The Healthcare Executive team is currently working to see how we can better serve our membership. We're very aware of how hard pressed our membership are for time, recognition, mutual care and support.

In our October meeting we reflected unanimously that what keeps us together, beside our passion for counselling in healthcare settings, is our connection with each other. All of us have significant personal challenges and illness (COVID and other) sitting alongside our time pressured work in healthcare. We wonder if we have the space for our volunteer role on the executive. Then we come back to our connection with each other and to our passion for counselling in healthcare and our enthusiasm gets re-ignited. We learn a lot and support each other.

From this conversation, we decided we'd like to help counsellors in healthcare forge deeper and longer lasting connections to support you in your work. So we're making plans for next year to help with this. These include:

  • sending a quick survey to members to find out about your main issues and what you want from us. This will take less than 10 minutes to complete
  • planning a CPD day on 'Counsellors working together in healthcare and forging connections' for spring/early summer 2022
  • setting up regional networks of counsellors in healthcare, where you can develop meaningful connections with others doing the same work in your region
  • providing connection for our members with BACP, so the networks know how to access support and can stay informed about all that BACP does in the background to work nationally for counselling in healthcare settings

Whatever challenges you're facing professionally and personally, we know from our own experience that it does help to connect with colleagues. Please feel free to contact any of us if you're interested in the work of BACP Healthcare division. We look forward to more connection with you in 2022.

BACP Healthcare Executive members:

Angela Clarke, Toby Sweet, Rachel Johnston, Satinder Panesar, Gareth Bartlett and Vicki Palmer

BACP staff support:

Matt Smith-Lilley, Nazmin Adam and Tracy Shrimpton

Find out more...

Views expressed in this article are the views of the writer and not necessarily the views of BACP. Publication does not imply endorsement of the writer’s views. Reasonable care has been taken to avoid errors but no liability will be accepted for any errors that may occur.