Jay is a 25 year old male client who was recently assigned
to a new project team at his workplace. He was not initially comfortable with
this change, and he experienced high levels of stress and anxiety. Jay started
escaping from situations which demanded teamwork. He called a counsellor
through the EAP services at his workplace. Jay was experiencing sleep
challenges and was seeking strategies to cope with his fears and loss of
confidence. His work performance started getting affected and his manager gave
him repeated warnings. The pressure to complete his tasks without mistakes made
him feel increasingly trapped and often felt anxious. His thoughts were filled
with plans to escape the situation rather than facing his fears. Jay had lost
confidence in his ability to achieve his career goals. He was not sleeping well
and lost interest in food.

During the initial counselling sessions, the focus was to
allow Jay to ventilate his emotions to explore his issues. The counsellor
worked with him to outline a plan which involved the following strategies:

After a series of phone counselling sessions, Jay came with
his own idea of talking to his HR manager about his stress and the
challenges in coping with his new team. He pushed himself against his fear
barrier to talk with the HR manager. His issues were acknowledged and a group
meeting was scheduled to make him feel more comfortable within the team
and  he was also given a break to make a fresh start. He was slowly able
to cope up with the adjustments required to be part of the new team. Today, he
works comfortably with his new team and his thought process has changed, thanks
to the counselling support he received through the EAP counsellor.

• Getting a good night sleep
• Scheduling pleasurable activities or taking breaks
• Providing short-term interventions aimed at identifying his
  irrational thought processes and replacing these with a more functional belief
  system
• Writing journals and making career goals
• Learning basic relaxation techniques

This counselling occurred over a period of 6 months in 5
sessions. During this time, Jay was able to see the progress he was making and
was also able to draw attention to areas where he was experiencing difficulty
or concern. The counsellor continued to maintain contact with Jay on a weekly
basis during the transition to his current team. The counselling helped him
acquire the necessary skills for maintaining progress on his own. He has
returned back to his own team.