Serving the Community for Over 25 Years
Please find time to click on links that can give you more information about us:
Training and Workshops
Opportunities for Student Counsellors
Our Head of Counselling is a UK registered counselling practitioner, with BACP Accreditation and with many years of experience as a counsellor and as a counselling supervisor. The post carries overall clinical responsibility which includes ensuring, as far as is possible, that the counsellor appointed to an individual client has the level of knowledge and experience appropriate for the client’s needs.
Appointment as, or promotion to, Staff Counsellor requires either:
prior appointment as a Counsellor (see below) with a minimum of 450 hours of relevant supervised experience, and recognised training in Client Assessment
or
BACP individual accreditation, together with recognised training in Client Assessment.
Appointment as, or promotion to, Counsellor requires the award of a recognised counselling diploma or degree. Internal promotion from Student Counsellor is subject to a written assessment by the candidate’s OCS supervisor, followed by an interview by the Head of Counselling and another supervisor.
A student counsellor at OCS has successfully completed the first year of a recognised diploma course in counselling. The aptitude and ability to join our team will have been assessed by separate interviews by our Head of Counselling and an external assessor. Some of our student counsellors will have reached the stage of obtaining their diploma status.
OCS is not a training centre in the sense that we provide courses leading to formal qualifications in counselling. However, we accept a number of student counsellors who have completed their first year of a diploma or equivalent counselling course, based either on Psychodynamic, Humanistic or Integrative principles.
We provide a sound, professional and well structured setting in which the student counsellor can fulfil the course requirements of a minimum number of hours of practical experience and, at the same time, benefit from having weekly supervision within a small group of fully qualified and experienced counsellors. Group supervision, currently free to the student counsellor, provides invaluable training support and additional insight into the work of a counsellor.
OCS values the views and opinions of their student counsellors. Our Clinical Management Team presents the opportunity for one counsellor in training to join their meetings, held usually 3 times a year.
If you are studying to become a counsellor and are interested in working with us, please write to the Head of Counselling.
Our counsellors are committed to continuing their professional development (CPD). The approach adopted by OCS in terms of training and workshops is two fold.
Firstly, to develop and use the expertise held within OCS, our Training Officer arranges structured but informal Coffee Meetings which bring together counsellors and those counsellors still in training so that skills and ideas are shared. The meetings last about two hours and are held three times a year. A topic is decided beforehand and is explored informally. A small charge is made to cover the cost of room hire.
Secondly there is provision for a more formal approach to CPD whereby speakers are invited to give workshops that are open to counsellors from other areas, practices and centres. These events are either half a day or a full day depending on the subject.
Some speakers are ‘in house’ as OCS prides itself as having Supervisors and Counsellors with a wealth of knowledge and training experience. Others are perhaps ‘known people’ from the world of counselling and psychological therapies.
These workshop events are advertised on this website and other counselling publications. Charges vary and depend on the length of the day and the fee asked by the speaker.
Dian Eyres, our Training Officer, has been a Staff Counsellor and Assessment (Intake) Counsellor with OCS for five years. Dian is BACP Accredited and offers an Integrative approach to her work with clients.
If
you
would
like
to
know
more
about
a
particular
topic
or
have
a
real
keenness
in
hearing
someone
speak
–
have
your
say
–
ask!
You
can
email
Dian
at info@ocs-counselling.org.uk (please
put
for
her
attention
in
the
title
box)
or
leave
a
message
for
her
in
the
office
on
01903
212275.