Certificate in Stress Management (SEF-EDG8091)

Events, people, and circumstances fill our normal daily lives—along with a certain amount of stress. Stress can be positive or negative, depending on how we perceive the stressor and it impacts our physical, social, spiritual, and emotional health.

Stress is also affected by the social and cultural context in which we live. However, with awareness, stress can be managed and reduced. Interventions such as nutritious food, physical activity, and social support along with modalities including journaling, massage, therapy, meditation, imagery, biofeedback, art and dance therapy, and time spent in nature can help us reduce the stress we experience and create a healthier life.

Course Outline:

• Lesson 01 - Physiology of Stress
  • Stress is at epidemic levels in the world today. Currently, as many as 90% of all visits to health-care providers in the United States are considered to be stress-related.
  • Stress affects every aspect of the body, mind, and spirit, resulting in a wide range of symptoms from headaches or stomach ailments to heart disease or death.
  • Stress is difficult to define because it varies from individual to individual. What one person finds stressful might not bother another person at all. There are many types of stress, and each can result in many different physiological effects on the body.
• Lesson 02 - Social Context of Stress
  • A strong social support network is important during difficult times. A social support network consists of friends, family, and peers. Developing and maintaining supportive relationships provides feelings of belonging, self-worth, and security.
  • Without a strong social support network, individuals can experience a sense of isolation, disconnection, and stress.
  • Despite their initial impression of fostering connectedness, technology and social networking often increase a person's feelings of isolation because relationships established online may not be deep and real. In addition, incivility and a lack of regular contact with nature also increase stress.
• Lesson 03 - Psychology of Stress
  • Events, people, and circumstances fill our normal daily lives along with a certain amount of stress. Some of us experience psychological effects from this stress, while others seem to be unaffected or even thrive when challenged.
  • Why do we react differently to stressors? Despite much research on the topic, the answer is not clearly understood, but key elements include personality, emotional intelligence, and gender.
• Lesson 04 - The Effects of Stress on Health
  • Stress can dramatically affect the body and the mind to the detriment of physical and psychological health. Both acute and chronic stress, the timing and duration of stress, gender, and genetics play a role in the complex relationship between stress and health.
• Lesson 05 - Stress and Nutrition
  • Most individuals enjoy sitting down and eating a delicious meal. Food provides an opportunity to socialize and, if the food is nutritious, it also supports a healthy body and mind. However, when individuals are stressed, they are not able to utilize the nutrients they eat as effectively as when they are relaxed. If stress causes an individual to eat food that is not nutritious, health issues can result. Nutrition, stress, and the immune system are closely related.
• Lesson 06 - Stress and Physical Activity
  • Physical activity is essential in a program for stress management and overall health. This can include activities such as walking, running, swimming, cycling, skiing, dancing, gardening, yoga, Qigong, Tai Chi Chuan, weight lifting, stretching, as well as many other practices. These activities provide an integrative, holistic, healthy way to connect mind, body, and spirit, which improve physical, mental, and emotional health.
• Lesson 07 - Workplace Stress
  • For most Americans, the workplace is ever changing and a major source of daily stress. As a result, the economic and personal health effects of workplace stress are at epidemic levels, making it one of the most important health challenges of the 21st century.
• Lesson 08 - Journaling: Healthy Living Through Self-Discovery
  • Writing has been an important part of the human experience for centuries but has only recently been recognized as a therapeutic tool for healing. Used to document personal and historical events, describe emotions and feelings, reduce stress, and explore creativity, journaling allows individuals to develop a deeply personal relationship with themselves.
• Lesson 09 - Stress Reduction Techniques and Therapies
  • You may think you don't have a lot of control over the stress in your life, but you have more control than you might think. There are many ways to manage and reduce stress by using stress-relieving techniques and therapies. Exploring and experimenting with these techniques can provide you with many powerful tools to help you re-examine the way you respond to stress and empower you to more effectively manage the stress you have.