As ever with these questions, the "can" is a red herring that tempts a literal but unhelpful answer. Your company can pay for anything, the real question is whether there will be knock-on tax consequences that make it a bad idea.
In this case, perhaps surprisingly, there probably aren't any adverse consequences. The rules, HMRC's guidance about them and HMRC's internal manuals are clear - an employer can pay for counselling for employees with no tax consequences for the employee, and though HMRC say the exemption is tightly drawn it actually covers a lot of areas.
Now, this exemption is plainly not intended for owner-managed businesses. For a big employer, claiming that they're only providing the therapy because of their needs as an employer, and that long-term personal benefit to the employee may well be created as well but it's not the reason for their footing the bill, is a reasonable assertion. If it's your own business, then that dividing line between employer and employee is not so clear. But HMRC are pretty unambiguous about it, so if you’re comfortable that the counselling you’re contemplating falls within HMRC's guidance as tax-free, then you should feel confident going ahead. Your company must provide the therapy, so should contract with the therapist itself - it's no good arranging it yourself and claiming the costs back if you want the setup to be robust.
If you're a sole trader or a partner in a partnership, then this doesn't apply; these are employment tax rules. A sole trader or partner will probably find it difficult to impossible to sustain the argument that the cost is tax-deductible - it's have to be incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of their trade.
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