To not trust workplace counselling?

[WindyHail]

I've been waiting for counselling for months and after putting a complaint in I'm finally being phoned this afternoon. It's an external counselling service but connected to work. Aibu to not trust them? What if they tell HR or my bosses anything?

They won’t tell anyone anything. They will be working within their ethical guidelines the same as any other counsellors and be bound by confidentiality which they will explain the exceptions to.
It’s great your work has counsellors as many people won’t have access to this service and it’s very beneficial.
Go into it in a positive way as this could be so good for you.

I work in HR and have managed employer assistance programme contracts (who provided our counselling contract) and have never asked or been contacted by a counsellor about an employee.

As the other poster said, the counsellor will have their own ethical rules which they will need to abide to.

I wouldn't know who has counselling unless the employee tells me. I often recommend the counselling to staff, but wouldn't know if they have actually taken it up.

I had counselling organised through our workplace employee assistance program. The first thing that they said is that it is confidential. There would be all sorts of data protection issues if they told anyone.

I also work for HR and have never been told anything an employee said during a session. I also used the service myself and none of my colleagues were even aware, so I really wouldn’t worry.

@LowlyTheWorm

They won’t tell anyone anything. They will be working within their ethical guidelines the same as any other counsellors and be bound by confidentiality which they will explain the exceptions to. It’s great your work has counsellors as many people won’t have access to this service and it’s very beneficial. Go into it in a positive way as this could be so good for you.

This