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There is a free employee assistance program many employees may have access to that they can take advantage of, while waiting to hear what is to become of the new healthcare program.
With an employee assistance program, employees and their family members may attend free counseling sessions for an array of issues that can include:
• family and marriage counseling
• stress-related issues
• grief counseling
• parenting problems
The great advantage to these counseling sessions is that employers normally afford their employees ten free counseling sessions. If the counseling sessions help family members, they can continue counseling after the free sessions, if there is a need for it. Most times health care providers will cover the continued sessions.
There is still a stigma attached to mental health problems, so attending a few sessions may help you figure out why something within the family is not working quite the way you expect it to work. Whether it is problems with your spouse, or problems you and your spouse are having with the children, a few counseling sessions can help clear up exactly what the problems are.
With then free sessions, you should know by the time they are over, what type of specialized counseling your family needs, and then take advantage of the coverage your healthcare provider has for these problems.
For instance, if a child is having problems in school, academically or socially, a few counseling sessions for your child, and then for the entire family, may be able to shed some light on why your child is struggling. Sometimes it is something as simple as figuring out that your child is extremely intelligent, but has poor study habits.
Moreover, parents may be unaware that their child is painfully shy outside of the home. Counseling sessions can include simple exercises parents can do with their child to build up their self-confidence.
See if your employer has a free employee assistance program in place, and take advantage of it.
