Give your team access to the top 13% of registered counsellors
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- Workplace counselling is a confidential mental health support service service that organisations can pay for, to give their employees access to short-term therapy and other professional guidance.
- 88% of UK businesses now have some form of workplace counselling service in place to support their employees.
- There are three main types of workplace counselling services: external EAPs, in-house counselling, or specialist therapy solutions like Spill.
- Workplace counselling offers various methods of counselling, such as solution-focused, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, and person-centered therapy.
- Workplace counselling benefits both employers and employees, contributing to better performance, fewer sick days, higher retention, and an overall more productive work environment.
What is workplace counselling?
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Workplace counselling is a form of counselling or therapy that you offer your team, paid for by the company. By providing confidential mental health support, you can help employees deal with personal and professional issues that may be affecting their ability to focus at work.
Recent global and national events like the COVID-19 pandemic have had a profound impact on employee mental health, making workplace counselling a growing priority for responsible employers.
88% of UK businesses now offer some form of workplace counselling service as part of their overall employee benefits package.
It’s tempting, as leaders, to take full responsibility for employees mental health - but this can actually be detrimental. Managers and peers are simply not qualified to take on this responsibility in most cases, and businesses ultimately have a limit for how much company time they’re able to spend supporting their people. Services like Spill exist to manage employee mental health on the company's behalf, with clear boundaries and complete confidentiality, meaning work stays about work.
Who is workplace counselling for?
Workplace counselling can be used to support anyone within your company who's struggling with personal or work-related issues affecting their overall wellbeing and job performance. That could include:
- New joiners struggling with integrating, meeting new people, or experiencing imposter syndrome
- Existing employees struggling with issues like burnout, anxiety or low motivation
- Managers and team leaders dealing with internal conflicts or performance issues
- Senior management struggling with work-life balance, stress or difficulty sleeping
- Leavers dealing with grief, low self-confidence or concerned about financial pressures
- Remote employees navigating feelings of loneliness and struggling to connect or communicate effectively from a distance
- Employees exposed to traumatic material through the nature of their job, such as call handlers dealing with emotional situations
- Anyone going through a life changing event like having a baby, going through a divorce, experiencing a bereavement or approaching retirement
Workplace counselling is not just a lifeline for employees in crisis, but also a proactive resource for anyone needing support, guidance, professional advice or a safe space to be heard.
Types of workplace counselling
Every company will feel the benefits of counselling in the workplace, but the type of service that’s right for your company will depend on the size, budget, and needs of the business — and your employees.
Generally, there are three types of workplace counselling services to choose from:
1. Hire a private counsellor
Offering a ‘DIY’ approach to employee counselling, some companies employ or contract a private workplace counsellor to support struggling employees in-person via regular drop-in clinics or scheduled appointments.
2. Outsource support to an EAP
Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) are the ‘original’ form of workplace counselling, providing employees with access to short-term counselling and other professional guidance via a hotline. Employees can call the hotline to speak with an advisor, who assesses their level of ‘need’ before either directing them to self-help resources or referring them on to speak to a counsellor.
3. Outsource support to a specialist workplace counselling solution (like Spill)
Another external option, specialist therapy solutions like Spill sit in the category of “modern EAPs”. They provide the same core offering (access to workplace counselling services) but with a few new features intended to overcome the challenges outlined above. The main difference here is that employees can book counselling sessions on-demand themselves using an online booking system, rather than calling a helpline and having to be referred on for further support.
Local workplace counsellors
Browse the 20 best local workplace counsellors in the UK to support your team with one-on-one support, team sessions or company wide training.
Tamara Strachan
Devon & Cornwall
Available online
Workplace counselling formats
Workplace counselling can be delivered in several different formats depending on the needs of the individual and the set up of the provider:
Face-to-face counselling:
This is the traditional format for therapy sessions, whereby employees can speak with a qualified professional in a private room or clinic. This does often provide a more personal experience, but comes with much less flexibility in terms of scheduling around other life/work priorities (and the added cost and logistics of travel).
