Practice Training and Supervision

 

Serenity Counselling offer a range of services to student counsellors, practising therapists and supervisors. If you are a student we can provide you with a well-supervised and supportive practice placement where you can build up your hours and hone your skills in a safe environment.

 

 

 

Student Placements

 

Thank you for your interest in a student placement at Serenity. We pride ourselves on providing a supportive and nurturing environment to help you in your final stretch of training.

 

Serenity's approach to counselling is integrative. We keep the Person-Centred approach at the heart of working with our clients, but we believe that this modality is not always sufficient on its own. Some of our clients struggle with complex issues and need an integrated approach that will aid with a range of the issues they present – including challenging, looking at the past and incorporating creative approaches when appropriate, etc. We welcome placement applicants studying all modalities, but please be aware that we will expect you to keep an open mind and integrate different theories and techniques when needed.

 

Please note that at Serenity we offer up to 24 counselling sessions per client. We believe this gives enough time to get to the root of the client’s issues and give them the best chance at recovery.

 

Student requirements:

 

Please note, we can only accept applications from students who have completed, or are coming to the end of, year 1 of their course, with level 4 courses being the lowest qualification we can accept.

 

• All students must have:
• current DBS Check,
• membership to the BACP or the UKCP
• insurance

 

• Students need to be able to show evidence that they have been signed off by their course leader before they are allocated clients.

 

• All students will agree to having internal supervision – depending on their course requirements, either one hour per fortnight costing £20, or 1.5 hours per month costing £30.

 

• All students will attend obligatory monthly PD groups organised by Serenity either in person or online costing £20. (This training is to help you to integrate the different theories and techniques as mentioned above and should be considered an investment in your future career).

 

• All students must have started their personal therapy and must have had a minimum of 10 sessions before commencing placement. After 10 sessions ongoing therapy is preferable, however, other arrangements can be discussed.

 

• Students are expected to pay a nominal amount of £100 refundable fee for the training and induction (Training of this type would normally cost £200) Once you have completed 50 placement hours this will be refunded £50% back to you with the final 50% upon completion of 100 hours. This £100 refundable fee will be expected to be paid on the first day of training.

 

• Following training, students will be allocated 2 clients for their first 3 months at Serenity. During this time, and beyond, you will be supported by your mentor. After 3 months, you will be allocated one or two more client(s) depending on your progress, availability and the client’s complexity. Upon completing 50 hours of your placement, it is expected that you will have 5 clients.

 

 

 

COVID-19 – Regular risk assessments are being conducted on the premises and safety precautions are put in place to ensure the safety of all counsellors and their clients. Students are expected to work face-to-face with their clients. When this is not possible, remote work via video call platform will be discussed with a senior member of staff.

 

 

 

 

Interviews and training:

 

To apply for a placement with Serenity, please fill in the application which you can download here and write a personal statement, up to 500 words, as to why you believe you are a good candidate to join Serenity Counselling. Send the application and your personal statement to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and one of our team members will get back to you to discuss your application.

 

We are currently running 3 rounds of recruitment. You can send your application in at any time, but it won't be reviewed until the beginning of the registration period. Once we have read your application and progressed it to the next stage, we will contact you to arrange an interview. If your interview is successful, we will require you to attend our induction and trauma training (dates below), shortly after which you will be assigned clients.

 

 

	Registration	Interviews	Training
Winter intake	January 2023	February 2023	February 2023
Summer intake	May 2023	June 2023	June 2023
Autumn intake	August 2023	September 2023	September 2023

 

 

If you have any questions, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will get back to you.