Search engine: Stress management websites

Whether it is you, your workforce, your department or all three that needs to de-stress, these websites should offer a helping hand with stress management. By Sue Weekes.

British Psychological Society
www.bps.org.uk/index.cfm

The online home of the representative body for psychologists and psychology in the UK lets you search the directory and register of Chartered Psychologists and has a useful FAQ section on the practicalities of using one.

Friendly-ear
www.friendly-ear.com

Offers online counselling via secure e-mail and chat room facilities to help employees meet the challenges within the workplace, both personally and professionally. It is a paid-for service.

International Stress Management Association
www.isma.org.uk

There's not much that this registered charity doesn't know about handling stress. The site features selected articles from its journal, Stress News, plus books and publications listed under handy headings and links to its contacts around the world.

An Introduction to Stress Management, NLP and Hypnotherapy
www.trance.dircon.co.uk

Obviously Manchester-based hypnotherapist, life coach and NLP trainer Andy Smith hopes he'll get some business leads from his site, but there is useful free information here, including advice about dealing with panic attacks and why you shouldn't feel guilty when you take a break.

Mind Tools
www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMB_TCS.htm

The stress management page from the US site to provide you with 'essential tools for an excellent career'. Lots of practical articles and exercises to help you analyse and control your stress and an introduction to the idea of an 'optimum' stress level.

Stress Counselling
www.stress-counselling.co.uk

A calming piano tune, cartoons and animated figures greet you here and when you download the HR and training manager's Prevention of Stress page, it comes complete with the Dalai Lama's Message for the Millennium - it'll work for some.

Stress Management Webring
www.agenda.fsnet.co.uk/stress.htm

This places you in the middle of the Stress Management Webring, which allows you to click your way through a ring of related sites covering everything from feng shui to yoga. Other webrings you can leap into from here include the stop smoking and lose weight rings.

Stress UK
www.stress.org.uk

No frills sites with useful lists of counsellors and complimentary associations for reflexology, bio-feedback, chiropractic and even Bach Flower remedies. It also gives access to useful articles and reports, including the TUC's report on stress.