Our employment support service, known as Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies (or EA in NHS TT), is the offer of 6-8 one-to-one sessions designed to be delivered alongside therapy, to help with any employment related issues or concerns you might be experiencing.

Work difficulties can have a big impact on our lives which can negatively affect a person’s mental health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that a percentage of people who choose to receive combined employment support with therapy report a significant increase in their rate of recovery. You don’t have to be unemployed to receive support, we also provide tailored employment support for people who are off sick or help you to stay well in work of you are currently working. You can be referred for employment support at any stage throughout your therapy journey, your therapist may ask if you would like to be referred at relevant points during treatment.

Criteria to receive Employment Support

The first requirement is that you receive therapy with Living Well Consortium (NHS Talking Therapies is the umbrella term for a variety of different types of therapy), you are eligible to access employment support in addition to therapy, if you would like to. We support young people from age 16-25, through to adults (including 60+). The type of therapy you are getting might make a difference to the employment support options you are offered.

All referrals into our employment support service are assessed, to check that you are accessing therapy and whether you would be best supported by us or benefit more from a different style of employment support from an external service (such as the individual placement support (IPS) model for example). In some cases where this would be more appropriate and if we don’t deliver the support you require, we will make recommendations on how and where you can access the best suited employment services for your individual needs.

Finding new Employment

If you are looking for a new job, or a change of role/career, your assigned Employment Adviser (EA) can support you in this process. This could involve helping you figure out what type of work you want to do, finding suitable job vacancies to apply for, increasing your chances of success by working with you to improve your CV, applications and interview skills, looking into relevant ways to up skill, or educational courses to enrol on. Support might also include exploring alternative options, such as voluntary work, apprenticeships, work placements/experience, or self-employment possibilities. If you have been job hunting for a while already, looking at what may be preventing your success, identifying any barriers you might have, and ways to overcome them.

Remaining in your Job

Helping you to remain in your current job (sometimes referred to as job retention) usually begins with assessing the root cause of your employment difficulties. You may be under a lot of pressure, over-worked, feeling stressed, unable to switch off, experiencing symptoms of burnout, in a dispute, or having issues with colleagues. You may need to address a work/life imbalance, reflect on your needs and limitations and what might be helpful to put in place at work to make things more manageable. Learning and practicing strategies and coping mechanisms is often helpful. Your Employment Adviser will likely suggest completing a work-wellbeing related action plan (WRAP), always a good starting point for this type of support. Effective communication with your line manager or employer is usually important to improve your wellbeing a work. Your EA can work with you to help in navigating such conversations, how to approach them, and what to say, ask for or disclose.

Returning to Work

Returning to work after an absence can feel daunting and anxiety provoking, whatever the reason was that you had to take leave from work, examples might be sickness, compassionate leave, parental leave (maternity/paternity), or other. Your employment adviser can support you through this in the most helpful way to suit you.

Our team of EAs are knowledgeable on what reasonable adjustments are for both employee and employer, how to request and advocate for yourself, your employment related rights, what would be useful to disclose, suggestions of more specialised services with expertise for more complex cases, such as occupational health/therapy, access to work, ACAS, to name a few. While employment advisers cannot represent you or attend meetings with your employers, they can guide you through and support you from a neutral and informed perspective.

How to refer

If you do want therapy but haven’t yet had or made a referral, you can do so yourself online by answering the questions asked by our self-referral assistant Limbic appearing in the bottom right of your screen on every page of this website.

The series of questions does include one about interest in employment support. You can change your mind when you start therapy. When you have been contacted regarding your talking therapies referral, you may also be contacted separately by a member of our employment support team depending on your answer to the employment support question.

You can be referred for employment support by your therapist if you have already started therapy.