Telephone counselling:
A telephone hotline is the default format for counselling from most EAPs, whereby employees can receive some level of support or guidance over the phone. While this option does provide more flexibility for employees without having to travel to a physical appointment, user reviews often reference long waiting times, and a recent BBC investigation into a popular EAP provider criticised the quality of care and level of confidentiality offered by phoneline.
Online video counselling:
Virtual therapy sessions delivered via video platforms like Zoom or Skype became increasingly popular during the pandemic, and have remained a preferred format for employees due to the level of accessibility and convenience they offer. A recent study found that video based therapy had higher completion rates, attendance rates, and number of treatment visits than in-person treatment.
Message based counselling:
Some workplace counselling services now offer professional support and guidance via real-time chat or asynchronous messages. This offers employees a great way to get support from a therapist without committing to a session, and is particularly useful for help with day-to-day challenges such as difficulty sleeping. However, it's worth checking who is on the other end of these messaging services. Many companies now offer AI chatbots as part of their counselling service, which brings forward new concerns around quality control and safeguarding for employees.
How does workplace counselling work?
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There are typically five steps involved in accessing workplace counselling, which starts at the point someone realises they need support and ends when they finish their block of counselling sessions. The exact details of each step will vary depending on your workplace counselling provider.
No matter what type of counselling in the workplace you go for, providers all have the same goal: to help employees safely navigate personal and work related challenges. While each type of counselling for employees will look a little different, the way they work typically follows the same five steps.
1. Someone in your company realises they need support
With 1 in 4 people experiencing a mental health problem of some kind each year, it’s only a matter of time until someone in your team is in need of support. The journey to this realisation will look different for everyone — it could be a self-referral, a recommendation from friends and family, or a manager referral — but most workplace counselling services rely on the employee acknowledging they need help and making the first move towards initiating support.
Sadly this means many people don’t get help until they’re at the point of crisis and need time off work in order to fully recover. At Spill, We believe that effective mental health support means having a system in place to spot the signs of poor mental health at an early stage, and taking proactive steps to present available support to employees when they need it most.
2. Your employee contacts the workplace counselling service
For most employee counselling providers, your employee will need to get in touch by phone, email, or submit an online form to take the first step towards getting support. For many people, this can be a big moment, so it's important they feel able to do this easily and privately. This means employees can access support anonymously (rather than requesting details from HR) and quickly, with no phone numbers or log in details to remember.
3. Your employee’s mental health needs are assessed
In the case of most EAPs, employees will initially be put through a triage call with a case manager (typically a non-clinician) who will assess their suitability for workplace counselling. If they pass the suitability assessment, they will then be referred on for support and wait for a call back from the next available counsellor.
When working with a private therapist or a specialist workplace counselling service like Spill, booking a session usually just involves a few questions on how the employee is feeling and anything they are struggling with to give the therapist a bit more context and align on any goals or expectations ahead of time.
When employees come to Spill for support we don’t ever ask for a doctors note to check for eligibility or run a pre-screening to filter our people who are “too severe”. Our service is set up to support anyone who’s struggling with their mental health.
4. Your employee attends a workplace counselling session
If you were to receive any form of talk therapy through the NHS, your health insurance, a charity, or an EAP, you would likely only be given one format: a course of therapy. A course of workplace therapy is typically 6-12 sessions long. You speak with the same person in each session and you will meet once a week for the duration. This format has been around since the invention of talk therapy in the early 19th century by Freud and to this day remains the most effective way to support somebody who is really struggling with their mental health.
5. Your employee finishes counselling and, if they were off, returns to work
Workplace counselling can be beneficial at any time: some people will book sessions as a preventative measure, while others may be off work and use counselling as part of their recovery. When workplace counselling sessions finish, your employee may feel ready to come back to work, need ongoing support, or spend time putting their learnings into practice.
Spill’s advice library is another useful resource for employees, hosting expert guidance and advice from Spill therapists on a range of topics from stress to motivation, relationships and more.
The methods of workplace counselling
Of course, there’s more to employee counselling than just the provider — there are different approaches and techniques within counselling, too (often referred to as specialisms).
