Stressed execs turning to therapy

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The City of London has a new kind of corporate animal: the business psychologist.

Also known as executive coaches or corporate counsellors, they're hired by companies to provide one-on-one therapy sessions for their overstretched executives.

And at hundreds of dollars for just one session, this is more than just corporate handholding.

"Part of my job is to build their confidence in what they're doing, help develop new skills, be clear about what their skills are and where developing issues exist," says business psychologist Julia Noakes.

Coaches can be found in the boardrooms, on the trading floors and in CEOs' offices, watching and analysing the behaviour of their clients.

The pressure to get better results in a shorter space of time has lead to an increase in the number of companies who are sending their top executives to corporate therapists.

According to a new survey by people management consultants Hay Group, more than half of the 150 organisations surveyed from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America have increased their use of coaches in the past year.

A good percentage of FTSE 100 companies also employ corporate coaches, but many are reluctant to publicly admit that their top executives receive regular coaching on the corporate couch.

There is still a stigma attached -- companies don't want their leaders to be seen as weak or needing help.

Barclays Bank is one institution, though, that is happy to admit they use coaches.

"Coaching helped me be a more effective leader in Barclays, helped me to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses and adjust leadership style to different members of the team," says Susan Turner, human resources director at Barclays.

With big mergers off, share prices at rock bottom and some spectacular falls from grace by high profile CEOs, executives need as much help as they can get.

"They need somebody to talk to. Everybody needs somebody to talk to," says Nigel Nicholson, a professor at the London Business School.

"And with a lot of execs -- who are often introverted, single-minded kind of people --the higher you get, the lonelier it gets, (with) fewer people to talk to."