My approach to dealing with people’s issues is very straight forward and down to earth. I understand that to many of the people who seek my help, needing to break down and seek help can be a bit humbling to them. Many felt they could sort out the problem themselves, and to them I can appreciate where they are coming from.
But to put this in another example that people can more easily relate to, consider a minor injury. Most if not all people can remove a splinter from their finger, and the same is true for minor cuts and scrapes. Having some antiseptic at home and a basic first aid kit is seen as not only wise, but the expected norm.
But lets say the cut is deep and will not properly heal without a doctor stitching it up. A person can choose to go to a doctor or not, and the end result of that decision will be visible to all for the rest of their life.
Then again there are some things that only a doctor can tend to like the need for surgery or properly setting a broken bone. If you choose not to go, that just may be the last bad choice of your life.
When people have emotional issues that effect how they function in life, knowing what to do is difficult. For example if a psychiatrist has an emotional problem, they could easily self medicate. However the proper thing to do is to see another psychiatrist for medication because their own self judgment is impaired by the problem they are seeking medication for.
So there is nothing wrong in seeking professional help for anything. That includes hiring a plumber or electrician or any other profession. There is no loss of pride in getting any job done properly.
So as for my approach and looking to get things done properly, I look to deal with the cause and not the effect. When you remove the cause, the effect will simply end. Treating the effect and not the cause simply leads to longer and unneeded time seeking help of any kind as the effect will sooner or later come back because the cause remains.
So in example if a person is under stress at work, I don’t look to toughen them up so they can look to endure it a bit longer. My approach is have them directly engage the cause. If they need a little extra courage to do that or special ways to do that, there is no problem in providing that as well so they can get the job done. There is no reason at all for a person to be subject to excessive stress at work because of mismanagement.
So in this case mismanagement is the cause, and I usually provide tools to the stressed employee so management will realize they are mismanaging and make the needed changes without putting the employee at risk. It is a non confrontational approach that is very effective as it does employ the power of suggestion. Once the employee is empowered with these tools, they can be used again as needed in the future wherever they encounter excessive stress in a similar environment. The wonderful side effect of this is people will provide more respect to the formerly stressed employee for the ‘Know how’ and effectively dealing with the problem.
