Advert for CBT/Counsellor

Counselling Service COPY OF ADVERTISEMENT

One Full time - Cognitive Behavioural Therapist or Counsellor £28,695– £37,394 Ref:

Cambridge University Counselling Service is seeking to recruit a counsellor, psychotherapist or cognitive behavioural therapist to undertake individual and group counselling with students in this large, busy and well-respected multi-disciplinary Counselling Service.

You will be professionally qualified, be accredited or registered by an appropriate professional body and have relevant experience of counselling and group-work in a similar organisational setting.

Further information about the Service and this post, including how to apply, is available from www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/vacancies.html

The posts are subject to enhanced DBS disclosure. The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Closing date for applications: Thursday 28 May 2015 Vacancy available from: September 2015 Interviews will take place on Friday 19 June 2015

FURTHER INFORMATION

Job Title: Counsellor or CBT therapist (University Grade 7)

Reporting to: Senior Counsellor or Senior Mental Health Advisor, University Counselling Service

Brief Outline: This is an opportunity to join a highly experienced multi-disciplinary team of counsellors, CBT therapists, mental health advisors and a mindfulness practitioner.

Background Information The University of Cambridge is one of the oldest universities in the world. Its reputation for outstanding academic achievement is known world-wide and reflects the success of its students, as well as the world-class original research carried out by the staff of the University and the Colleges. The University of Cambridge consists of over 100 departments, faculties and schools plus a central administration. During the academic year 2012/2013, 18,899 students studied at the university, 11,878 of whom were under-graduates.

The University Counselling Service was founded in 1969. It is a central service that offers counselling to undergraduate and postgraduate students of all of the Cambridge Colleges. Most students self- refer, others are signposted by College tutors, chaplains, nurses, or by GPs and psychiatric services.

Almost 1,600 students attended the Service for individual counselling last year. Most were seen for brief focal therapy by a large team of counsellors using different modalities. The psychological and therapeutic help we offer supports the whole person, so that each student is better able to make the most of the academic and social opportunities that the University affords. As well as individual counselling, the Service also provides:  a wide range of workshops and counselling groups, typically offering ten per week.  various training activities for students, and University/College staff.  and ‘reflective practice groups’ to a variety of staff groups such as college nurses.

1 The Service has two Mental Health Advisors (MHAs) who offer a range of interventions to students who are in crisis or who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. The Service has recently appointed a mindfulness practitioner and is in the early stages of delivering a mindfulness programme to students and researching its impact on improving student resilience.

It is an exciting time to be joining the university counselling service. The well-established and respected team has undertaken some recent changes. New therapeutic and administrative staff have joined the team since the appointment of a new head of service 18 months ago. The service has integrated the Unified Administrative Service and it will move to a new purpose-built city centre location in 2017.

The staff of the Student Service includes:  One Head of Service  Two Senior Counsellors, and one Senior Mental Health Advisor, who together oversee the work of the Service along with the Head of Service, line manage the other therapeutic staff, and have responsibility for an area of service delivery  Nine Counsellors and/or CBT Therapists (full - or part-time)  One Mental Health Advisor  One Mindfulness Practitioner  Six Associate Counsellors on training placements, typically for one day per week  A Psychiatrist who attends the Service for half a day per week during term time.

The therapeutic staff are supported by:  An Office Manager and three part-time Secretary/Receptionists  A part-time Financial Administrator  A part-time Computer Officer.

Experienced external supervisors with different therapeutic approaches attend the Service to conduct individual clinical supervision for all employed counsellors. Logistics allowing, counsellors can choose which member of the panel to have as a supervisor.

The Service is well respected within the University and Colleges. The culture of the Service is friendly, collaborative and valuing of team-work and team decisions, but also expects all staff to work hard and set high professional standards.

The Service is located in a pleasant building, which comprises 19 counselling rooms and appropriate group and meeting rooms, as well as administrative and staff space.

A separate staff counselling service supports university staff: http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/staffcouns

Further information about the Service is available on the Service website: http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk.

Recent Student Counselling Annual Reports can be downloaded as PDF documents from: http://www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/general/reports

Further information about the post Applicants should have experience of working with young adults, be professionally trained, accredited by an appropriate professional body, and have experience of individual and group counselling within a similar organisational setting.

Service staff include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural and integrative therapists. Applicants should be interested in working in a multi-disciplinary team, have a clear understanding of how the institutional context impacts on therapeutic decisions, and be in sympathy with the Service’s policy of offering primarily brief focal therapy with a limited amount of longer-term therapy when possible and appropriate. Candidates should be flexible in their approach to their therapeutic work. The majority of students who contact the Service present at the sub-clinical threshold and thus can be helped via a range of time-limited modalities. Although the post requires a good working knowledge of evidence-

2 based therapies, the post-holder needs to be versatile enough to adapt and target their interventions to fit a busy student service where brief therapy is the norm.

In addition, applicants should have experience of facilitating groups and/or running workshops, as the Service offers an increasing number of groups and workshops to students in the University. This is an important part of our service delivery and will form part of the posts being advertised.

An interest in supervision, training, research and contributing to innovative service development, including technology-based counselling provision would also be helpful.

Main Activities & Responsibilities:

 To undertake all work in accordance with the BACP Ethical Framework

 To provide individual and group counselling to undergraduate and postgraduate students, including: o Making assessments of clients’ presentations and emotional states o Delivering primarily short-term focal counselling to a professional standard o Monitoring progress and making adjustments to the counselling as necessary.

