Online Mentoring
Personalised sessions for your personal and professional development
Increase your quality of life on board
Rates
EUR and USD accepted. Possibility to purchase discount vouchers. We adapt to all needs
Flexibility
All rates allow unlimited flexibility of use and do not expire
Life on board
Working at sea offers numerous benefits, however, seafarers belong to one of the professional groups that are most at risk from work-related stress. In fact, it is highly likely that at some stage during their career they will experience anxiety or an anxiety-related disorder. This may compromise the seafarer's ability to socialize and solve conflicts with other crew members, their superiors or passengers; or even to respond in an emergency; thus, increasing the risk of incidents or the environmental impact on the marine ecosystem. The consequences of this may also remain with them once they have disembarked, diminishing their quality of life even during their time off, and triggering unease around the imminent approach of a new contract, generating doubts about their continuity with the ship owner.
These are the psychosocial factors most likely to generate stress on board ships:
- Lack of rest and leisure time with colleagues
- Lack of privacy and private space in the cabin
- Lack of conciliation, family acceptance and attitudes of attachment to loved ones for long periods of time
- Sharing one's personal and professional life in the same environment
- Conflicts with work colleagues, loneliness and social isolation
- Stressors in the work place such as: monotony, authoritarian leadership or working under pressure
- Port inspections
- Fatigue and lack of proper outdoor exercise
- Insufficiently varied diets
- Lack of good quality sleep
- Impossibility of crew rotation causing long confinement due to the global pandemic
- Stressors of the marine environment such as sea conditions, noise, lack of natural light. These can lead to other issues such as claustrophobia
- Few recreational opportunities
Associated with our thoughts, emotions and rumination:
- Lack of motivation, lack of interest
- Racing thoughts
- Moodiness and irritability
- Low self-esteem
- Restlessness and impatience
- Insecurity, fear or dread
- Difficulty in concentrating
- Inability to take decisions
- Mental blocks
- Memory loss
- Constant excessive worry
- Despair
- Helplessness
- Sadness, low spirits
- All of these factors, if they become progressively worse over time, can lead to other disorders, including depression
As a result of the activity of the different organic systems of the human body:
- Fatigue, endless tiredness
- Intestinal and/or stomach problems
- Headaches
- Hair loss
- Insomnia or excessive sleeping
- Hyperventilation
- Dizziness and nausea
- Tachycardia
- Trembling
- Dry mouth
- Excessive sweating
- Muscular tension and contractures
- Nervousness
- Erectile dysfunction
- Changes in sex drive
- Chronic stress can give rise to serious health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cerebrovascular accidents, as well as an impaired immune system and greater susceptibility to illness
Behaviours observable as a result of the combined cognitive and physiological activity:
- Isolation in interaction with other crew members
- Substance abuse (coffee, alcohol, tobacco, etc.)
- Reduced efficiency at work
- Increase in violent behaviour
- Refusal to follow instructions from superiors
- Repetition of the same mistakes
- Absenteeism and presenteeism
- Unhealthy and irregular eating
- In extreme circumstances all of these factors can contribute to a seafarer committing serious crimes or, at worst, to committing suicide
Sea Wellbeing aims to encourage the personal and professional development of seafarers onboard ships
How do we achieve this?
SERVICES
Personalized mentoring for professional development
In each online session, our human resources experts, with long onboard experience, advise the crew member on the following aspects:
- Career planning and direction: job search on ships, transition to ground positions, etc.
- Curriculum Vitae & Form Writing, LinkedIn profile and cover letter
- Big Five personality traits test
- Interview Training & Presentation Skills
- Public Speaking
- Other aspects related to careers in the maritime sector
Personalised mentoring for personal development
Each individual reacts differently to situations of stress, depending on when, where and how they arise, and on the individual's own personal circumstances. Therefore, all our sessions are designed taking the profile of the individual seafarer and their needs into account at that vital moment.
At each online meeting our experts in psychoanalytic and psychotherapist health, with proven experience on board, share their knowledge, experiences and skills, they pose key questions to the mentee and provide them with the necessary techniques so that they can learn to self-manage.
To guarantee the best results, all the tools provided have a cognitive-behavioural approach. These techniques have been scientifically recognised as being the most effective worldwide for managing the symptoms of stress and anxiety, with a success rate of around 80% according to the American Psychological Association (APA). Additionally, this approach is enhanced with tools from other disciplines, with the aim to bring about a complete change in people, increase their capacity for self-control and confidence, and develop the appropriate skills to cope with life on board in the best possible way.
The seafarer may benefit from our advice on the following matters:
- Personal conflict management
- Reconciliation between life at sea and on land (attachment avoidance, resilience)
- Prevention of occupational hazards in the face of covid-19 and its impact on mental health
- Prevention of burnout and its psychophysical and social consequences
- Work and life balance, family reconciliation and minimisation of difficulties upon returning to sea
- Other aspects of life on board
These are some of the techniques used in our sessions:
Cognitive techniques
- Cognitive restructuring of irrational thoughts
- Distraction techniques
- Thought-stopping
- Self-instructions
- Problem-solving techniques
- Cognitive defusion (Deliteralization)
Physiological techniques
- Physical relaxation
- Mental relaxation
- Meditation, Mindfulness
- Guided visualization
- Systematic desensitisation
- Biofeedback techniques
- Neurofeedback techniques
Behavioural techniques
- New generation techniques (Acceptance and commitment (ACT), Transdiagnostic (TCBT), etc.)
- Training in social skills
- Self-control
- Modelling
- Exposure
- Behavioural activation (BA)