Placements for counselling and therapy trainees

Cambridge Counselling Service is sometimes able to offer placements to current students of counselling and therapy who are looking to build up their practice hours. We call these students ‘associate counsellors’ and they tend to see clients who are paying our lowest rate (rate 5).

If you are interested in this role, please make sure you have read all of the information below to ensure that the placement would be suitable for you.

Associate counsellors work independently so they need to have completed at least 60-80 hours of clinical practice before applying. For this reason, it is ideal as a second or third placement. However, we will occasionally consider trainees looking for a first placement (or trainees who have fewer than 60 hours practice) if they have significant previous experience in mental health and well-being work or a professional qualification in a related field (eg social work, coaching) and/or if they have a good reference from a training organisation we know (eg Metanoia, Matrix, Re-Vision, Karuna, London Gestalt Centre and others).

All associates need to be student/trainee members of a suitable training organisation and/or student members of an appropriate recognition body (UKCP, BACP) and have their own insurance.

We can ONLY consider applications at certain times of the year. These will be updated if we are able to offer spaces. There may not always be openings as it will depend on progress of existing associates and client demand.

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The current window for application is below.  We will ONLY consider applications at this time.   Please do not apply at other times as we will not be able to process your application.

August/September 2024 start    Please submit your application between May 15th and May 30th 2024.  Interviews will be held in June with a view to taking up references and enabling a start in the autumn.

If you are interested in discussing a placement please email over your CV with a cover email, to admin@cambridgecounsellingservice.co.uk     Please make sure you have detailed your relevant clinical experience and number of hours completed.

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We have been working with associates/trainees since 2010 and a number of associates at Cambridge Counselling Service have gone on to become full members of CCS, when they have achieved registration or accreditation.

The associate role is similar to that of our fully qualified counsellors who are members of CCS. You will work as an independent contractor managing your clients your caseload, contracts, record keeping, GPDR and payments from each of your clients. It is close to an experience of what it might be like to be in private practice.   The payments from your clients are used to pay for the room usage at CCS and a contribution towards your supervision costs. All associates at Cambridge Counselling Service arrange and pay for their own supervision with their own choice of supervisor to fit their training organisation requirements, although we can suggest supervisors from within our network if needed.

The room times available for associates tend to be 6-9pm during the week or weekend day times; other times do occasionally come up, although this is the exception rather than the rule. We ask for a commitment of minimum of three clients per week for at least one year, although many of our associates see more clients than this and work with us for several years, up until they have sufficient hours for full BACP, UKCP or HCPC registration. Please note that we are a private practice and cannot guarantee a certain number of clients or hours and that we do not ask the clients if they are willing to be recorded or used as case studies. If you need to do this for your course you will need to negotiate it with your clients, yourself at the appropriate time.