Workplace Stress

Workplace stress can come from heavy workloads, tight deadlines, excessive pressure to perform, or ongoing demands without adequate recovery time. If chronic stress is affecting your health, mood, and wellbeing, counselling can help you develop sustainable strategies and restore balance.

What is Workplace Stress?

Workplace stress is the physical and emotional response to demands and pressures at work. Some level of stress can be motivating, but when it becomes chronic – when demands keep coming without enough time to recover – it can significantly affect your wellbeing.

Workplace stress often stems from heavy workloads, tight deadlines, lack of control over how you work, unclear expectations, or an organisational culture that doesn’t prioritise wellbeing. You might be working long hours, taking work home mentally or physically, or feeling constant pressure to perform. Over time, this can lead to exhaustion, reduced effectiveness, and a sense of being unsustainable.

How Workplace Stress Might Affect You

Chronic workplace stress infiltrates many areas of your life. Sleep becomes disrupted – either you’re working late and missing sleep, or work concerns keep you awake. You might feel physically tense, experiencing headaches, stomach issues, or muscle tension. Mood can shift – you might feel more anxious, irritable, or flat. Energy drops, making everything feel harder.

Work performance can actually suffer despite long hours, creating a frustrating cycle where working harder doesn’t solve the problem. Relationships at home can be affected if you’re bringing work stress into personal time or have little energy for connection. Your confidence might decrease as stress affects your ability to think clearly and perform effectively. The good news is that with support, you can develop strategies to manage demands more sustainably and rebuild your wellbeing.

Our Approach to Workplace Stress

Working with a psychologist at Growth Psychology, you’ll develop practical strategies to manage workplace demands and restore balance in your life.

We help you identify your specific workplace stressors and what’s within your control to change. We work on setting healthy boundaries – learning to say no, protecting time for recovery, and separating work from personal time. We teach stress management techniques like mindfulness and breathing exercises that help you build resilience. We explore whether changes to your work approach, schedule, or role might be possible.

Beyond the practical strategies, we help you shift your relationship with work stress – understanding what drives your need to overwork, exploring your values around work and life, and rebuilding perspective. Many people find that reconnecting with what matters to them outside work – relationships, hobbies, rest – helps them manage work stress more effectively. Learn more about our therapeutic approaches.

When to Seek Help

If workplace stress is significantly affecting your health, sleep, mood, or relationships – or if you’re feeling unsustainable in your current work situation – seeking support can help. Addressing stress early can prevent burnout and help you find better balance more quickly.

Ask about our Workplace Stress services.

If you’d like to explore how therapy might help, we’re here to talk through your needs.

Enquire today

Our practicitioners with a focus on Workplace Stress

Lara Patty - Psychologist

Lara is a registered Psychologist who offers a warm, collaborative, and emotionally grounded approach to therapy. She supports adolescents (16+) and adults across experiences such as anxiety, depression, stress, identity concerns, relationship and attachment patterns, the impacts of difficult childhood experiences, and life transitions. Lara integrates evidence‑informed approaches—including Schema Therapy, CBT, and ACT—to help clients explore their inner world and develop compassionate, authentic ways of relating to themselves and others.

Carolyn Alchin - Career Development Practitioner

Carolyn is an experienced career development practitioner and counsellor with a Masters of Education (Career Development). She enjoys enabling all populations to see, reach, and enhance their career potential. She has over 20 years’ practical experience in mentoring, recruitment, advising and counselling, teaching and education development.

Berni Cooper - Wellbeing Strategist & Educator

Berni is a professional coach with a Master of Applied Positive Psychology and a Bachelor of Social Sciences Hons (Psychology). She has over 15 years’ experience in coaching, mentoring, advising and training.

Shelley Phillips - Psychologist

Shelley Phillips is a registered Psychologist who offers a warm, caring, and evidence‑informed approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing. She draws on CBT, ACT, Positive Psychology, and strengths‑based practices to help clients explore challenges in life and work. Shelley also supports clients navigating job selection processes, career development, and workplace stress. She has experience working with emergency services personnel and has worked as a psychology lecturer, mentor, and supervisor.

Gregory Dean - Endorsed Counselling Psychologist

Greg is an Endorsed Counselling Psychologist with more than thirty years of experience supporting people across a wide range of life challenges. He works collaboratively with clients to explore the impact of past experiences, strengthen emotional wellbeing, and navigate patterns that influence relationships and daily life. Greg uses evidence‑informed approaches tailored to each person’s needs. Greg has worked in counselling and psychotherapy private practice in metropolitan centres and remote rural areas, in schools, government organisations, emergency services, military veterans’ organisations and in industry. He has also worked as an academic, teacher and in management and specialist roles in the mining industry.

Beth Keane - Psychologist - Practice Owner

Beth is a registered Psychologist who supports adults across a range of wellbeing and mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, life transitions, and career‑related challenges. She draws on CBT, ACT, Schema‑informed strategies, and strengths‑based, person‑centred approaches. Beth also provides services under Queensland emergency services support programs and works in training, development, and career‑related support.