Workplace Counselling
Coaching that helps your people perform at their best
Goal-focused employee and executive coaching for UK businesses — from resilience and confidence building to leadership development and career transitions. Online nationwide and face-to-face across England.
Goal-focused, practical coaching
All levels — staff to senior executives
Online UK-wide & face-to-face
★ ★ ★ ★ ★“I didn’t know where to start when things got really difficult at work. The counsellor I was matched with understood immediately. I felt heard from the very first session.”
Employee referred through workplace support
5,000+
People supported
90+
Qualified therapists
Est 2014
Over a decade in practice
7 Days
Average time to first session
This page is part of our Workplace Counselling Hub — visit for a full overview of our employee assistance programme for UK businesses
What is employee and executive coaching — and what makes it useful in the workplace?
Employee and executive coaching is a structured, one-to-one professional development process. It is forward-facing and goal-oriented — working with where the individual wants to get to, and the specific challenges or patterns standing between them and that goal. Sessions are practical and focused, built around what the person in front of the coach actually needs.
Coaching is not the same as counselling. It does not focus on mental health, emotional history, or therapeutic outcomes. It works with what is present and what is possible — helping someone clarify what they want to achieve, identify what is getting in the way, and build the clarity and confidence to move forward.
For organisations, the value is concrete. A manager who is struggling with a difficult team dynamic, a senior leader navigating a role transition, a high-potential employee who lacks the confidence their ability warrants — these are situations where coaching can make a measurable difference, in a way that neither line management nor HR can usually provide.
Important: Coaching offered by Hope Therapy & Counselling Services is provided by qualified practitioners with appropriate coaching credentials. It is not covered by our NCPS Organisational Membership, which applies to our counselling and psychotherapy services only. If an employee needs clinical mental health support, please see our employee counselling service.
Who It’s For
Coaching at every level of the organisation
Our coaching is available for employees and leaders at all levels. The goals differ — but the approach is always structured, purposeful, and built around the individual.
Senior executives & directors
Leadership presence, strategic decision-making, managing high-pressure situations, navigating board dynamics, preparing for the next stage of a career, or working through the particular isolation that can come with senior roles. Our coaches bring direct experience of large commercial environments — not a theoretical framework applied from a distance.
Managers & team leaders
Holding difficult conversations, managing performance, building team cohesion after change or conflict, developing confidence in a new management role, or preparing for promotion. Many managers receive little support on the human and interpersonal dimensions of leadership. Coaching fills that gap.
High-potential employees
Supporting talented individuals who are ready to step up — building the confidence, communication skills, and self-awareness to match their technical capability. Coaching at this stage can make the difference between someone staying and growing, or leaving to develop elsewhere.
Employees in transition
Career changes, redundancy, returning from extended leave, starting a new role, or working through a significant shift in professional identity. Coaching provides practical, focused support for people navigating periods where the path forward is less clear than they would like.
What It Covers
Common goals people bring to coaching
Coaching is always built around what the individual wants to work on. These are the areas that come up most often.
Leadership presence and effectiveness — how to lead with confidence and clarity
Managing teams — including difficult conversations, performance, and conflict
Resilience and stress management — maintaining performance under sustained pressure
Career transitions — changing roles, navigating redundancy, returning to work
Performance and productivity — achieving more without burning out
Confidence and self-belief — building the internal foundation to match external capability
Communication — presenting, influencing, and being heard in senior environments
Work-life balance — clarifying priorities and creating sustainable ways of working
Goal clarity — understanding what someone really wants, when the picture feels unclear
Understanding the Difference
Coaching or counselling — which does your employee need?
Both can be valuable. Sometimes the answer is one, sometimes the other, and occasionally a combination of both. Here is how they differ.
Coaching
- Forward-looking — focused on goals and future performance
- Works with where the person is now and where they want to go
- Goal-oriented — structured around specific outcomes
- Practical and action-focused within sessions
- Not a clinical or therapeutic process
- Suited to professional development, transitions, performance, and leadership
Coaching is not covered by our NCPS Organisational Membership — it is offered by qualified practitioners with appropriate coaching credentials.
Counselling
- Addresses mental health, emotional wellbeing, and personal difficulties
- Confidential therapeutic relationship with a qualified counsellor
- Can address past experiences, patterns, and emotional responses
- Clinical process governed by professional ethical standards
- Covered by NCPS Organisational Membership
- Suited to stress, anxiety, depression, bereavement, and relationship difficulties
Not sure which is right? Our team can help. Sometimes individuals benefit from both — coaching for performance, counselling for wellbeing.
What our clients say
Coaching experiences
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The coaching sessions were exactly what I needed — focused, practical, and built around what I was actually dealing with. Ian’s background in commercial management means he genuinely understands the pressures involved.
Senior manager, coaching programme
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I came into the sessions not entirely sure what I wanted. After the first two, I had more clarity about where I was heading than I’d had in years. That was the most valuable part.
Director, career transition coaching
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
My coach had real experience of the kind of environment I was working in. That meant we could get to what actually mattered very quickly, rather than spending sessions explaining context.
Finance professional, resilience coaching
Individual experiences vary. Testimonials reflect personal experience and do not constitute a guarantee of outcomes.
How it works
Practical to set up. Focused from the very first session.
Coaching engagements are structured and purposeful — not open-ended conversations. Here is what the process typically looks like.
1
Initial conversation
We talk through what the individual or organisation is hoping to achieve. We agree which coach is the right fit — based on relevant experience, specialism, and personal chemistry. No long contracts to sign before you can start.
