Counselling and Outreach Coordinator

The Counselling and Outreach Coordinator role is key to SEL Mind's exciting new counselling service for Black residents of Southwark, delivered as part of the wider Southwark Wellbeing Hub. This full-time role will shape the Wellbeing Hub's provision to the Black community, expanding equitable access to culturally-appropriate support. 

As Coordinator, you will provide initial clinical assessments to prospective service users and coordinate a small pool of Trainee Counsellors, expanding future access to Black-led counselling. You'll line manage an Administrator who is responsible for scheduling and other practical elements of the service. You'll also work closely in partnership with community organisations to ensure relevant, de-colonial approaches, including maintaining a delivery partnership with Black Psychotherapy.

The main working site is a community centre in SE5, and the community outreach work involves regular travel across the borough. You will play a vital role in building community trust, ensuring that we are creating routes into the service and continually seeking and implementing feedback.

We are seeking a qualified therapist who is passionate about improving Black people's access to early mental health support. Relationships and partnership working is vital, so you should be able to work independently but collaboratively, to be proactive and show initiative. 

The role will involve:

• Undertaking skilled assessments of client needs and risks, taking into account the nature and complexity of presenting needs and suitability for short-term therapeutic work
• Recruiting and training volunteer Counsellors, ensuring trauma-informed work integrating spirituality and cultural values, using creative therapeutic modalities, and maintaining therapeutic relationships that honour diverse healing approaches
• Maintaining a live engagement strategy and actively reaching out with physical presence to grassroots organisations, faith groups, community centres, cultural associations, and spaces for people experiencing difficult situations including e.g. food banks and advice/advocacy organisations
• Contributing to the development and continuous improvement of the service, bringing recommendations to support the SWH's inclusivity and best practice

This role involves providing culturally specific support to Black clients. Applicants must be able to demonstrate lived experience of, and deep cultural understanding within, Black communities, and the ability to build trust with Black service users.

Successful applicants will be expected to undergo an Enhanced Level Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Closing date: Thursday 7th May (11:59pm)

Likely interview date: Monday 18th May

We encourage early applications as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high number of applications.

About Us

SEL Mind supports people with mental health problems and dementia in the boroughs of Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. We are proud of our diverse workforce and know that our organisation is made stronger by the variety of backgrounds, experience, and ideas within it. We promote a culture of inclusion and representation, and are working hard to build a workforce that even better reflects the communities we support.

SEL Mind is somewhere that you can be your authentic self without fear of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neurodivergence, gender, age, lived experience of mental health problems or anything else that’s part of who you are.

Read more about staff benefits and why staff love working here on our website.