11.15 to 12.00pm
This presentation is available online and in person.
12.10 to 12.55pm
The aim of the session is to provide student counsellors with an understanding of the NHS, the position of counselling and psychotherapy within the NHS at present and where there are opportunities for careers within the NHS for practitioners.
We will explore some of the challenges that counsellors may face in entering the NHS workforce but also how things have changed and improved over times; as well as what work we’re doing to open up more opportunities for members to work in the NHS.
The hope would be for students to leave the session feeling enthused to work in the NHS but with a realistic and well informd view on where counselling and psychotherapy currently fit within the NHS workforce and the direction of change over the next decade
This presentation is available online and in person.
1.55 to 2.40pm
This session will explore how traditional counselling structures and systems can unintentionally exclude neurodivergent individuals, highlighting the impact of systemic barries and deficit-based thinking.
Participants will develop awareness of how to move towards a more neuro-inclusive and relational practice. A key focus will be practitioner self-awareness, including exploration of individual learning, processing, communication, and engagement preferences. This will support deeper reflective awareness of how practitioners engage with cleints and how this may impact accessibility and inclusion in practice.
This session will also introduce structures preference measures, including the U-PIC and C-NIP2 (Cooper & Norcross), as preactical tools to support collaborative, person-centred, and neuro-inclusive therapeutic work.
This presentation is available online and in person.
3.00 to 3.45pm
Many counselling and psychotherapy students approach qualification with a mixture of excitement, uncertainty and anxiety about what comes next. For some, private practice is an aspiration; for others, it may feel like the only realistic route into paid therapeutic work. Yet training often prepares students more thoroughly for clinical practice than for the emotional, ethical and practical realities of becoming self-employed.
This presentation offers a grounded and encouraging introduction to starting private practice after qualification. It will explore what trainees need to consider before taking the leap, including supervision, scope of practice, contracts, fees, boundaries, record keeping, visibility, support networks and the emotional impact of working independently. It will challenge the idea that there is one ‘right’ way to be a private practitioner, inviting students instead to think about the kind of practice that fits their values, capacities, interests and stage of development.
The session will also consider the changing landscape new therapists are entering, including online therapy, increased competition, economic pressure, platform-based services and AI mental health tools. Rather than offering a formula for instant success, it will help students think realistically and ethically about building a practice over time. The central message is that sustainable private practice begins not with perfection, but with support, reflection, adaptability and permission to work in a way that is genuinely your own.
This presentation is available online and in person.