Counselling Articles

If you are enrolled on a counselling course and are at the stage of seeking a counselling placement, the following guide may help. It looks at some commonly asked questions and offers five tips for securing a placement.

What is a Counselling Placement and why do I need one?

A placement within an organisation will give you the opportunity to work with clients under supervised conditions. Placements are a mandatory part of most counselling courses and necessary to practice the skills you have learned. To become accredited by a counselling or psychology body (e.g. BPS, BACP, BABCP, UKCP, BACP), you will need to show a certain amount of clinical hours. Normally these are obtained in a clinical placement. Often, you will have more than one placement over the course of your training. (more…)

What is a Counselling Psychologist?

Counselling psychologists integrate psychological theory with therapeutic techniques to help people overcome and deal with problematic life events and mental health issues.

They work with a variety of mental health and life problems including depression, relationship issues, bereavement and post-traumatic stress disorder and try to encourage people to explore their feelings and problems in the hope that they will become easier to understand.

In addition to this fundamental role, counselling psychologists can be involved in a variety of tasks from risk assessment and psychometric testing through to audit and evaluation. They can also research and help formulate new explanations for psychological problems and are a key part of multidisciplinary team work in supervising and training other mental health professionals. (more…)