Review confirms workplace counselling reduces stress

British Medical Journal, March 17, 2001 by Susan Mayor

Counselling can achieve a reduction in work related stress in more than 50% of people, according to a systematic review published last week.

It showed that levels of work related symptoms and stress returned to the normal range for more than 50% of clients in two thirds of the studies included. Levels of sickness and absence also fell by 25-50% in trials evaluating these factors. Counselling interventions had smaller, but significant, positive effects on levels of job commitment, work functioning, job satisfaction, and substance misuse.

The report's author, Professor John McLeod, professor of counselling at the University of Abertay, Dundee, commented: "Taken as a whole, there are now several plausible studies that show that short term counselling brings at least haft of clients back into the normal range of functioning."

The study reviewed all research evaluating workplace counselling published over the past 50 years. It included more than 80 studies published between 1954 and 2000.

Counselling in the Workplace: The Facts is available from British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1 Regent Place, Rugby CV21 2PJ.

Susan Mayor London