Counselling for Professional & Work Relationship challenges
Professional life takes up the majority of our ‘awake time’, so consequently we may be spending more time with work colleagues than with friends or family members.
This time spent with work colleagues, and the personalities that make up your work ‘team’, ‘office’ or professional set up, can feel even more difficult to handle and negotiate as you are probably not in control of who those people are, and even if you are more in control, as their employer, you are still dependent on their cooperation.
When faced with professional relationships, which are seen as difficult, it is often the case that we choose to ‘put up and shut up’ – or at least if can feel that way.
Some of these work relationship challenges may involve or derive from:
- Petty squabbling – either between yourself and another or that you are witnessing, and which impacts on you.
- Power struggles – again either with you directly involved, or as an observer.
- Challenging personalities or challenging staff behaviour.
- Coping with delivering uncomfortable conversations or information.
- Observing bullying or harassment ‘of’ or ‘by’ someone in your work setup (see more about Bullying)
You may choose to ignore those issues for a while, however with time you may feel that they impact your enjoyment and efficiency at work and create a feeling of in-congruence – compromising your personal values for the sake of staying safe.
Counselling can help you find a way to be yourself and still enjoy your job and work relationships
If you feel that due to the personalities and relationships in your work or professional life, there are situations that create anxiety, a sense of inadequacy and inferiority, then you may decide to seek support in therapy.
You don’t have to “put up or shut up”
Discussing your experiences and reflections may give you an opportunity to see your situation in different light and open up possibilities for reshaping your professional or work relationships.
- You may find that you are lacking assertiveness, which is just a set of skills that can be learned (see more about Assertiveness).
- You may also discover that the ‘difficult colleague’ is in fact just being himself, but his behaviour is a trigger for a reaction to an event or feeling that is rooted outside work – in your past or at home, like bereavement, or relationship breakup (more about therapy for Emotional issues).
- You may find out that your feelings of anxiety or inadequacy experienced in relationship with a colleague are not a proof of you being ‘not good enough’ but the effect of controlling and abusive behaviour that constitutes bullying (more about bullying )