The exact style of therapy your team can receive depends on the therapists and specialities within your workplace counselling service. At Spill, our team of therapists can cover over 50 different specialisms, making it an accessible source of support for a diverse range of people and experiences.
The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy has a neat A-Z of the types of therapy, but for now, here are five of the most common methods of workplace counselling.
1. Solution-focused
A very common approach in workplace counselling, and particularly with EAPs, solution-focused employee therapy tends to be more of a short-term experience. Often, just three or four sessions are needed, during which the therapist will work with an individual on a current problem rather than dwell on the past. It creates a space to set goals and work out how to achieve them, offering up practical ways to help someone feel better.
2. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
A common approach for a range of mental health challenges and perhaps the most well-known workplace counselling method, CBT focuses on how someone’s thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes affect their feelings and actions. During a CBT session, the therapist will help identify and challenge negative thought patterns, and the resulting behaviour. CBT is a common treatment for a number of mental health challenges, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, stress, sleep problems, and many more.
3. Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
A bit of a mouthful and a somewhat intimidating one at that, EMDR is another method of workplace counselling, developed as a therapy for treating trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using side-to-side eye movements and talk therapy, EMDR can help someone process negative images, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations associated with a traumatic memory. It’s a specialist technique that helps the brain process unresolved memories and make them less distressing.
4. Psychodynamic
Developed from psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy helps an individual understand how their past experiences and unconscious thoughts shape their current feelings and behaviour. It’s a technique that aims to find the root of the problem and can be used to help with many different problems, like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and addiction.
5. Person-centred
A humanistic approach, person-centred workplace counselling is led by the individual rather than the therapist. It’s a dynamic that can help someone realise what resources and support they have available, build self-confidence, and grow into their true self. In return, the therapist will offer acceptance, honesty, and transparency in a judgement-free space, which allows someone to freely explore their own feelings, beliefs, and behaviours to become more self-aware.
The benefits of workplace counselling
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Employee counselling benefits both your team and your business as a result of better performance, fewer sick days, higher retention, improved communication, and an all round more productive company.
The benefits of workplace counselling for employers
With a team that’s feeling great and bringing their best selves to work each day, it’s no surprise that your business will also benefit. As well as improving overall culture and morale, this can lead to big savings financially.
Here’s why employers should invest in workplace counselling.
Workplace counselling saves you money
There are three areas that cost your company money when it comes to mental health: presenteeism (when someone shows up at work everyday but is unable to do their job properly), time off, and turnover. Together, they cost a company an average of £1,529 per employee, per year. Instead, spend some of that money on workplace counselling: you can expect a return on investment of £7 for every £1 invested in mental health support.
Workplace counselling improves employee productivity
Happy employees are, on average, 13% more productive. Employee counselling can help your team deal with their mental stressors, which in turn enables them to do their work well. And when people do good work, they feel motivated, engaged, and satisfied.
Workplace counselling reduces sickness absence
The average time taken off work by someone due to mental health is now 18 days per year. This comes at a huge cost to employers in terms of both sick pay and reduced output. However workplace counselling interventions have been proven to reduce sickness absence rates by up to 50%, giving employees the tools to actively address and improve their mental health before they reach the point of crisis and have to take time off.
Workplace counselling reduces employee turnover
61% of UK employees who left a job in the last year or plan to leave in the next 12 months cite poor mental health as a leading factor. For an employee in emotional pain, work is often a major contributor and as a result, the first casualty. Workplace counselling helps employers to retain (and protect) valuable talent by providing a safe space for employees to navigate challenging moments, develop coping strategies and build emotional resilience.
Workplace counselling increases employee engagement
By offering employee counselling, you’re sending a very clear message to your team: you value them, you care for them, and you want to support them. And with 81% of people saying they’ll look for workplaces that support mental health in their future job search, you’ll stand out from the competition, too: when people feel secure and looked after, they’re more likely to enjoy their work and stick around.
The benefits of workplace counselling for your team
Counselling in the workplace lets your team access mental health support that’s otherwise very difficult to get: 23% of people wait more than 12 weeks to start mental health treatment on the NHS. But aside from making this vital service more accessible, employee counselling has a host of other benefits for your team, too.
