If you are passionate about offering either short or long term mental health support to a wide range of diverse clients within the community, then we would love to hear from you.
At The Awareness Centre, we support students to work within their training approach and modality. This provides the perfect opportunity for them to develop their practice and experience, whilst also working towards BACP, UKCP, BPS or COSRT full qualification and accreditation as a counsellor, psychotherapist, counselling psychologist, psychosexual or relationship therapist.
We offer placements for both face to face and online sessions within our NHS counselling service and face to face sessions only within our Low Cost counselling service.
Apply now for NHS and Low Cost counselling placements*
For related enquiries about NHS counselling, please contact [email protected] or call 020 8673 4545.
For related enquiries about Low Cost counselling, please contact [email protected] or call 020 8673 4545.
*Interviews for our counselling placements will be held from April 2023.
Counselling Placements:
Learning What Life is Like as a Therapist
Counselling placements at The Awareness Centre provide invaluable opportunities for trainees to develop their skills and learn how to integrate theory into practice; enabling them to qualify on their courses, and gain enhanced clinical experience as a therapist.
At The Awareness Centre, we invest in training and mentoring to support your growth. Our dedicated clinical teams and qualified supervisors help you to develop your skills as you work with a wide range of clients suffering depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. All our placement therapists work weekly with a caseload of three or four clients that fully supports your clinical hours required towards accreditation. Please note that we offer placements for both face to face and online sessions.
We take registered student counsellors, psychotherapists, counselling psychologists and psychosexual & relationship therapists working towards qualifying and accreditation with BACP, UKCP, BPS or COSRT.
“My time spent working within the TAC Low Cost clinic has proved invaluable to me throughout my professional training. It has given me a deeper understanding of working within an agency setting, and has provided me with a solid foundation to build upon.”
J. M, SW11
How to Apply for Trainee, Volunteer & Student Counselling Placements at TAC
- All applicants must be pre-approved as ready to practice; and hold student counselling membership and PPI insurance.
- The Awareness Centre offers placement supervision and placement therapists are managed and mentored.
- In addition to attending The Awareness Centre online group supervision, all placement therapists are required to engage in external supervision during their placement to support their clinical learning and make sure they meet the clinical supervised hours for their courses.
- All placement therapists are expected to attend weekly personal therapy.
- The first 3 months of placement will be considered a probation period.
- Click below now and apply online by completing our online application form.
- If you meet our criteria, the Counselling Department will invite you to attend a group interview and speak to you about slot availability for our NHS and/or LCCS placements.
- If successful, you will receive an offer of placement via email. Please respond within 24 hours. We will be able to offer both face-to-face and online placements.
Please note that you will need an enhanced DBS, which TAC can coordinate for you if required.
Criteria for Counselling Placements
At TAC, we offer a three-level placement to trainee counsellors. These placement sessions can be face to face or online.
Level 1 Criteria
Trainee therapist counselling placement for trainees who have completed their foundation year / level 3 certificate.
- You are a trainee counsellor, student counsellor, psychotherapist or counselling psychologist in the first year of your diploma course.
- You are a student counsellor who needs to accumulate generic counselling hours to enrol onto your Psychosexual and Relationship therapy course.
- You have a letter from your tutor or college to say you are ready for clinical work on a voluntary placement at TAC.
- You are in personal therapy and will continue therapy throughout your placement with TAC.
- You can work within the NHS Counselling Service only.
- You will complete an induction and data base training with the senior management team before starting on placement.
- Once on placement you will receive group supervision twice a month and be line managed/supported by a NHS team leader.
Level 2 Criteria
Counselling placements for trainee therapists who have accumulated 25-65 supervised client hours.
- You are a student counsellor, psychotherapist or counselling psychologist studying at diploma level or above.
- You have accumulated 25-65 supervised client hours either within TAC or with another counselling organisation, agency or charity.
- You have been in weekly personal therapy for at least three months and will continue in weekly therapy throughout your placement with TAC.
- You can work within the low-cost counselling service and/or the NHS counselling service.
- You will be in twice monthly supervision seeing up to 4 clients per week.
- You will be supported by your Team Leader and Clinical Supervisor.
- You will be moved onto the Level 3 placement upon approval by our senior TAC clinical team.
Level 3 Criteria
Counselling placements for trainee therapists who have over 65+ supervised client hours and are working towards qualification.
- You are a student counsellor, psychotherapist or counselling psychologist reaching the end of your training.
- You have accumulated 65+ supervised clinical hours.
- You are in weekly personal therapy.
- You can work within the low-cost or NHS counselling service. You can see up to eight clients per week by volunteering on two counselling placements. You will be in weekly group supervision at TAC.
- If you are a student on the psychosexual and relationships training then you can work within our psychosexual placement seeing individuals and couples within the low cost counselling service.
- You will be in weekly or fortnightly supervision, depending on how many clinical hours you do.
- All trainee therapists will be supported by their Team Leader and Clinical Supervisor.
Choose The Right Counselling Placement For You
Our trainee counselling placements allow aspiring therapists to build experience and confidence in working with diverse client groups. Each counselling service offers different benefits, depending on how you want to progress as a therapist. Our NHS counselling placements are suitable for level 1, 2 and 3 placement therapists. All clients are triaged within our NHS counselling service and placements are face to face/online. Our low cost counselling placements are suitable for level 2 and 3 placement therapists. Our low cost counselling placements are face to face only.
Choose a volunteer counselling placement and practice as a voluntary therapist in our low-cost counselling service (LCCS) placement. You’ll learn how to provide a full clinical assessment to work long term with clients, which is excellent preparation for working in private practice.
Our volunteer counselling placements take place within our low-cost counselling service, and participants offer therapy on an open-ended basis from our centre in Clapham, South London. Our low-cost service offers a fixed fee for all clients. Working here as a voluntary therapist helps you learn about good practice management, and allows you to develop long-term therapeutic relationships with your clients with the support of first-class supervision and training. You can see up to four clients per week during Monday-Sunday daytime slots and Friday evenings.
Choose our NHS counselling placement and you’ll learn how to work in a solution-focused, short-term way with a diverse client base – as well as gaining the experience of working alongside a multi-disciplinary team within IAPT.
Our NHS counselling service involves seeing up to four patients a week on a short-term basis within GP surgeries in Lambeth, Wandsworth or at Jubilee East Health Centre in Sutton. TAC is contracted by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG); working in partnership with Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) to provide our NHS counselling services.
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TAC TRAINING SCHOOL
The Awareness Centre (TAC) Training School offers a centre of excellence for counselling training and continuing professional development (CPD) for therapists, based at The Awareness Centre in Clapham SW4.