Entry level Counsellor jobs
7.5 hours per week – term-time only / £33,795 per annum pro rata / permanent / one day per week - any day Monday to Thursday, excluding Friday / the role will commence at the beginning of September 2025.
Our mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be. We do this by providing a safe home, increasing life skills and self-confidence, and improving emotional wellbeing and mental health.
Established in 1996, Dialogue School Counselling is a BACP accredited school counselling service covering Sussex and Surrey.
We are recruiting for qualified counsellor or therapist with experience of working with children and young people to join our team and deliver our service at Shoreham College from September 2025. Shoreham College is an independent day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 16, and we have been providing the college counselling service here since 2017.
We are seeking candidates who are passionate about making a difference to lives of the children and young people they work with. You'll have a keen interest in and experience of working with children and young people of primary and secondary age.
Key responsibilities
·You will provide an ethical, professional counselling service at Shoreham College
·Run a suitable appointment system flexible to the needs of the school, offering students appropriate assessments and counselling appointments
·Manage the tight time boundaries of the role and the often complex and varied workload
·You will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff. This will include discussion of referrals, waiting lists and appointments, managing a session timetable within the school day and agreeing a process for students coming to and from sessions
·Carry out initial clinical and risk assessments and establish appropriate referral pathways with other services where appropriate. Continually assess risk throughout each student’s counselling
·You will be required to undertake assessments with parents/carers and counselling sessions, complete all associated admin and attend regular clinical supervision and line management meetings
·Follow YMCA Dialogue safeguarding procedures; to know who the School’s Designated Safeguarding Officer/s is and how to contact them when a safeguarding concern arises
·Work at all times within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions and maintain individual membership of the BACP (or other professional body such as HCPC)
Qualifications, knowledge, and experience
- You will have counselling or psychotherapy qualification minimum Level 4 and ideally Level 6, with 2 years’ post qualifying experience in individual counselling or therapy with children preferred, to include working with risk issues
- You will have a BACP Membership; BACP Registered or Accredited. Or other professional body e.g. HCPC
- You will also have a sound understanding of child protection and vulnerable adult safeguarding issues, policies, and procedures
- You will be confident in identifying and responding to safeguarding concerns and have experience of working in a school setting
- You will have a keen interest in working with children and will be familiar with using creative therapeutic approaches, along with experience of working in a school setting
- You will have a professional, flexible attitude with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to manage your time well
Registered Charity
101 - 500
We believe every young person has the right to discover their potential.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
The Therapeutic Service Co-ordinator & Clinician is a vital member of the DreamArts Core Team. This role combines project co-ordination with direct therapeutic support through our EXPRESS PLUS service and our work with young carers.
EXPRESS PLUS is a free therapy service based in Westminster offering weekly one-to-one or parent-child creative therapeutic support to young people aged 7–18 (or up to 25 with additional needs). It is the only service of its kind in the borough and we provide a safe and welcoming space for clients to explore issues such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and suicidal ideation.
Sessions take place at three community venues and are delivered by qualified or qualifying therapists using a wide range of creative tools—arts and crafts, sand play, puppets, games—to help young people express themselves in ways that feel natural and safe. With an 80% retention rate after three sessions and two-thirds of clients from global majority backgrounds, the service has a demonstrable impact.
EXPRESS PLUS is proudly user-led. Young people are at the heart of every decision, and the service adapts to meet their needs—typically offering up to 18 weekly sessions, with flexibility depending on circumstances. We accept self-referrals from young people aged 14+, parents/carers, and statutory and voluntary services.
As part of this role, you will also deliver direct therapeutic support to young people with caring responsibilities. This includes offering weekly 1:1 sessions for three young carers and being part of a team facilitating monthly group therapy spaces.
We are looking for a team member who is passionate about the power of creative therapy to support young people. It also offers opportunities to case-manage three-to-four therapists and bring a therapeutic lens across all aspects of DreamArts’ work. We provide appropriate levels of clinical supervision plus a quarterly reflection space to support your professional development.
Please note that the post holder needs to be a qualified psychotherapist/counsellor, with previous experience (paid or voluntary) of delivering 1:1 therapy sessions with children and/or young people.
In in last year’s staff satisfaction survey 100% of team members felt inspired at DreamArts to do their best at their job, and 100% said that their voice and skills matter at DreamArts.
‘DreamArts has a profound impact on the lives of young people and is a model of exemplary practice.’ - The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, Impact Study
DreamArts has a mission; to transform young lives by fusing arts and therapy.
For over two decades, DreamArts has worked directly in the community, making a difference to the lives of over 500 young people each year in some of London’s most deprived areas—empowering them to explore who they are, build positive relationships and develop emotional wellbeing.
Our award-winning projects put young people in control: from devising new mini-musicals and immersive theatre, to young carers curating photography exhibitions and young refugees touring their original beatbox plays across the UK. Alongside this, our free therapeutic services offer vital support as mental health crises among young people continues to grow.
DreamArts is committed to providing an integrative and inclusive programme and not to discriminate on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, nationality, or culture. We are also committed to being a more diverse and culturally representational organisation, therefore any applicant that identifies from a minoritised background and meets the essential criteria will be automatically selected for an interview.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.