What is an EAP, and how do free EAP therapy sessions work?
Many employers quietly offer free therapy sessions through an employee assistance program. Here is how to find yours and how to use it.
A surprising number of people have free therapy sessions sitting in their benefits package and do not know it. They come through something called an EAP. If you have never heard of it, or you have heard of it and assumed it was a hotline, this guide explains what it actually is and how to use it.
What an EAP is
EAP stands for employee assistance program. It is a benefit your employer pays for that gives you and your household a set number of free counseling sessions with a licensed therapist. Employers offer it because stressed, grieving, or burned-out employees struggle at work, and it is cheaper to help them early than to lose them.
EAP sessions are real therapy. You sit down with a counselor, in person or online, and talk about whatever is going on. The main differences from regular therapy are that the sessions are short-term and that you do not pay for them.
How to find out if you have one
Most people find out one of three ways.
Ask your human resources department, or whoever handles benefits where you work. They can tell you the name of the EAP and how to reach it.
Log in to your benefits portal, the website where you picked your health plan. EAP information is usually listed there, sometimes under “wellness” or “work-life.”
Look at the back of your insurance card. Some plans print an EAP phone number on it.
If you are the spouse or partner of someone with an EAP, ask them to check. Household members are usually covered too, and you do not have to be on the employee’s health insurance to use it.
How the sessions get approved
Once you know you have an EAP, call the number or use their website to request counseling. They will ask a few questions about what you need and then give you an authorization code. That code is what tells the therapist the sessions are approved and paid for. Some EAPs will also match you with a therapist in their network, and others let you choose one yourself.
When you book with me, let the billing and insurance departments at Mindful Therapy Group, the group that handles my billing, know you are using an EAP and give them the code. I am in-network with a couple of EAPs. The current list is on my insurance and fees page. If yours is not listed, the same departments can tell you whether it will work.
How many sessions you get
Most EAPs cover somewhere between three and eight sessions per issue per year. “Per issue” means that if you use your sessions for work stress this spring and something unrelated comes up in the fall, you can often ask for a new set. Every program is different, so ask when you call.
What your employer learns
This is the question people worry about most, so here is the plain answer. Your employer does not learn what you talked about. They do not learn whether you went. The EAP company reports to your employer how many people used the program in total, and nothing more. I am bound by the same confidentiality rules I follow with every client, and those rules do not change because your employer paid for the session.
What happens when the sessions run out
Sometimes a few sessions are enough. You wanted a place to think through a decision, or you needed help getting through a hard month, and you got it. That is a perfectly good use of an EAP.
Other times we get to the end of the free sessions and both agree there is more to do. When that happens, you have options. If I am in-network with your regular health insurance, we can switch to billing that. If not, you can pay privately, and the rate is on the insurance and fees page. Either way, you can keep working with me without starting over with someone new. I wrote more about how long therapy usually takes if you are wondering what to expect.
Is an EAP right for what you are dealing with?
EAPs work well for things like work stress, a rough patch in a relationship, grief, adjusting to a big change, or figuring out whether you want to start longer-term therapy at all. If you are dealing with something like trauma or long-standing depression, a handful of sessions is a starting point rather than a finish line, and that is fine. We can use the free sessions to get to know each other and make a plan.
If you are in crisis right now, please do not wait for an authorization code. Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or go to your nearest emergency room.
If you think you might have an EAP and are not sure how to use it, I am glad to help you figure it out. There is no pressure to book anything. Sometimes just knowing the benefit exists makes the next step easier.