Adult Counsellor

Colchester Medical Practice is looking for an enthusiastic, committed, and accredited primary care counsellor to join our team to provide a counselling service for adults, on a two-year fixed-term contract. This role can be offered on a full or part-time basis for a minimum of 22.5 hours to 37.5 hours per week.

We provide low and high-intensity therapies within the standards of a stepped-care model and require an individual with significant experience of working in primary care and providing brief counselling sessions for patients with depression.

Main duties of the job

• Offering appropriate short-term counselling or referral to more appropriate services.
• Communicating outcomes to GPs/referrers.
• Working autonomously within professional and service guidelines and exercising responsibility for governance of their counselling practice.
• Delivering face-to-face and online sessions remotely.

Colchester Medical Practice will offer a service that operates between the hours of 8.00 am to 6:00 pm.

About us

Colchester Medical Practice is a well-established PCN, delivering excellent care to over 40,000 patients across the city of Colchester. We have four sites (Shrub End Surgery, Castle Gardens Medical Practice, Wimpole Road Surgery, and Parsons Heath Medical Practice) and a new Health and Wellbeing Hub, based at our Parsons Heath site. We are well established with a rating of GOOD by the Care Quality Commission. As a practice, we employ over 120 colleagues to provide excellent healthcare to patients across Colchester.

We offer a range of staff benefits including:

• NHS pension scheme - The NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefits scheme which includes: Life insurance, Family benefits including an adult dependents pension and children's pension, Ill health benefits, and 20% employer contribution.
• Proper Pay - Living Wage Foundation Accredited.
• Annual leave: minimum 33 days FTE.
• Enhanced maternity & paternity terms.
• Uniform provided for colleagues if required.
• Free use of Holly Health Mental Wellbeing App.
• Flexible working contracts available upon request.
• Excellent training opportunities and progression provided.

Job responsibilities

If you would like to find out more information about this role, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

Person Specification

Experience

• Evidence of providing brief effective treatment to adults with a wide range of mild to moderate mental health problems.
• Evidence of ability to communicate and work effectively within the service including orally and in writing.
• Ability to carry out assessments (including risk assessments) on patients with mild to moderate mental health problems.
• Understanding of mild to moderate mental health problems.
• Understanding of risk assessments and their management within a primary care setting.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with patients and other professionals.
• Ability to manage own caseload and time.
• Ability to cope with emotionally demanding and stressful situations involved when providing counselling.
• Experience of working in a primary care setting or IAPT service.
• Experience of using computerised patient record systems and psychometric measures.

Qualifications

• Formal approved qualification in counselling at Diploma level.
• Accreditation with BCP/UKCP/BACP or other approved organisations.
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
• Applicants must be accredited or working towards accreditation with the BACP or equivalent.
• Training and experience in CBT-based brief interventions.

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.