Are you getting ready to set up in private practice? Maybe you are unsure where to start with creating your policies. Don’t worry I can help. I have lots of experience setting up counselling services and supporting counsellors to set up their private practice. I have lots of experience too in helping people get started to create their policies.
Here are some of the policies we will be exploring in this workshop:
- Cancellation/DNA
- Lone Working
- GDPR/Data Protection
- Clinical Will
- Confidentiality
- Safe Guarding
- Risk Assessment
- Social Media
- Complaints
- Contract
Seems a lot? Don’t worry we will allocate about fifteen minutes to each policy and we will reflect and explore some of the things we need to consider for each one. From this discussion hopefully, you will have a good idea of what you would like in your policies for your counselling practice.
Course Content
Presenter
I’m Nicola, the business owner of Counselling with Nicola. I set up my counselling service in 2008. My business has survived and grown through two recessions and a pandemic. It continues to be extremely busy. I work with a mixture of clients, supervisees and I am an affiliate for EAP Providers.
Other than paying for my website hosting I have never paid a penny in marketing.
From 2003-2005 I trained and qualified as a counsellor. During this time, with a lot of support, I developed and set up a counselling service at a community health project in my local area. This project helps people to manage their mental health.
The service I set up was very small with only me seeing clients. However, as with every good counselling service, the waiting list grew rapidly. I quickly discovered that I needed to step back from seeing clients, expand the number of counsellors and expand the service. I was fully involved in the recruitment of counsellors, setting up the policies and procedures, managing the waiting lists and evaluating the service. The evaluation of the service was key to the project being supported by funders.
The counselling service grew from me seeing clients, to me supporting up to five students at a time. The service became one of the main placement providers for trainee counsellors and is still recognised by the universities as a good placement opportunity for their students.
During this time, I also decided to set up a private practice from my home. Counselling with Nicola was born! At the same time, I was also approached by another community health project in my area which supports new dads to set up a counselling service for them too.
In a very short space of time, I had set up three counselling services. To date, many years later, all three of these counselling services are still going strong and provide a great resource for the community.
Throughout my time as a supervisor, I have supported and cheered on many a supervisee as they qualify and set up their counselling service too. It has been an honour and privilege to watch their counselling services grow.
I genuinely feel I have the skills and knowledge to support and help you set up your counselling service.
