YMCA DownsLink Group About Us Dialogue Therapeutic & Family Services offer free counselling to children and young people from 5 to 25 years of age in Sussex and Surrey. Dialogue is an accredited member of the BACP and abides by the Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy. The service receives frequent referrals from health professionals - GPs, CAMHS and NHS Departments - as well as self-referrals and is a highly regarded local service. Dialogue counselling services include: Schools Counselling Service Dialogue provides counselling services to over 80 primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across Sussex. Our Honorary Counsellor positions are in secondary schools and colleges only. Young people aged between 11-18 are offered up to twelve sessions depending on the location. Counselling @65 Based in Blatchington Road, Hove, @65 offers up to ten counselling sessions to young people aged 13 to 25 years of age. Sessions take place during the day and in the evening between 5pm and 9pm. Dialogue Community Counselling Our community service based in West Sussex localities offers counselling to young people who are aged between 11 to 18 years of age and works from community locations in Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Horsham, Lancing, Littlehampton, Shoreham-by-sea, and Worthing.
About Dialogue Placements Supervision Free fortnightly supervision is provided as part of your clinical placement. Our supervisors are experienced in different therapeutic orientations and all are experienced in working with children and young people. All of our counsellors are provided with free supervision on either a group or individual basis. Training Honorary Counsellors on placement with us are a valuable asset to our service and we feel it is part of our commitment to you to encourage your development as a practitioner. We provide Honorary Counsellor support in the form of training workshops, regular support meetings, a YMCA DownsLink Group Induction session and other training including Safeguarding, Equality & Diversity and Health and Safety at Work. Individual meetings with the Honorary Counsellor Coordinator are also available at any time on request to discuss any aspect of your placement with us. In addition we hold four CPD sessions per year aimed specifically at Honorary Counsellors. Past workshops have included: Working with Mental Health Issues Computer Games Addiction or Aid? Canine Counselling working with animals and metaphor Working with Self-Harm Creative Arts in Therapy We believe in and encourage a community of learning and sharing best practice amongst our Counsellors. Commitment We expect our honorary counsellors to work with a minimum of 3 weekly clients, to attend and fully participate in clinical supervision (which usually takes place on a day other than the clinical placement), to take advantage of the 4 free CPD sessions per year and to abide by our policies, procedures and guidelines. All honorary counsellors are required to agree and sign a Volunteer Agreement with the Service when a placement opportunity is offered and to complete a Disclosure & Barring Service check. Honorary Agreements are renewable and it is anticipated that most Honorary Counsellors will remain with us for a minimum of 2 years in order to consolidate their experience with this client group. Many of our Honorary Counsellors stay for many years, and are welcome to apply for paid positions when appropriate.
Application Criteria To apply for an Honorary Counsellor placement applicants should be: Either: Trainees on a Diploma level (or equivalent) counselling training course and have a Fitness to Practice certificate/letter from their course tutor. First year students meeting this criteria are welcome to apply Or Qualified counsellors seeking experience working with Children and Young People Potential applicants must also be able to demonstrate that they have: (a) some experience of providing formal counselling in any setting (b) or some relevant experience of working with children and/or young people under the age of 25. This may or may not be in a formal counselling setting. Placement Requirements Honorary counsellors in training will often have particular placements needs. With the appropriate client consent and on satisfying us of storage and use of material we will consider with clients over the age of 16: Taping of sessions Case studies Permission will be granted on a case-by-case basis, in agreement with your supervisor and the placement setting, and clients can withdraw consent at any time. Please note: We cannot guarantee that you can only see a certain age group of clients e.g. post-16s. We know that many courses require Supervisor s Reports, which our Supervisors are generally happy to provide given sufficient notice and time. If you have any concerns about your placement requirements please contact the Honorary Counselling Coordinator for an informal discussion. Applications Applicants are asked to fully complete an application form. No gaps should be left on this form, so make sure your application covers your entire education and employment history, and accounts for any time off work or in-between studies i.e. for a gap year. This should include details of 2 referees who can comment on your suitability for an Honorary Placement. If you are currently in training this should include a course tutor, and if you are applying with prior clinical experience your referees should include your current or previous clinical supervisor. Friends or work colleagues are not considered suitable referees. Short listed applicants will be invited to interview and references will be taken up for all successful candidates. New counsellors must complete a Disclosure & Barring Service check and will not begin in placement until this is cleared. We receive a high number of applications therefore it is not always possible to contact every applicant. If you do not hear from us within 6 months of sending in your application then please feel free to ring the Counselling Coordinator to find out the status of your application.
