Workplace counselling and the contemporary world of work

Abstract

In contemporary workplaces, many professionals struggle to cope with increasing pressures and aspects of workplace cultures that can have detrimental effects both personally and professionally. Counsellors can play an important role in supporting clients' functioning at work and their effective coping with work-related stressors. Practitioners providing counselling through Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) and other work-related services regularly encounter clients experiencing stress, loss of confidence, and even burnout. It is also inevitable that counsellors in private practice and other settings have clients whose lives, relationships, and wellbeing are being adversely affected by unhealthy workplaces. Although professionals under stress may seek, or will be encouraged to seek counselling, they may experience challenges in and resistance to doing so. Much depends on the quality of engagement and support a counsellor is able to offer, and this relates not only to the practitioner's skills in establishing relationship, but also to their knowledge and understanding of the nature of contemporary workplaces. This article explores the significance of workplace roles and identities, the influence of contemporary working environments on professionals' identities and functioning, and work-related stress and coping, in order to raise practitioners' awareness of the challenges professionals face. Research into workplace counselling, and the implications for counsellors, are then considered.