Workplace counselling helps employees build emotional intelligence
Counselling in the workplace gives your employees space to safely discuss and acknowledge their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. With this comes a level of self-awareness of their triggers, biases, and patterns, improving their emotional resilience and social sensitivity.
Workplace counselling helps employees manage stress
Work is the most common cause of stress, affecting 79% of people. And a stressed employee is not a happy or productive one. Workplace counselling can help your team find strategies to effectively manage and reduce their stress levels.
Workplace counselling helps employees improve performance
Mental health directly impacts an individual’s ability at work: focus, engagement, productivity, and motivation are all affected when someone is dealing with a work-related or personal issue. Workplace counselling offers a way to not only unburden heavy emotions, but to develop coping mechanisms, resilience, and confidence — all things that will help improve performance at work.
Workplace counselling help employees communicate better
Sharing a difficult emotion doesn’t come easily and this stickiness in sharing how we feel is often mirrored in the workplace. During workplace counselling, people get better at speaking up for themselves: they’ll be able to communicate sensitively, assertively, and honestly about how they feel. At work, these skills can look like offering constructive feedback, openly sharing feelings, and setting better boundaries.
Workplace counselling buyers guide
When comparing workplace counselling providers, it’s important to look beyond just the cost or number of sessions provided. You want to make sure the service actually fits your team’s culture, working style, and support needs – and that it delivers meaningful outcomes.
Here’s a full checklist of what to look for and questions to ask when buying a workplace counselling service for your team:
Accessibility of counselling
- Can employees book a counselling session themselves online, or do they have to call a hotline to ask for a referral?
- How soon are therapy sessions available?
- Is the service available 24/7 or limited to business hours?
- Do they offer in-person, phone, video, or message-based counselling?
- Can employees self-refer, or does it go through HR?
Geographic and language coverage
- Is the service UK-only, or does it also support international teams?
- Are therapy sessions available in multiple languages and timezones?
- Can employees choose to speak to a therapist with a similar ethnic background?
Counsellor qualifications and training
- Are all workplace counsellors registered with a relevant professional body like the BACP or NCS?
- How many hours of clinical experience are counsellors required to have before joining?
- What does the counsellor hiring process look like? What percentage of applicants are accepted?
- Can you choose a therapist who specialises in a certain topic (e.g. grief or ADHD?)
- Can you keep the same therapist for further sessions?
Data and reporting
- What usage data is shared with HR? Is this across all employees, broken down by team etc?
- Do they share (anonymised) feedback from employees using the service?
- Is the service completely private and confidential for employees?
Pricing and Flexibility
- Is the pricing model per employee (regardless of usage) or per counselling session used?
- Can you trial the service before you buy?
- Is the pricing flexible as you increase or decrease the size of your team?
- How long is the contract? Are there any exit fees for cancelling early if the service isn't delivering as expected?
Workplace counselling FAQ's
Q: Do employers have to give staff time off work for counselling?
In the UK, employers are not legally obligated to give employees (paid or unpaid) time off work specifically for counselling sessions. However employers must treat mental health conditions with the same seriousness as physical illnesses or injury and make reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities, which may include time off for treatment or counselling.
Even if it's not legally required, many employers have mental health policies that offer flexibility around health-related leave or specific provisions for counselling. At Spill, we believe employers have a responsibility to tackle stigma and make mental health more visible within the company - and that includes allowing employees to attend therapy sessions during work hours. The priority here should be helping the individual to feel better as soon as possible, but this approach also benefits the company because happy employees are more focussed and productive while at work.
Q: What qualifications are required to become a workplace counsellor?
To become a workplace counsellor in the UK, there’s no single legally mandated qualification, and the quality bar for hiring therapists varies according to the provider. Before working with a new counsellor or EAP it's important to ask this question, and have a look online for any reviews from users or employees which reference the quality of counselling they recieved (you can usually find this on Trustpilot).
Typically counsellors are required to have a diploma in therapeutic counselling, or an equivalent qualification, registration with a professional body like the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and at least 100 hours of clinical practice.
