Counselling Services
Work Stress Management's EAPs provide telephone and face-to-face counselling support.
Both our telephone and face-to-face counselling services can be accessed by organisations who are not existing customers of WSM - on an ad hoc "fee per usage basis".
Telephone Counselling
WSM operates a telephone counselling service based on a successful, well-researched, short-term therapy model.
We employ a team of professional, qualified, experienced telephone counsellors to assist clients in need of initial, immediate emotional support. Employers are able to pick up the telephone when they choose and have immediate access to the support they need. The individual has control over when they call - WSM counsellors react according to why they call. To be able to speak to someone who is objective and 'outside' a situation is of great benefit. Another advantage of telephone counselling is that a voice on the end of the phone can be less intimidating than the need to meet. As a result trust can be built very quickly.
Whether the need is for one-off support or help with on-going issues counsellors quickly develop a relationship with the caller, reassure them of the confidentiality of the contact, assess their needs and discuss the options available, including the following:
- Short-term face-to-face counselling using an established model
- Further telephone counselling with face-to-face counselling under consideration
- Structured telephone counselling
- Cease contact if the support provided has helped the client or if the client's motivation is insufficient for effective support
- Referral to a specialist local resource if the problem is not suitable for short-term therapy or if the assessment identifies complex underlying issues
Face to Face Counselling
WSM offers a face-to-face counselling service that is based on solution-focused brief therapy.
The process starts with an assessment session with a telephone counsellor. This assessment is key to the next steps since it will determine the appropriateness of short-term counselling.
The main counselling model used by WSM is solution-focused brief therapy. This involves a move away from the analysis of problems to the discovery of solutions that are already at work in an employee's life. This type of therapy concentrates on helping clients to identify the skills, strengths and resources that are already present and moves them towards solutions.
- A standard model six self-contained sessions
- Works in the 'here and now ' with what the client perceives to be a problem
- Ensures that change is seen as happening all the time and can be utilised
- Relies on the skills of the client as well as of those of the counsellor/therapist
- Emphasises that a difference can be made however small the step that is taken
- Is both ethical and practical to assist people in the shortest time possible
Management Referrals
WSM can also arrange face-to-face counselling on behalf of managers who want to offer face-to-face counselling to a particular employee. This service can be especially valuable in circumstances where an employee is showing signs of suffering from severe stress and may - in the opinion of the employer/manager - benefit from a more intensive intervention as provided by face-to-face counselling. Face-to-face counselling is also a highly effective and positive way of responding to an employee who is has been signed-off sick with a stress-related health problem. WSM's Counselling Assessment service is also a valuable option in responding to stress-related sickness absence.
