About our counselling placements

Our counselling placements are an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience in working with children and young people in a safe therapeutic environment. This experience will allow you to take the next step on your journey to becoming a child counsellor. By spending one day every week in a school for at least one academic year, you’ll provide one-to-one support to vulnerable children and young people.

With Place2Be, you can find counselling placements across England, Scotland and Wales. You can see counselling placements near you by looking at our map of our partner schools.

Placement structure

You can start your counselling placement with Place2Be at any point in the school year to fit alongside your studies or schedule.

Counselling placements with Place2Be include:

• spending one day per week providing one-to-one counselling in one of our partner schools
• committing to your counselling placement for at least one academic year, term time only, for a full school day of 8:30am – 4:30pm. Some schools in the North of England can offer half day placements
• receiving on-site, same-day supervision from a clinically qualified Place2Be School Project Manager.

Apply now

Who can apply for a counselling placement?

Place2Be’s counselling placements are for anyone who needs experience in working with children and young people to become a qualified counsellor. Whether you’re working towards a Diploma in Counselling or are looking for a student counselling placement, you can gain experience with Place2Be.

To apply for a counselling placement, you must have completed or be studying towards one of the following:

• Diploma in Counselling (Level 4 or above in England and Wales, or equivalent diploma at SCQF Level 9-11 in Scotland)
• Degree or Masters in Counselling, Counselling Psychology, Psychotherapy or Art Therapy.

Please note we do not accept applications from those studying via distance learning as there is not enough of a skills-based or experiential component to the course.

It's important that those working as counsellors reflect the diversity of the students in our partner schools. We encourage applications from people currently underrepresented in the counselling profession, including:

• people from Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse communities
• people with disabilities
• men
• care givers
• gender-diverse members of the LGBTQI+ community.

We also welcome trained counsellors, therapists and counselling/clinical psychologists willing to give their time to support our valuable work.

If you don’t meet our entry criteria, you can take the next step on your training journey and apply for our counselling qualifications.

How do I apply for counselling placements near me?

Find a placement near you by looking at our vacancies.

1. Go to 'Apply now' at the end of this page. Clicking this button will take you to a list of our counselling placement vacancies. Use the search and filters to find a counselling placement near you.
2. Choose your preferred vacancy and select the placements map to view our partner schools. Please note that not all schools on the map will have placements available, but we will do our best to match you to a placement near you.
3. Click the 'Apply' button in your preferred vacancy, complete your registration and application form. The application form involves answering compulsory questions.
4. We will assess your application after you've submitted it. If your application is successful, we'll invite you for an interview.

Only apply for one vacancy as multiple applications are rejected on the system. You will be asked to register before applying online. If successful upon interview, you will have the opportunity to discuss your location preference.

If your application is successful, we'll arrange for you to have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) check.

Apply to become a Counsellor on Placement

Why should I do a counselling placement?

By becoming a Counsellor on Placement with Place2Be, you will have:

• a structured placement in a primary, secondary, high school or all-through school for one year or more
• clinical hours towards accreditation or your course (although some courses do not accept child counselling hours, check with your tutor before applying)
• one-to-one supervision from a clinically-qualified Place2Be School Project Manager
• developmental training and access to free clinical workshops (on a range of topics, from attachment theory to therapeutic endings)
• career opportunities at a growing organisation, like our clinical roles (around 2 in 3 of our school community team started as Counsellors on Placement)
• opportunities to facilitate group work after first year on placement.

Place2Be is an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Our qualification courses are accredited by the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB).

We have over 30 years experience providing mental health support in schools. Doing your counselling placement with Place2Be allows you to develop skills and experience with acknowledged specialists in the field.

The impact of our work and our counselling placements

In the 2023/2024 academic year, Place2Be worked with a school population of over 350,000 children and young people, which took place in over 650 schools across England Scotland and Wales.

72% of Counsellors on Placement reported that they had excellent clinical experience working with children in one of our Place2Be counselling placements.

“When I go to Place2Be I let the stress out and it goes away.” - Primary-aged pupil

“Thank you for helping my child. He used to be worried and tearful and clingy in new situations but not anymore. He plays with friends outside in the garden, he never used to do this before.” – Parent of a child who used Place2Be services

Apply to become a Counsellor on Placement

Read what others have to say

Read what previous Counsellors on Placements say about our counselling placements.

"Counsellors on Placement get amazing support from their School Project Managers – and Place2Be prides itself on being a learning organisation, so there’s no better place for a counselling student to learn to become a practitioner."

Lindsay Cooper, Assistant Professor of Counselling, University of Nottingham

"I am so thankful I took up a placement all those years ago as it honestly changed my life for the better. My confidence has grown and all the training I have received has been invaluable."

Nikki, Place2Be Assistant School Project Manager

"It’s a privilege to work alongside children and build those kinds of one-to-one relationships. A lot of children maybe don’t have a lot of one-to-one time with anyone, so it’s amazing to spend 45 minutes or an hour with a child for a number of weeks."

Richard, Staff Trainer at Place2Be

Richard wrote about his experience of being a Counsellor on Placement with Place2Be.

Contact us

If you’ve got any questions or would like more information, our Placements Team would be glad to help.

Get in touch by:

• emailing us at placements@place2be.org.uk
• calling us on 020 7923 5533.