2
Goals are agreed
In the first session, the coach and individual agree on what they are working toward — making the goals specific, realistic, and meaningful. The number of sessions is agreed based on what the work requires, not a fixed package.
3
Sessions and progress
Sessions are delivered one-to-one online via video or telephone, or face-to-face across England. Progress is reviewed at regular intervals. The coaching adapts as goals evolve or new priorities emerge.
Our Coaches
Coaches with real commercial experience behind them
What makes a coaching relationship useful is not just the coaching qualification. It is whether the coach has genuinely inhabited the kinds of environments their clients are navigating.
What our coaches bring
Our coaches are qualified practitioners with appropriate professional credentials in coaching. Crucially, many have also spent years in commercial, managerial, or organisational roles before becoming coaches. They are not interpreting the workplace from the outside — they have sat in the meetings, managed teams, navigated the politics, and felt the pressures of the environments they now help others work through.
- Qualified coaches with appropriate professional credentials — confirmed before matching
- Many coaches hold previous senior commercial or management experience
- Range of specialisms including executive leadership, career transition, resilience, and management development
- Sessions delivered with appropriate professional boundaries and confidentiality
- Flexible delivery — online via video or telephone, or face-to-face in locations across England
- Overseen by Ian Stockbridge, whose 25+ years in senior management informs the ethos of our coaching service
An important note on NCPS membership and coaching: Hope Therapy & Counselling Services holds Organisational Membership with the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). Our NCPS membership covers our counselling and psychotherapy services only. Coaching is provided by qualified practitioners with appropriate coaching credentials and is not covered by our NCPS Organisational Membership, which applies to counselling and psychotherapy. If an employee needs mental health support, please refer to our employee counselling service.
Common Questions
Questions about employee & executive coaching
What is executive coaching?
Executive coaching is a structured, one-to-one professional development process designed to help senior leaders, managers, and high-potential employees perform at their best. It is forward-facing and goal-oriented — focused on what the individual wants to achieve and the specific challenges standing between them and that goal. Unlike counselling, coaching does not focus on mental health or therapeutic outcomes; it focuses on performance, growth, and professional development.
What is the difference between coaching and counselling?
Coaching is forward-looking and goal-focused — it works with where someone wants to get to, and what is getting in the way. Counselling is a clinical, therapeutic process that addresses mental health, emotional wellbeing, and personal difficulties. Both can be valuable for employees. At Hope Therapy, we offer both, and in some cases a combination — our team can advise on which is most appropriate for an individual’s situation.
Who is employee and executive coaching suitable for?
Our coaching is available for employees at all levels of an organisation — senior executives and directors working on leadership effectiveness, managers navigating team challenges or career transitions, high-potential employees building confidence and capability, and staff at any level dealing with resilience, performance, or professional development goals.
How is coaching delivered?
Sessions are delivered one-to-one, online via video or telephone, or face-to-face in locations across England. Coaching engagements typically run across a series of sessions agreed in advance, though the structure is flexible and built around what the individual and organisation need. Most people find an initial block of 4–6 sessions a useful starting point, with the option to continue if further work would be valuable.
Is executive coaching covered by NCPS membership?
No. Our NCPS Organisational Membership covers our counselling and psychotherapy services only. Coaching is offered by qualified practitioners with appropriate coaching credentials and is not covered by NCPS registration, which applies to counselling and psychotherapy. Our coaches hold separate, appropriate qualifications for the work they undertake.
How do I arrange coaching for an employee or myself?
Contact us by phone on 07379 538411 or email . We will discuss what you or your organisation is looking for, confirm which of our coaches is the best fit, and take it from there. Alternatively, book a free 15-minute consultation and we can talk through the options without any obligation.
Related Support
Other workplace services
Workplace services
Individual coaching & development
Meet Our Founder
25 years in boardrooms. Then retraining as a counsellor.
★
SCoPEd Band C
MBACP & SNCPS Senior Accredited
“Holding Fellowships in various professional disciplines gave me invaluable insight into the professional needs that businesses face every day. It was experiencing first-hand the challenge of balancing the real-world difficulties faced by both employer and employee that inspired me to retrain.”
Ian Stockbridge spent 25+ years in senior management and directorial roles — including within large FTSE-100 organisations. He has held Fellowships in various professional disciplines, led large commercial teams, and navigated the pressures that come with senior leadership. He then retrained as a counsellor and therapist, building Hope Therapy around a model that takes both the organisational and the human dimension seriously.
That dual experience — of the commercial world and the clinical — shapes how our coaching service is designed. Our coaches are selected not just for their coaching credentials but for the depth of experience they bring to each engagement.
MBACP (Senior Accredited)
SNCPS (Acc)
SCoPEd Band C
BSc (Hons) CBT
PGCert Supervision L7
Quality Award 2024 — 95%+
Ready to discuss coaching for your team?
A free, no-obligation conversation. We will listen to what you need, confirm who might be the right fit, and take it from there — no pressure, no script.
Get in Touch
Enquire about coaching
Whether you want to arrange coaching for an individual employee, discuss an executive coaching programme, or simply find out more — send us a message and we will respond the same working day.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“I had more clarity about where I was heading after two sessions than I’d had in years. Exactly the kind of focused support I needed.”
Director, career transition coaching
NCPS Organisational Member
Est 2014
90+ Qualified Therapists
National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies
Individual registrations vary per therapist. Last reviewed: May 2026.