Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) have been in operation in North America for decades and are now, along with other forms of employee counselling services, becoming firmly established in Britain. This book looks at the rise of counselling at work and addresses some fascinating questions. * Why should employers be interested in paying for employees to have counselling? * What kinds of personal problems do people particularly encounter in association with the workplace? * Exactly what do counsellors do that helps to alleviate individuals' distress or resolve their dilemmas? * Can the humanising ethos of counselling make a significant impact on large organizations? As well as promoting the view that employee counselling can contribute to stress reduction and mental health enhancement, the book acknowledges the challenges that the ethos of management presents to counsellors. In a climate of rapid change and uncertainty over jobs, readers will want to consider the importance and potential of really listening to the issues involved in the interface between socioeconomic change and personal turmoil and responsibility.

Author Biography

Colin Feltham is Senior Lecturer in Counselling at Sheffield Hallam University and a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling. He was formerly a counsellor and manager of counsellors in an employee counselling service. His publications include Brief Counselling (Open University Press, 1992), What is Counselling?: The Promise and Problem of the Talking Therapies (Sage 1995) and Time-Limited Counselling (Sage 1996).