I would like to work as a counsellor/psychotherapist within the NHS, how do I go about it?
Speak to counsellors in your area who are already employed within the NHS. They will know the likelihood of there being vacancies for counselling posts in your locality. You could also look in the local and national press for advertisements. Advertised posts for NHS counsellors usually request that the applicant is BACP Accredited or equivalent. If you would like to work in a healthcare setting it would also be beneficial to seek additional, and more specialised, counselling training and a placement in an NHS setting (see BACP information sheet “Guidance on Trainee Placements”). A trainee counsellor has already gained a recognised qualification in counselling at diploma level. They may be seeking a placement in healthcare, either to enhance and develop their professional counselling role, or to accumulate more clinical hours to achieve their BACP individual counsellor accreditation (minimum 450 hours of supervised practice required). The trainee receives no payment for their work, alth
