The case that we present to you today is that of Delphine, who is 35 years old, marketing assistant and who returned to work after 6 months of absence following a very long illness.
So she returns to a new position, which she wanted with less stress, less responsibility.
And for the past few weeks, her colleagues have noticed that she is isolating herself and that she does not seem to be doing very well.
So the occupational doctor, who has been attentive to Delphine since her return from illness, alerts the HRD of a risk of burn-out concerning her.
The occupational physician, the HRD and her line manager asked Delphine to take things less to heart, to take a step back and the HRD, in particular, suggested that she contact LACT.
And each time Delphine reassures them that everything is fine in a rather pithy way.
So less than three months after her recovery, Delphine sees a doctor who stops her for a month and advises her to go see a doctor, because she is really not well.
And that's when she decided to make an appointment with LACT as the HRD had suggested to her.
So, in fact, Delphine notices that her new activity is not going as well as hoped.
In fact, she struggles to do a job that was simpler than the previous one, she discovers that she can make mistakes, that she needs help and she regrets that we still continue to see her as the person sick as she was. So she ends up being afraid of her state of stress: afraid of not being able to get out of it, afraid of falling ill again and especially the worst for her: fear of losing her job.
The main attempt at a solution that Delphine implements in this situation is relational avoidance: she will avoid asking her colleagues or her supervisor for help, for fear of disturbing them or of being too stupid to their eyes and in general she will avoid all embarrassing and intrusive questions.
So Delphine gradually isolates herself.
Beyond relational avoidance Delphine implements another attempt at a solution, namely: mental control.
She puts pressure on herself to be able to do everything on her own. So she will over-invest her work and at the slightest doubt, she checks everything several times to be sure to avoid errors.
She will work later and later, she will forget to eat, she sleeps very little, all absorbed by her thoughts on her work. So alongside her avoidances and mental control, Delphine has a certainty, a belief that she has a flaw and that others have very high expectations that she must meet despite everything.
In such a way that she says to herself “at work, I have to play tight” in fact. And it's a certainty that will become more rigid over time because each time she tries to prove her worth, she will also interpret the reactions of those around her as new proof of her lack of worth.
So these three types of attempted solutions, which ultimately form a protection system in the face of anxiety, Delphine, the three attempts feed each other, mutually, and push him to ever more action.
So from the point of view of those around us now, we see that Delphine is now perceived as a fragile person.
In fact, after being affected by the disease, everyone finally notices that she is struggling in her new activity. And this fragility is perceived as threatening, its attitude and behavior either worried or annoyed.
Depending on the position and the nature of the interactions that his colleagues, his line manager, the occupational physician and the HR department may have. So how does the environment react?
In fact the entourage, as we saw in everything that was introduced and explained by Theresa earlier, the entourage is worried, asks Delphine to spare herself “do less”. And, more than specifically, her manager will try to reassure her, will try to take charge of part of her work, will distribute the rest to the other members of the team.
In other words the entourage protects her, in a certain way, even over-protects her and Delphine, she will redouble her efforts.
Thinking it's confirmation that she's not doing enough yet. So on the side of her entourage, her colleagues will end up complaining of seeing her isolate herself and ask her less and less, to go have a coffee, to go to the canteen or even for exchanges concerning work.
And in a way, ultimately, this protection strategy that Delphine put in place at the start contributed, despite herself, to the disengagement from professional interactions.
The entourage is tempted to avoid, at first, then to gradually abandon the relationship with Delphine.
So the relational avoidance of one responds to the relational avoidance of another in fact.
So it's an exhausting trap in which Delphine finds herself, the trap of a protection that turns out to be dysfunctional but that feeds on all the interactions with those around her.
And so everything that Delphine implemented aims to neutralize the anxiety of being judged by others.
And it is this anxiety disorder, which is very important in his case, which will be treated during the intervention which has been proposed to him.
So on the device of the intervention, the intervention took place within the framework of the device of LACT assistance, therefore that to speak Grégoire all at the time, that the DRH contracted in fact with LACT.
And this system allows employees in difficulty, on the suggestion of the HRD itself but also of the occupational doctor or elected officials if it is the concerted and negotiated will of the company, to allow them to benefit from an intervention individual problem solving.
And in the case of Delphine and in this context, there were 6 sections of interventions.
So the diagnosis of Delphine's situation identifies a relational avoidance, as I was able to say earlier, with a real risk of exhaustion as the occupational physician had quite rightly spotted.
So totally powerless against the judgment of others and Delphine's main attempt at solutions, she is the one who ends up putting herself in danger.
It's really because she avoids others that it becomes dangerous for her mental and physical health.
So the objective of the intervention will be to restore his relationship with his entourage and to allow the development of a more ecological and healthier collaboration, from his point of view and from the point of view of all the actors.
So among the various strategic movements that were implemented during this intervention, we are going to highlight the main ones and the first of them will be to normalize Delphine's situation, that is to say to normalize the state of exhaustion in which she finds herself.
As the fruit of its costly dynamics of regulating its anxiety and then the sudden need to rest, as winter forces nature to rest, to put itself at rest.
“The more vigorous the winter, the more nature possesses an unfailing vitality in spring and summer.”
So, in a second step, it is also a question of positively reframing the sensitivity to others than to Delphine and to lead her to consider a return to work so that she can have a different experience by being better armed.
And, then the challenge was to help him immunize himself against the signals of rejection and judgment, in particular through specific prescriptions, which converged towards the same goal.
The main one was to take small relational risks on subjects of little importance to her, to gradually get used to negative reactions in fact, which she feared above all.
And then to anticipate in the morning everything that will be difficult for her, to confront what she fears the most, in order to play it down and take ownership of it little by little.
And these prescriptions aim to lead Delphine to make emotional experiences, aiming to modify her perception and her beliefs by confronting herself, little by little, and by taming the situations that she had learned to avoid until then.
So on the effects obtained, at the sixth session Delphine says she has regained her self-confidence, she will say that she is more comfortable in her work, that she builds more relationships, she dares to say more what she think, she no longer fears going back to work, especially at the end of the weekend, as was the case, as was the case she had mentioned, and she knows how to manage disagreement situations much better.
And for their part, those of the entourage no longer worry, the HRD and the occupational doctor feel less obliged to dramatize the situation and to be in hyper intervention on his situation, and the manager entrusts him with more responsibility .