 Maintain a caseload of individual clients in line with Service policies

 Keep accurate records of sessions and counselling notes to a safe, professional and ethical standard: o .

 Attend regular clinical supervision to develop, monitor and maintain your own professional standards of work

 Participate in team business and other meetings

 Contribute to a productive, collaborative and supportive team climate, while ensuring that high professional and ethical standards are set and kept throughout the counselling work of the Service.

 Offer consultation to College tutors, Directors of Study and others with pastoral responsibility regarding student welfare and mental health.

 Be a confident computer user, in particular in the use of Word, electronic diaries and email.

 To undertake such other duties as may be required by the Senior Staff Counsellor or the Occupational Health Manager.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Counsellor

Required 1. Strong interest in working with students and the issues that they present 2. Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling or Psychotherapy, or professional-level CBT qualifications 3. BACP or BABCP Accreditation or UKCP Registration, or other appropriate and equivalent level professional accreditation 4. Experience of offering individual counselling/therapy in a similar organisational context, and able to demonstrate a clear understanding of how this context impacts on therapeutic decisions 5. Experience of offering brief focal individual counselling /therapy 6. Experience of facilitating therapeutic groups and/or brief focused workshops 7. Ability to work as part of a large team and to manage the stress associated with peaks in demand

3 8. Commitment to follow policies of the University Counselling Service, including flexible working when required 9. Confident computer user

Desirable 1. Training in group counselling/therapy 2. Experience of delivering training or similar workshops 3. Qualification or experience of offering clinical supervision.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

The hours for a full-time counsellor are not specified, but should be in the range 37 – 40 hours per week.

The Service is currently open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8.45 am – 5.30 pm, 8.45 am - 7.30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8.45 am – 5.00 pm Fridays. The person appointed will be expected to work during one evening to 7.30 pm. The exact pattern of work is to be agreed with the Head of Service.

The Service closes for about one week at Christmas/New Year each year, but remains open throughout the summer.

Holidays

Annual leave entitlement is 33 days pro rata, excluding Public Holidays. Annual leave should be taken with the agreement of your line manager and should be taken out of Term and during periods when the Service is closed at Christmas/New Year.

The University does not take school half terms, and where Public Holidays fall during Term, i.e. those falling in May each year, the Service is open and staff work as usual (staff working on Public Holidays take time off in lieu out of term-time).

Salary

The pensionable salary is on a scale from £28,695– £37,394 (Grade 7 on the University's single salary spine). The starting salary is normally the bottom of the scale but prior experience may be taken into account. There is no payment for overtime hours worked.

DBS disclosure

The post will be subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure.

Probationary period The appointment will be subject to confirmation on completion of an initial probationary period of nine months.

Application procedure

A Cover Sheet for CV applications [CHRIS6] can be downloaded from the University’s HR Division web site: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/forms/chris6/ You should complete:  Part 1 (including the names of two referees),  Part 2 (Section B only) - for applications to positions which are eligible for a Disclosure and Barring Service check  Part 3 (Equal Opportunities Monitoring Slip). Completing this is optional and is separated prior to the selection process.

4 Application Process To submit an application for this vacancy, please click on the link in the ‘Apply online’ section of the advert published on the University’s Job Opportunities pages. This will route you to the University’s Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register for an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a covering letter in the Upload section of the online application. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.

Please make sure that your CV includes all previous employment and outlines clearly whether your role was part-time or full-time and the proportion of clinical hours when appropriate.

You will need to specify which position you are applying for: CBT Therapist or Counsellor. The closing date for applications is Thursday 28 May 2015. Interviews will take place on Friday 19 June 2015.

Please note that this post is a full-time position.

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Géraldine Dufour, Head of Service, Cambridge University Counselling Service, 2-3 Bene’t Place, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EL.

Equality of Opportunity at the University We are committed to a proactive approach to equality, which includes supporting and encouraging all under-represented groups, promoting an inclusive culture and valuing diversity. We make selection decisions based on personal merit and an objective assessment against the criteria required for the post. We do not treat job applicants or members of staff less favourably than one another on the grounds of sex (including gender reassignment), marital or parental status, race, ethnic or national origin, colour, disability (including HIV status), sexual orientation, religion, age or socio-economic factors. We have various diversity networks to help us progress equality; these include the Women’s Staff Network, the Disabled Staff Network, the Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Network and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Staff Network. In addition, we were ranked in the top 100 employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) staff in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index 2013 and we hold an Athena SWAN bronze award at organisation level for promoting women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine. Information if you have a Disability The University welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities and we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to enable applicants to compete to the best of their ability wherever it is reasonable to do so, and, if successful, to assist them during their employment. Information for disabled applicants is available at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/staff/disabled/. We encourage you to declare any disability that you may have, and any reasonable adjustments that you may require, in the section provided for this purpose in the application form. This will enable us to accommodate your needs throughout the process as required. However, applicants and employees may declare a disability at any time. If you prefer to discuss any special arrangements connected with a disability, please contact Sue Geeson [email protected] or Géraldine Dufour [email protected] tel: 01223 332865 responsible for recruitment to this position. Alternatively, you may contact the HR Business Manager responsible for the department you are applying to via [email protected].

Géraldine Dufour, Head of Service, 1 May 2015