Preparing for Stress Control at Home: What to Do Before You Start

If you are about to start Stress Control at Home, this guide will help you understand how the course works, what to do first and what to expect from the sessions.

You do not need to know anything about CBT or understand your stress perfectly before you begin. The preparation stage is simply there to help you get your bearings, start thinking about how stress affects you and make the first sessions easier to follow.

Before Session 1: at a glance

We will take you through each of these steps below.

How Stress Control works

Stress Control at Home is designed to help you understand your own stress, learn practical skills to tackle it head-on, and feel more in control and confident in managing it.

The course is based largely on principles from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), alongside positive psychology and wellbeing approaches.

At its heart, the approach is simple:

Alongside the video sessions, you will also have access to booklets, worksheets, self-assessments, quizzes, relaxation and mindfulness tracks, and other activities. These are there to support you as you go, and you can use the resources that are most helpful to you.

Start with the two Introduction sessions

Your first step inside the course is to work through the two Introduction sessions.

These explain how Stress Control at Home works, what you will find in the member area and how to use the different resources alongside the videos.

You will also see how activities are used throughout the course. Depending on the session, these might include:

• booklets;
• self-assessment questionnaires;
• worksheets and homework tasks;
• practice activities;
• quizzes.

At the end of the second Introduction session, you will be directed to the four Preparing for the Course booklets.

Work through the Preparing for the Course booklets

The four preparation booklets are:

1. Welcome to Stress Control
2. What is Stress?
3. Know Your Enemy
4. First Steps

You can find them in the Course Booklets section of your membership.

You do not need to study them or remember every detail. Each has a different purpose, and together they give you a useful foundation before you begin the main sessions.

Welcome to Stress Control

This booklet explains how Stress Control at Home works, what the course covers and how the different resources fit together.

What is Stress?

This introduces the Stress Control approach to stress and some of the different ways it can affect your thoughts, feelings, body, actions and everyday life.

It also introduces ideas that you will explore further in the first main sessions.

Know Your Enemy

Stress affects everyone differently, so an important part of the preparation is starting to understand your own pattern of stress.

Know Your Enemy helps you think about things such as:

• what makes your stress better or worse;
• the physical symptoms you notice;
• what you tend to worry or brood about;
• how you behave when you are stressed;
• which parts of your life are being affected;
• what you would like to change.

There are no right or wrong answers. The aim is to start noticing your own patterns so that, as you learn new Stress Control skills, you can work out which are most useful for you.

First Steps

First Steps begins moving from understanding stress towards doing something about it.

It looks at things that may be keeping stress going, areas of your life that may need attention, and practical ideas you can start using straight away.

Complete your first self-assessments

Before watching your first main session, you will be asked to complete your first set of self-assessment questionnaires.

These look at:

• anxiety;
• depression;
• wellbeing.

The results give you a starting point. You can repeat the questionnaires during your membership and look back at your earlier scores to see how things are changing over time.

There is no score you are trying to achieve, and the questionnaires are not a test. They are simply another way to understand where you are starting from and track your progress as you work through the course.

Your answers and results are private to you.

Know what to expect from the main sessions

Once you have completed the Introduction sessions and preparation materials, you can begin the main Stress Control course.

There are 12 main sessions, and they are completed in order. Later sessions unlock as you progress, so each new part of the course can build on what you have already learned.

Each session centres around a video, but you may also find activities to complete before or after you watch.

Before you watch

Some sessions include a Before you watch section.

This might ask you to read the booklet linked to that session or complete another short preparation activity.

For example, before Controlling Your Body – Part One, you are asked to read the Controlling Your Body booklet.

Watch the session video

The video is the main part of the session.

Some topics are covered across two linked sessions. Often, one session helps you understand what is happening and another focuses more on practical skills for tackling it.

You can revisit completed videos during your membership, so there is no need to take everything in the first time.

Some people like to take notes. Others prefer to watch first and return to the video or booklet later. Use whichever approach works best for you.

After you watch

Many sessions also include an After you watch section.

The activities vary depending on the topic and may include:

• worksheets;
• diaries or monitoring forms;
• homework tasks;
• practice forms;
• exercises to try;
• relaxation practice.

These activities help you turn the ideas in the video into something practical and connect what you are learning with your own experience.

Put what you have learned into practice

For example, after the Controlling Your Body sessions, you will find activities that help you notice physical signs of stress, think about whether caffeine may be affecting your symptoms, practise relaxation and keep track of how you get on using a relaxation diary.

Other sessions use different worksheets, diaries and practice forms depending on the skills being covered.

Use the activities that help you understand the skills, relate them to your own stress and practise using them in everyday life.

Use the quizzes as a quick recap

Some parts of the course include a short quiz after a session, or after two linked sessions.

These are not exams and there is nothing to pass or fail. They are simply a quick way to check that you have picked up the main ideas.

Give yourself time between sessions

We suggest watching one or two videos a week.

The time between sessions gives you a chance to try the skills you have learned, complete any activities you find helpful and notice how the ideas relate to your own stress.

Then continue with the next session when you feel ready.

You do not need to master one skill before moving on. Your understanding and confidence can build as you progress, and later sessions will bring together skills and ideas you learned earlier.

You do not need to get everything right before you begin

Preparing for Stress Control should help you feel more ready to start — it should not become another thing to worry about.

You do not need to memorise the booklets, understand every idea straight away or have completely worked out your stress before Session 1. The course will help you build that understanding as you go.

For now:

• work through the two Introduction sessions;
• explore the four Preparing for the Course booklets;
• complete your first self-assessments;
• then begin Session 1 when you feel ready.