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Depression EAP case study

An employee has been feeling unhappy following the break up of a relationship.

 

After a suggestion by his line manager he contacts the Bupa Employee Assistance helpline. The initial conversation with a Bupa counsellor identifies that the employee may be suffering from reactive depression. The counsellor recommends that the employee consults his GP.

His symptoms included lack of energy, unmotivated about his life at work and his social life, loss of appetite and poor sleep patterns.

Initial session with the Bupa counsellor

Face-to-face session was arranged with a counsellor located nearby. The aim was to explore the employee’s feelings of sadness and loss.

Goals of therapy

The therapy aimed to encourage the employee to talk about the feelings connected with the end of his relationship with his girlfriend.

It was agreed that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques would be used to challenge any negative thought patterns and catastrophic expectations. Challenging the employee’s negativity could increase the likelihood of creating a shift in his attitude and allow an element of optimism to creep back into his life. Challenging his automatic negative thoughts was intended to break the chain of internal thoughts and processes that had strengthened his feelings of sadness and loss.

Main therapy sessions

In the second and third sessions the employee spoke about the relationship break up including other losses he had experienced in his life. By the end of the third session he seemed more in touch with his feelings and had gained some insight from these self-exploratory sessions whereby he was developing some motivation to come out of his depression.

In the last three sessions, he learned how to challenge his negative thoughts and attitudes about himself and his life. He became more animated and enthusiastic about the future, and his feelings of sadness went away.

Conclusion

The counsellor closed the case and reported back that the employee had managed to work through his depressed feelings without being absent from work. The combination of exploratory therapy with cognitive techniques allowed him to reconnect with his own sense of self.

Both the employee and the Bupa counsellor were satisfied with the outcome of the therapy sessions. It seemed like a longer term depressive episode had been prevented without loss of time at work. The outcome indicated that he had benefited from the therapy.

Next steps

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9.8 million working days lost in 2009/10 due to work related stress, depression and
anxiety

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