Guide to find a Training Placement in the UK: Five Suggestions for Counselling Students
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Congratulations – you are enrolled on a counselling course! You are now at the stage of seeking a counselling placement.
The following guide answers 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 provide 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 been taught. To become accredited by a counselling or psychology body (e.g. BPS, BACP, BABCP, UKCP, BACP) Harley Therapy©, you will need to demonstrate 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.
Why is it so difficult to find a placement? Counselling, psychotherapy and psychology are very popular fields. Many counselling agencies are inundated with requests for placements. Those that can accommodate trainees can afford to be choosy because of an abundance of applicants. Be prepared that most placements will be un-paid, though some may reimburse for travel expenses.
What can I do to maximise my chance of securing a placement?
1. Make use of any in-house services. Many counselling courses will have a placements co-ordinator who has links with counselling agencies.
2. Check on Notice-boards in your educational establishment. Many organisations will send bulletins to advertise their need for volunteer counsellors.
3. Try to be flexible. Even though you may have a preference for working in a particular setting e.g. bereavement, the wider your application, the better. Accepting work in another field e.g. drug & alcohol, will add to your breadth of experience, and chances are you will enjoy the work.
4. Polish up your CV & tailor-make your covering letters. Rather than sending out a generic application, try and gear your application towards the agency’s speciality.
5. Approach well-recognised organisations. Establishments such as MIND have years of experience in providing placements in many of their local branches. Try writing to these organisations in addition to smaller local centres. Private counselling settings are not always ideal for placements as they may not be designed to give the support and mentoring that a trainee needs. For example, Harley Therapy is a network of independent therapists and at present does not have the scope to provide the resources you need for a rich training experience.
Finally, here are some things you should look for in a placement:
- Supervision with an accredited supervisor.
- Training opportunities such as workshops & lectures
- Network of peers at a similar training level.
- Good line-management or mentoring.
- Safe environment, where you are not seeing clients out of your depth.
We hope these comments help. Please feel free to add your experiences….
