Counsellor - Sexual Assault and Violence

Job responsibilities

RESPONSIBLE FOR : The primary purpose of the role is to provide therapeutic counselling services to Centre for Psychology clients who have been referred to our Sexual Assault and Violence service.

The post holder will prioritise, assess, plan, evaluate and deliver all relevant aspects of care to an agreed and expected high standard.

The post holder will undertake specific administration duties related to the counselling services including contracting; user feedback and activity data, evaluation of service performance. The post holder will ensure that routine activity reports are prepared for the Senior Management Team. The post holder will liaise with the Data Management Team.

The post holder will contribute to the wider NHS Talking Therapies service by representing the counselling function. This will include participating in service meetings and advising and supporting other parts of the service and individual team members as required.

The post holder will be required to deliver training and raising awareness in relation to the psychological impact of sexual violence to a range of key stakeholders.

The post holder will contribute to meeting the quality standards of the SARC counselling service.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Clinical and Professional

To undertake counselling assessments regarding suitability for counselling to clients presenting with multiple and complex issues.

To provide counselling services to clients aged 17 + years referring to the Centre for Psychology sexual assault and violence service via in person sessions; telephone and video conferencing.

To select appropriate therapeutic interventions and make decisions regarding referrals where other services may be deemed more appropriate.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management. To work with clients who are at current risk of suicide or self-harm.

To provide medico-legal and other reports where appropriate.

To attend serious incident (SI) meetings as needed.

To work clinically with interpreters.

The post holder will work to an agreed activity contract relating to the number of client contacts offered, and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure therapy delivery remains accessible and convenient.

The post holder will maintain accurate records of all clinical activity in line with service protocols.

The post holder will participate in individual performance review and respond to agreed objectives.

Supervision

The post holder will prepare and engage in weekly individual clinical supervision.

The post holder will participate in line management supervision once a month.

The post holder will contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of staff, as appropriate.

To provide supervision to other professional groups and trainee counsellors as required.

The post holder will provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

IT responsibilities

To enter and retrieve data using the clinical information system

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualifications
• Qualified at Level 4 in Therapeutic Counselling or equivalent with 450 supervised client hours
• On the the register maintained by the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) or an alternative accredited body.
• Additional training relevant to the area of Sexual Assault and Violence

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with a variety of client groups and presenting problems that reflect a range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision

Desirable

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients within an NHS Talking Therapies service
• Experience of specialist psychological therapy assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings relevant to an NHS Talking Therapies service, including outpatient, community, and primary care settings

Knowledge Skills Experience

Essential

• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Knowledge and expertise in using Microsoft Office programs and other open source programs
• Excellent communication skills, both
• written and verbal
• Well-developed time management
• skills
• High standard of organisational ability
• Able to prioritise a pressured workload
• Ability to be flexible to meet service
• needs
• Ability to work independently and
• unsupervised as an autonomous professional

General abilities

Essential

• Documented work history
• Evidence that personal behaviour is consistent with Centre for Psychology values

Desirable

• Car Driver with no convictions

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).