Af Rasmus Simonsen og Julie Gulstad Andersen, Working Environment Section, HR Department. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication. Illustration: Colourbox

Psychological counselling at AAU is an important part of the university's efforts to combat stress, harassment, inappropriate behaviour, and problems with well-being or cooperation. Following a tender review process, business psychologist David Graae and his team of licensed psychologists who have experience with occupational psychological counselling in several state and municipal organizations were selected as the university's counselling service as of 1 August 2023.

The purpose of the scheme is to handle and clarify work-related issues and to prevent the problems from recurring.

Greater focus on involvement of management, organizational learning and management assistance

The tender process gave particular attention to the following: 

Involvement of managers (whenever possible)

Experience shows that when the immediate superior is involved and given the opportunity to help and support the situation, better conditions are created for a successful return to the workplace. Therefore, during the process, the psychologist and the staff member will clarify the possibility of involving the workplace.

In addition, each process can end with a conversation between the psychologist, staff member and manager with the aim of preparing a joint action plan for preventing and solving the problems.

The involvement of the manager will always take place according to the rules of confidentiality, and thus with respect and understanding for when this is not possible.

Continued possibility of anonymous assistance

There may be special circumstances where staff members want the process to be anonymous without involvement of the workplace. This remains a possibility.

Organizational learning and feedback

There will be increased focus on overall trends and themes, as well as the counselling service’s proposals for measures/initiatives that can aid the university's work in preventing, for example, work-related stress and well-being issues.

Business-psychological management assistance

It is possible for managers at AAU to contact the university’s counselling service for assistance on handling specific problems or to get overall assistance on handling the work environment and the well-being of the staff members affected.

You can find more information about the scheme here:

•     Psychological counselling at AAU
•     Read more about business psychologist David Graae (in Danish)