Young Persons Counsellor Job UK

Young Persons Counsellor Job UK

About the job

Role Title: Young Person’s Counsellor - Aberdeenshire

Team: Foyer Fitmind

Salary: £24,904 – £26,735 per annum

Hours: 36.25 hours

Location: Peterhead, with occasional requirement to travel to other Foyer office locations in the Shire

Why? – To prevent and mitigate the impact of poverty and other tough life challenges on young people

What? – Support young people to self-efficacy using their own ‘internal toolkit’ that raises self-esteem, resilience, and confidence, through the delivery of therapeutic counselling using evidence-based methodologies.

About Young Person Counselling Service

The Aberdeen Foyer Counselling service offers therapeutic support, free of charge, for Young People aged 16 to 25 in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. We work alongside other internal Aberdeen Foyer teams supporting existing clients in achieving their potential. We accept referrals from within Aberdeen Foyer and external agencies, as well as self-referrals.

Currently our services are provided face to face, online or through phone calls, allowing us to provide support to the wider community. We work with our internal Development Coaches to create a support team based around our clients’ needs, and to help them achieve their goals in life. We provide group therapy and training for staff and/or other professionals on mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

About the Role

The aim of the young person’s counsellor is to provide confidential, one-to-one counselling to support those who are struggling with emotional or mental health issues. This may include anxiety, depression, low mood, anger management and a range of other issues. As counsellor, you will help to remove psychological barriers that prevent young people from achieving their full potential, whether with education or employment, as well as improving their wellbeing and mental health in a non-judgmental environment.

A key competency for the young person’s counsellor is the ability to form a safe, congruent relationship with the young person, while promoting resilience and autonomy, to support the young person to cope when outside of the counselling room and in their own environment. Being able to effectively assess the risk to the individual or others is key to this role, as ensuring the safety of the service user is always our top priority.

You may run wellbeing groups to support those within internal Aberdeen Foyer teams to promote, ‘relating to others’ and ‘combatting loneliness or isolation’. You may be required to provide training on mental health or suicide prevention to assist other teams in Aberdeen Foyer or external groups and will be responsible for secure and accurate record keeping in line with the ethical guidelines of BACP/COSCA regulations. As this role requires that you work with young people, you must be competent to work with this age group including knowledge of safeguarding and child protection legislation.

Key Competencies

• Build meaningful relationships with clients based on honesty, compassion, and trust
• Professional approach to providing individual and group therapeutic counselling and mental health & wellbeing support to young people in accordance with COSCA (Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland) standards
• Can work collaboratively with other counsellors and across Foyer teams and stakeholders providing coordinated support for identified groups and individuals
• Effective multi-agency partnership working able to liaise with external stakeholders as required in best interests of young people
• Ability to meet the requirements of the service with regards to boundaries, confidentiality and safeguarding and ensuring all records and information are managed in terms of all Foyer policies with reporting of all Health and Safety incidents as per policy and procedures
• Accurate and timely data administration, recording and monitoring progress of caseload to support required internal and external reporting arrangements
• Commitment to actively seek out opportunities to liaise with other Foyer staff as appropriate to maximise service outcomes and impact

Behaviours

• Demonstrates a belief in, and passion for empowering young people to improve their mental health, wellbeing, and resilience supporting them to reach their goals
• An active listener, non-judgemental and empathetic communicator; with the ability to build trusted relationships with young people, able to put them at ease and feel safe and included 
• Committed to seeking the best approach to support each young person; Solutions focussed; flexible and willing to try out a range of delivery methods to maximise the capacity of the service and to bring benefit to the wider community
• Able to positively motivate young people to develop their confidence and skills to achieve their life ambitions
• An understanding and recognition of the needs, concerns and difficulties experienced by young people and curiosity to keep learning to retain relevancy
• Clear understanding of the benefits of wellbeing and how this impacts the journey towards employment, education, and training

Qualifications and Experience

• Must be qualified registered counsellor with minimum 100 hours of counselling experience (we can accept applications from candidates working towards receiving their final qualifications)
• Experience in delivering cognitive behavioural therapy, person centred therapy and solution focused therapy, and/or experience working in a specialist area.
• Experience of using a variety of different methods and techniques in counselling to achieve desired outcomes
• Experienced application and knowledge of safeguarding practices
• Experience of working autonomously and being responsive to wider organisation requirements
• Great communicator able to liaise with multiple stakeholders and represent the Foyer, with experience of working in a multi-agency setting and in partnership
• Enhanced disclosure checks necessary, as clients will include vulnerable young people
• Knowledge and understanding of equalities and diversity from a youth perspective
• Understanding of ACE’S and the impact of trauma
• Competent digital skills, including but not limited to Microsoft Office
• Full UK driving license and access to vehicle

About you

The successful candidate will be a qualified, registered counsellor in their chosen modality who is excellent at engaging with and listening to young people. You will have experience of working with, supporting, and engaging with young people on a one-to-one basis and in a group setting. Communication and interpersonal skills are paramount as we need an individual who will be able to work emphatically while maintaining clear boundaries. The candidate will be a supportive team member to fellow counsellors. The ability to work creatively to promote engagement with young people is key to be able to work metaphorically with those who have suffered trauma.

This is an exciting and challenging role for a highly motivated, dedicated, and creative individual who is passionate about helping young people to make positive changes in their lives and their mental health.

To apply, please submit your CV along with an accompanying cover letter (no more than 2 pages) that gives us a fuller understanding of what interests you about this position and how your experience and skills link to the role to: [email protected] 

Closing date: 5pm, Friday 5th May 2023