Frequently Asked Questions I m a first year student, can I apply? As long as you are on a Diploma level counselling course and signed off as fit to practice by your tutor, you are welcome to apply. What modality is your service? We are an integrative service. We welcome applicants trained in a variety of modalities if they are prepared and able to offer an integrative service to their clients. We have Humanistic, Psychodynamic, TA, Gestalt and Creative therapists volunteering for us, to name a few. I have no experience in counselling children, can I apply? Yes. We provide specialist supervision with counsellors experienced in working with children and young people, specialised training in safeguarding and multiple CPD sessions throughout the year to ensure you are safe and competent to work with your clients. We do prefer candidates who can demonstrate experience in working with children and young people in other formal settings such as in the NHS, schools, youth clubs, Cubs/Scouts/Guides etc. When do placements start? Vacancies can arise at any time. The best way to be kept informed is to email Honorary Counsellor Coordinater holly.myfield@ymcadlg.org and ask to be added to the Honorary Recruitment Email list. You will be sent regular email updates of all our honorary vacancies across many school and community settings. How long is the process of recruitment? First of all you need to submit your completed application to us. If successful at this stage you will be called to interview. If successful at interview you will be offered a placement. There will be some practical arrangements to sort out, and you will also need to complete a Disclosure & Barring Service check. We then have to wait for clearance from the DBS before you can begin seeing clients. The turnaround for DBSs can be 6 weeks or more, but this timescale can vary. It is safe to assume that in most cases successful candidates at interview will begin their placements approximately 6-8 weeks later. What do I need to know about supervision with Dialogue? We provide free supervision as part of the placement. We feel it is important for supervision to be a part of the placement and in line with the standards of our profession, clinical supervision is mandatory and always a priority. Can I have a supervisor of a particular theoretical orientation? Unfortunately we cannot guarantee the orientation of your supervisor. Most of our supervisors are psychodynamic, humanistic or integrative, and we believe there is much learning to be had no matter which supervisor you are with. However some of you will have requirements that are laid down by your training course and you should find out what these are so you can let us know as soon as possible, preferably on your application form. If you are successful in gaining a placement with us we will try to help as best we can. How is supervision organised? We adhere to BACP guidelines on supervision. Usually you will be offered individual supervision on a fortnightly basis. In some cases you may be offered small group supervision. Supervision is usually on a different day from the day in which you would see clients, only on rare occasions is it practically possible for us to arrange for you to have supervision on the same day that you see your clients.
Can I arrange my own supervision? No. We do not allow clients from within our service being supervised by a supervisor who is not part of Dialogue. The service maintains clinical responsibility for the clients that use the service and this responsibility is maintained in part through the supervision. I have to get 100 client hours and my course says it has to be with over 18s. Is this possible? Clearly within our schools service this is impossible. However clients at our community settings can be aged between 11-25 years of age, depending on location. If you were successful in gaining a placement with us in one of these settings we would endeavour to help you meet any course requirements, however we cannot guarantee that every client you are allocated is over 18. Trainee counsellors who want experience of working with children and young people often hold 2 placements at the same time and ensure that their other placement involves working with over 18s in order to satisfy training course requirements. How long do placements last? Our Honorary Counsellors sign a 12 month agreement, but many stay for 2 or more years. In fact, we encourage our volunteers to stay for a second year we think it takes at least this long to consolidate what you ve learnt with this particular client group. Can I claim back travel expenses? Unfortunately as a charity we do not have sufficient resources to be able to reimburse travel expenses. Do you provide any training? Yes, there are a number of mandatory trainings you need to do before you start seeing clients, such as Safeguarding training. We also offer 4 workshops for Honoraries each year, of which we expect you to attend at least 2. A number of free training opportunities regularly come up aimed at those working within the YMCA, which the Honorary Counsellors are welcome to apply for. Can I take leave during a placement? We want you to look after yourself and do expect you to take holidays. However, due to the nature and setting of your work, Honorary Counsellors doing a placement within a school are asked not to take leave during the school term and will need to work during the school day. Further Information For an informal discussion about the role and requirements or for an application pack please contact Holly Myfield, Honorary Counsellor Coordinator: Holly.Myfield@ymcadlg.org 01273 222576 Holly Myfield Honorary Counsellor Coordinator Dialogue Therapeutic Services Reed House 47 Church Road Hove BN3 2BE Completed application packs should also be sent to the above address