Dr Tony Weston provides employee assistance (EAP) counselling/ psychotherapy to governmental and non-governmental organisations, including a wide range of small, medium and large local employers.
The economic costs, operational difficulties and emotional hardship of employee absence are well documented, as are the benefits of counselling employees(1). Paying for employees to attend counselling can be beneficial for both the employee and the employing organisation. Dr Tony Weston works both directly with employing organisations and sees clients on behalf of other Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providers. His standard practice is to agree the professional fees and number of sessions in advance so that everyone knows where they stand. When an employer is paying for therapy he will only see employees with authorisation from the employing organisation.
Typically employers agree to a maximum of 6-10 sessions initially, with the option to extend only with the consent of the employing organisation. Progress in counselling is monitored throughout, in line with best practice of quality and outcome management, (2–4) to enhance treatment outcome.
Dr Tony Weston’s BACP award winning research included employee assistance clients, whose employer was paying for their counselling. This research was into effective therapy for depression, anxiety and distress arising from multiple causes, e.g. anger, addiction, bereavement, abuse/ bullying, self esteem/ self-confidence, work-related issues, child-related issues, post-traumatic stress (PTSD), and so on.
Dr Weston’s private practice is located 11.5 miles south of Addenbrookes NHS Hospital and all clients are seen online using zoom.
Dr Tony Weston enjoys working with clients of employers where often the focus is a prompt return to full participation at work. Contact him now on 01223-894896 (phone is answered by a receptionist 24/7) or email him at tony.weston5@btinternet.com to discuss how he can help your business and your employees.
Following are some graphs showing improvements experienced by employees attending for employee counselling.
As part of an ongoing research programme the following graphs shows changes in levels of clinical distress, clinical anxiety and clinical depression amongst employees presenting with a wide range of issues, as at April 2024.
Please note there are no guarantees in therapy and ‘past performance is no guide to the future’.
Outcomes for 87 employees with Clinical Distress are shown in the following graph to April 2024. Average client age was 40 years (range 16 to 60 years), three-quarters were men, eight out of ten clients had been or were married and a similar proportion had children. With an average of 7 sessions (range 2-21 sessions) the average change was from a moderate level of distress to non-distressed, a large effect size (ES = 2.18), statistically significant at better than 99.9% confidence.
Outcomes for 62 employees with Clinical Anxiety to April 2024 are shown in the following graph. Average client age was 40 years (range 16 to 60 years), just over half of the clients were women, just over half of the clients were married and eight out of ten had children. With an average of 7 sessions (range 2-18 sessions) the average change was from a moderate/severe level of anxiety to non-anxious, a large effect size (ES = 1.60), statistically significant at better than 99.9% confidence.
Outcomes for 88 employees with Clinical Depression to April 2024 are shown in the following graph. Average client age was 42 years (range 16 to 60 years), just over half of the clients were women, just over half of the clients were married and eight out of ten had children. With an average of 8 sessions (range 2-27 sessions) the average change was from a moderate-severe level of depression to not depressed, a large effect size (ES = 1.70), statistically significant at better than 99.9% confidence.
The evidence is that employees may benefit from counselling paid for by their employer.
Clinical trials typically exclude clients who have more than one presenting problem e.g. include clients who only have clinical distress. This practice-based research included clients who are usually excluded from clinical trials and included clients who were at risk to themselves and/or others, and/or were also suffering with depression, anxiety and other problems, and/or had a so-called ‘personality disorder’ and/or had problems with addiction (e.g. drink, drugs, gambling, pornography, etc.), in addition to their work-based problems.
This naturalistic research showed on average a large improvement for a wide range of employee problems, including clinical distress, depression and anxiety, even if there were other co-occuring symptoms.
Please note past performance is no guide to the future and there are no guarantees about outcome in therapy.
You can contact Dr Tony Weston on 01223-894896 (phone is answered by a receptionist 24/7) or email him at tony.weston5@btinternet.com to make an initial appointment.
References:
1. McLeod, J (2001) ‘Counselling in the Workplace: The Facts – A Systematic Study of the Research Evidence’ British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
2. Lambert, M J (2001) ‘Psychotherapy outcome and quality improvement: Patient-focused research’ Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 147-149
3. Lambert, M J, Whipple, J L, Smart, D W, Vermeersch, D A, Nielsen, S L & Hawkins, E L (2001) ‘The effects of providing therapists with feedback on patient progress during psychotherapy: Are outcomes enhanced?’ Psychotherapy Research, 11, 49-68
4. Lambert, M J, Whipple, J L, Vermeersch, D A, Smart, D W, Hawkins, E J, Nielsen, S L & Goates, M (2002) ‘Enhancing psychotherapy outcomes via providing feedback on client progress: A replication’ Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 9, 91-103.