Improving Sustainability of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) by Complementary and Alternative Medicine Approaches (CAM) on Reducing Workplace Stress of Teachers

This article argues that the sustainability of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be improved by the addition of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approach in helping teachers reduce their workplace stress. This is demonstrated by two clinical trials testing the effectiveness of a multi-component stress management program with the concurrent use of CBT and CAM approaches developed in Hong Kong. The multi-component stress management is shown to be effective in reducing and relieving stress-related emotional or psychosomatic symptoms. Meanwhile, the self-administered CAM techniques may serve to sustain the effects produced by CBT approach. This has the advantage of saving the additional resources needed from intervention by trained professionals such as occupational therapists and psychologists. Implications and future directions are discussed. *Corresponding author: Professor Hector W. H. Tsang, Neuropsychiatric Rehabilitation Laboratory,Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, Tel: 852-2766-6750; Fax: 852-3150-8957; E-mail: [email protected] Received June 10, 2016; Accepted June 17, 2016; Published June 20, 2016 Citation: Cheung WM, Huang Y, Tsang HWH (2013) Improving Sustainability of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) by Complementary and Alternative Medicine Approaches (CAM) on Reducing Workplace Stress of Teachers. J Pain Relief S4: 001. doi:10.4172/2167-0846.S4-002 Copyright: © 2016 Cheung WM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.