JOB DESCRIPTION – TRAINING SUPERVISOR:  DIPLOMA

Purpose of the post:
To act as supervisor of trainees for groups and individuals with GCS and abide by the BPC
Code of Ethics and the BACP Ethical Framework

Accountability:
Training Supervisors are accountable to the Diploma Course Lead for the training
responsibilities in this JD.
They are clinically accountable to the Head of Clinical Services.
Line management TBD

RESPONSIBILITIES OF SUPERVISORS

1. The aim of supervision is to help the counsellor to become more effective in work with the
client by:

a.  Enabling the trainee counsellor to gain greater awareness of the nature of the

interactions between trainee counsellor and client.

b.  Enabling the trainee counsellor to use the insights of psychodynamic theory in

understanding counselling and thereby to facilitate the trainee counsellor in making
more resourceful responses to the client.

c.  Helping the trainee counsellor to set realistic goals in relation to each client.

2. For effective supervision, the supervisor will need:

a.  To be able to relate sensitively to the counsellor’s communications and when

necessary to give firm direction.

b.  To be able to recognise unconscious processes at work both in the client/trainee

counsellor and counsellor/ supervisor relationship and make these explicit.

c.  To be able to distinguish between material which relates to the client and that which

belongs to the counsellor’s personality.

d.  An ability to use the ‘here and now’ of the supervisory session to understand the

dynamics of the client/trainee counsellor relationship.

e.  To have some familiarity with the dynamics of group life to ensure insightful handling of

supervision group processes.

f.  A sure knowledge of developmental theory to help the trainee counsellor relate

practice and theory.

3. Where possible, the supervisor should have the capacity for clinical diagnostic judgements
relating both to the needs of the client and the counsellor. The supervisor should be able to
recognise serious distress and should discuss this with the Head of Clinical Services for GCS
clients or the equivalent at an external placement who will take responsibility for further
action if necessary.

4. Supervision is for the benefit of the client. Where serious personal needs of the counsellor
intrude, the counsellor would be advised to seek personal therapy outside the supervision
group. The supervisor would need to discuss their concerns with the Clinical Manager to
enable the service to take appropriate supportive action.

5. The supervisor will be required to attend an induction meeting at the start of the academic
year (date to be agreed) and an individual performance review meeting during the last term
of the academic year. Both meetings are arranged by the Head of Training.

6. For clients that the trainee counsellor is seeing on placement with GCS, the supervisor will

receive the assessment of an allocated new client for trainee counsellors, from the Clinical
Service Team. The supervisor will ensure that there is adequate exploration of the new
client material (including any potential boundary issues) by the trainee counsellor to allow
on-going work to commence.

     NOTE: Trainee counsellors are expected to work with clients at external placements.

Training supervisors may be asked to supervise this work. Clinical responsibility will be held
by the placement organisation, and agreements will be set up between the trainee,
placement and supervisor to ensure clear understanding of responsibilities.

7. The supervisor will check that the counsellor completes the appropriate processes and
paperwork used by GCS in managing the client’s progress through the service, and where
appropriate, for the trainee’s external placement.

8. The supervisor will be responsible for completing assessment reports on their supervisee as
requested by GCS Training Department and after discussion with the supervisee. For trainees
this will be the service’s own assessment report.

9. The supervisor must liaise with the Head of Clinical Services and the Diploma Course Lead
regarding their holiday breaks so that cover is available for supervisees. Supervisees are
encouraged to meet together during the supervisor’s break.

10. The supervisor is responsible for maintaining their own professional credentials and
ensuring that they have adequate supervision of their supervisory role. A guideline is a
minimum of 30 minutes per month, which the supervisor will be expected to evidence.

11. The supervisor is required to attend the meetings of supervisors/ staff held at GCS. For
training supervisors these will be twice a term on dates arranged by the Diploma Course Lead
who will also chair the meetings.

12. The supervisor needs to be familiar with the ‘BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in
Counselling and Psychotherapy’, the BPC Code of Ethics and also with all relevant GCS
policies and procedures

13. Supervisors are required to offer 42 sessions of 1.5 hours each over the academic year
(September to September).

July 2025