EAP for Indian Companies | The Thought Co.

Employee Assistance Programme · India

An EAP Your Team Actually Uses

The Thought Co. runs a therapist-led Employee Assistance Programme for Indian companies — a bank of hours, therapist choice, and a firewall that means your company never sees who booked or what was said. Founded in 2014, built from fourteen years of clinical practice, and measured every quarter against real numbers, not a satisfaction survey.
Built by clinicians. Run like one, too.

Fourteen years of sessions taught us something we didn't expect to learn: close to half of what a client brings into the room, in our clinical experience, traces back to their workplace. Not as background noise — as the actual material. We haven't stopped seeing individual clients. We've built the other half: a way to address what's happening in the office before it becomes a session, and to route people to care responsibly when it doesn't. The personal and the professional were never separate. Now the access can be.

What we bring to it

14years in clinical practice.
887clients seen this past year.
85%returned for a second session.

Our own booking records, not audited. The full counting method is on the reporting page. Measured, not marketed.

You are not buying a benefit. You are buying people who got help.

Coverage is what you pay for. Care is what you get. Most Indian EAP contracts are priced per employee per year. The published case level utilisation benchmark for external EAP vendors is about 4.5%.

Run that against your own headcount. In a company of 250, roughly eleven people use the thing you bought for 250. The other 239 are funding a phone number they will never call. It is a real cost and it never appears on the invoice, because the invoice is written in employees covered rather than employees helped.

So there are only two numbers worth asking any EAP for. How many of my people actually got in. And how far did they get. Most vendors can answer the first badly and cannot answer the second at all.

Our two numbers

  • 25%of covered employees complete at least one session in a year. Unique people, not sessions, not logins. More than five times the published benchmark.
  • 8 sessionsper person, on average, across that year. Typical EAPs cap at three to six and see one to three used.
  • 42 hoursconsumed per month by a company of 250. That is the size the bank of hours actually needs to be.

swipe →

The first number is the one vendors compete on. The second is the one that decides whether anything changed. Eight sessions means people stayed past the point where the polite version of the problem runs out, which is usually session three or four, and got to the thing they walked in carrying. One session is a conversation. Eight is a piece of work.

A capped EAP cannot produce that second number. Not because their clinicians are worse, but because their contracts stop at three to six sessions. Ours does not, because the hours are pooled across your company rather than rationed per head. The person who needs two gets two. The person who needs twelve gets twelve.

Why the first number happens

It is not enthusiasm and it is not a poster campaign. It comes from four design decisions, and each one removes a specific reason people do not call.

  1. They pick the person, not a queueAn employee chooses their psychologist and keeps them. No assigned counsellor, no starting again with a stranger at session three. Most people who never use an EAP are not avoiding therapy. They are avoiding a stranger on a rota.
  2. They book without asking anyoneDirect to us, seven days a week, including Sunday. Not through HR, not through a manager, not through a form that leaves a trail inside the company.
  3. The quality does not depend on who they gotOur psychologists work to one standard: a shared protocol for the first four sessions and documentation every clinician writes the same way. Fit still matters and we will move someone who is not right for their therapist. But a good outcome here is not luck of the draw.
  4. Nothing reaches their employerThe firewall is the reason the other three work at all. Confidentiality fear is the most common reason people who need an EAP never touch it.
We are not going to tell you that therapy fixes your culture.

Here is what we will tell you instead. In a company of 250, around 63 people a year take what work is doing to them somewhere real, and stay long enough for it to count. Managers who have been through First Aid for Managers notice earlier and refer sooner. HR stops being the only person in the building holding all of it. That is a mechanism, described honestly, and it is as far as the evidence goes. We do not measure your culture and we will not sell you a number for it.

Every figure above comes from our own booking records across current EAP accounts, over a twelve month period, and is not independently audited. 25% is the lower end of what we see, not the best account we have. The 4.5% comparison is the published case level figure for external EAP vendors. Where we cannot source something, we leave it off the page.

Most EAPs in India, and this one

Typical India EAP

  • An assigned counsellor, no choice
  • A helpline, not a relationship
  • Per employee session cap, use it or lose it
  • A satisfaction score at year end

The Thought Co.

