Employee Assistance Programme
Helping organisations support their most valuable assets: their employees.
A responsive, confidential counselling service for employees across public, private and voluntary sector organisations.
Why Offer an Employee Assistance Programme?
Work can have a significant impact on mental wellbeing.
Pressures outside work can also affect how employees feel and function during the working day.
By offering timely, confidential support, employers can help foster a mentally healthy workplace and enable staff to seek help before difficulties become overwhelming.
An effective Employee Assistance Programme can benefit both employees and the wider organisation.
Staff Counselling
Mental wellbeing is as important as physical health in sustaining a healthy and productive workforce.
Everyone experiences pressure at times.
Difficulties within or outside work can sometimes become overwhelming, affecting an employee’s wellbeing and their ability to manage day to day.
Confidential counselling offers employees a dedicated space to explore what is happening and find a way forward.
How Staff Counselling Can Help
Staff counselling can support a wide range of concerns affecting mental and emotional wellbeing.
These may include workplace stress, bullying or conflict, relationship and family difficulties, bereavement and loss, anxiety, low mood, health concerns, neurodivergence, and alcohol or substance use.
This is not an exhaustive list. Employees can seek support with other difficulties affecting their wellbeing or working life.
The Benefits of an Employee Assistance Programme
Providing timely access to confidential counselling shows employees that their wellbeing matters.
It can help people address difficulties before they become more entrenched and support them through periods of stress, change or personal difficulty.
For organisations, this can contribute to a healthier workplace, improved morale and engagement, better staff retention, reduced sickness absence and presenteeism, and stronger productivity.
Counselling is not a substitute for addressing excessive workloads, unsafe practices or damaging workplace cultures.
As part of a genuine commitment to staff wellbeing, however, it is both the right thing to offer and good business.
How Employee Assistance Programme Referrals Work
Employees can access counselling in two ways:
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Self-referral: The employee contacts me directly. Where the organisation is funding the counselling, authorisation and the number of sessions available are agreed before counselling begins.
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Formal referral: A manager, Human Resources or Occupational Health makes the referral. The employee then chooses whether they wish to take up the counselling offered.
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Whichever route is used, the counselling relationship is with the employee.
Confidentiality, its limits and any agreed feedback arrangements are explained clearly before counselling begins.
What Staff Counselling Aims to Provide
Staff counselling offers focused, person-centred support within the number of sessions agreed. It gives employees a confidential space to explore their difficulties, understand how they are being affected and identify what may help them move forward.
Risk is considered throughout the work.
Where an employee needs support beyond what can be safely or usefully addressed within brief counselling, appropriate signposting or onward referral will be discussed.
This may include support from a GP, NHS or specialist service.
The aim is to support employees to understand their experiences, recognise their choices and find their own way forward, while enabling organisations to provide meaningful and responsible support.
EAP Initial Consultations: In Person or Online
All EAP counselling sessions, including the initial consultation, can take place in person or online.
Employees can choose the format that feels most suitable for them.
In-person sessions are available in Sea Mills, Bristol BS9.
Additional in-person appointments are available in Arnos Vale, Bristol BS4, on Mondays.
Sessions at the BS4 location are in person only.
Sessions cost £55 per hour.
Organisations can contact me directly to discuss authorisation of sessions, use of the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and invoicing arrangements.
What Employees Can Expect
Employees can expect a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space where they will be listened to with empathy, acceptance and respect.
The counselling is person-centred and works within the agreed number of EAP sessions.
Employees are given time and space to explore and evaluate what is happening, understand how they are being affected and develop strategies that may help them accept or change their situation and manage difficulties more effectively, both practically and emotionally.
A clear agreement at the outset covers the number and timing of sessions, confidentiality and its limits, and any feedback arrangements.
All counselling is provided in accordance with the BACP Ethical Framework.
Why Work With Me?
I have been in private counselling practice since 2006, offering both short and longer-term counselling.
I currently work with, and have previously worked with, several Employee Assistance Programme providers.
This has given me practical experience of employer-funded, time-limited counselling, referral and authorisation processes, outcome measures and invoicing arrangements.
My experience also includes accepting GP referrals.
I have over 35 years’ experience in the support sector, including the Probation Service and public and voluntary organisations, supporting individuals with complex needs in a wide range of settings.
My experience includes anxiety, depression, mental health difficulties, addiction, homelessness, diagnosed and undiagnosed ADHD and autism, trauma and abuse, and the impact of difficult or controlling environments.
I have been an advocate for adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and an Approved Foster Carer for Avon Social Services.
My experience has shown me that individuals rarely fall into a single category and often need a holistic approach that considers the wider context of their lives.
Within EAP work, this means providing focused support without reducing an employee to a presenting difficulty or their role within the organisation.
I hold a Professional Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling, alongside qualifications in Housing and Development, teaching, Anatomy & Physiology and Reiki.
My continuing professional development includes trauma-informed practice, suicide intervention, attachment and loss, sexual abuse, safeguarding, mental health, CBT, motivational interviewing, pregnancy and infant loss, and working with diversity and cultural awareness.
Investing in Your Organisation
Supporting employees to make life feel more manageable.
Because when people feel valued and supported, organisations are stronger.