocational assessment and career guidance can help you make the right decisions. He or she will use psycho-diagnostic tools and assessments to test your intellectual abilities, aptitude, personality profiling and emotional functioning to help you find the best career in which you can succeed and be fulfilled.

Vocational assessments can be done for people of different ages, as counsellors can use specific tests to assess school readiness, scholastic ability, sensorimotor ability and personality profiling for young children too. Career guidance for adolescents can help them choose the best subjects to fulfill their career goals, while vocational guidance can help them choose the right careers from the start.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who does vocational assessments and counselling, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Mindfulness approaches

Mindfulness approaches help clients to be focused in the here and now. Generally rooted in Eastern meditative techniques,  Mindfulness approaches offer a non-judgmental alternative therapy for dealing with stress and other psychological issues.

By observing worrisome thoughts and learning to accept situations for what they are, people can learn to cope with issues better and make more productive choices.

Mindfulness approaches include a range of models, including dialectical behaviour therapy,  mindfulness-based stress reduction, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. These approaches can be used in a wide range of settings to reduce the symptoms of a broad spectrum of psychological issues.  These therapies can be practiced effectively in individual or group therapy.

If you are looking for a therapist who offers Mindfulness approaches, please browse our list of practitioners below..

Note: You may narrow your search by selecting more than one filter below.

Michelle Coulombe

M.A., RCC
In-Person, Video and telephone counselling available.  I have a BA in Psychology, as well as an MA in Counselling Psychology (family specialization) from UBC. I have been a Certified Canadian... Read more