  • Choose your own psychologist, and keep them
  • Booking seven days a week, direct, never through HR
  • A shared bank of hours, no per employee cap
  • A quarterly report that says something true

What we build under the EAP

  • Therapy for employees
    Bank of hoursA pooled bank of hours, no per employee cap. Employees choose their own therapist and keep them across sessions.How it works →
  • Team workshops
    Built around your teamLive, psychologist led sessions on what's actually straining the room — not a fixed slide deck. Played through, not sat through.See the format →
  • First Aid for Managers
    Notice, care, referOne 90 minute cohort session, up to 12 managers, rehearsal built in. A psychologist in the room, not a facilitator.See the format →
  • Support for HR
    Responder training + careTraining for the team that catches disclosures first, and a confidential line of care for HR itself, never reported to leadership.Who holds HR →
  • Quarterly reporting
    Aggregate, never below 8Utilisation, return rate, and measured outcome change — never a name, a booking, or a cut below eight people.The full report →

Start where you actually are

Running the programme for

  • OML
  • Collective Artist Network
  • Atlas University
  • Bard & Butter

Mental health gifting for teams at

  • Publicis Sapient
  • L&T
  • The Nudge Foundation
  • DotConnect

Two different things, said plainly. The first four run the programme. The second four have trusted us to put psychologist made care into their people's hands as a gift, which is usually how a company finds out what its team will actually open.

Built for your sector

Who's behind it

Priyanka Kartari runs every discovery call herself and leads First Aid for Managers in the room — not a salesperson, not a rotating facilitator. More about her →

Fourteen years in the room, now in the office too.

Questions HR heads actually ask

How is this different from a helpline EAP?

A helpline is a phone number. This is a bank of therapy hours with a psychologist your employee chooses and keeps, booked directly, seven days a week.

What can our company see?

Aggregate usage, broad themes at a minimum group size of eight, and recommendations. Never a name, a booking, or session content. Full detail on the reporting page.

What is EAP utilisation, and what's ours?

Utilisation is the share of covered employees who use the programme in a year. Counted properly that means unique people who completed at least one session, not logins, not emails opened, not workshop seats. Ours starts at 25%, against a published Indian benchmark of about 4.5%. Work out your current one and bring it to the call.

How many sessions does one person usually use?

Eight, on average, across a year. That is the number we would ask any vendor for, because it is the one that shows whether people stayed long enough for the work to do anything. Capped programmes structurally cannot report it.

Can an employee ask for a particular kind of therapist?

Yes. Employees choose their own psychologist and keep them. Sessions run in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati. Three of our psychologists hold QACP, the queer affirmative counselling certification, and the approach is built into how the team is trained.

How do you handle employee data under the DPDP Act?

Clinical records sit with us as a practice, not inside your HR system, and we keep them for two years after a client's last session. The full picture is on the employee data and privacy page.

Do you train managers too?

Yes — First Aid for Managers, a rehearsed 90 minute cohort session on noticing, caring, and referring, led by a psychologist. See the format.

Where are you based?

Lower Parel, Mumbai, in person six days a week, online every day. More on the Mumbai practice.

Related reading

  • Do Corporate Wellness Programmes Work in India?
    Do corporate wellness programmes actually work in India?Read →
  • Why Is EAP Utilisation So Low in India?
    Why is EAP utilisation so low in India?Read →
  • How to Choose an EAP Provider in India
    How to choose an EAP provider: 9 questionsRead →
  • You're Buying Coverage, Not Usage: The EAP Pricing Trap
    You're buying coverage, not usage: the EAP pricing trapRead →

Bring us your current utilisation number.Thirty minutes. Direct to Priyanka.

Speak to someone about the programme

Written and reviewed by Priyanka Kartari, Psychologist. Last reviewed 27 September 2026.

The Thought Co. is a psychologist led mental health service. Booking and enquiries run seven days a week, 9 am to 8 pm IST. Sessions are in person at Lower Parel, Mumbai, or online. We are not a helpline or a crisis service. In an emergency, call Tele-MANAS 14416 (24 hours) or 112.

Worth thirty minutes to talk this through?

Book a thirty minute call with Priyanka

Or drop us a message on . We reply during booking hours, seven days a week, 9 am to 8 pm IST.