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Responsible To: Clinical Coordinator
Location: Belfast and various community venues across Northern Ireland (travel between sites required)
Hours: Sessional
Salary: Remuneration and Professional Benefits £33 per attended session
Job Details:
As an Associate Children’s Counsellor with Nexus, you will join one of Northern Ireland’s leading specialist organisations supporting children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse, sexual violence and trauma.
Nexus provides specialist therapeutic support to children and young people aged 8–16 years, helping them to make sense of their experiences, strengthen resilience, build emotional wellbeing and move towards recovery in a way that feels safe and meaningful to them.
We recognise that every child and young person is unique. Our approach is trauma-informed, child-centred and strengths-based, ensuring therapeutic support is tailored to individual needs, developmental stage, culture, identity and lived experience.
Therapeutic interventions may be delivered through a range of creative and developmentally appropriate approaches including play, art, music, clay and integrative child therapy.
This role provides an opportunity to work within a highly supportive specialist service, helping children and young people find safety, connection, confidence and hope following experiences of trauma and adversity.
Nexus is committed to creating a psychologically safe and supportive working environment where practitioners are encouraged to engage in reflective practice, professional development and self-care. We recognise the impact that trauma work can have on practitioners and are committed to providing the support required to sustain safe, effective and compassionate practice.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
Therapeutic Service Delivery
- Work as part of a multidisciplinary team delivering trauma-informed, child-centred therapeutic support to children, young people, parents, carers and families.
- Engage with parents, carers and guardians to understand the child or young person’s needs, strengths, family context and presenting concerns.
- Complete initial assessments with parents, carers or legal guardians to determine suitability for the service and identify therapeutic goals.
- Assess informed consent and capacity to engage in therapeutic work in accordance with relevant legislation and Gillick Competence guidelines.
- Deliver therapeutic interventions using a range of creative and developmentally appropriate modalities including play, art, music, clay and integrative therapeutic approaches.
- Support children and young people to understand emotions, strengthen coping skills, build resilience, improve communication, develop self-confidence and enhance emotional wellbeing.
- Provide safe, confidential and developmentally appropriate therapeutic sessions that are responsive to the individual needs of each child or young person.
- Establish and maintain therapeutic agreements with children, young people and caregivers, reviewing progress regularly through outcome measures and review discussions.
- Maintain effective communication with children, families and relevant professionals while upholding appropriate confidentiality and safeguarding responsibilities.
- Attend and actively engage in clinical supervision and reflective practice.
Service Quality and Governance
- Deliver services in accordance with trauma-informed principles that promote safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and respect.
- Comply with all organisational policies and procedures including safeguarding, risk assessment and management, lone working, confidentiality, information governance and health and safety.
- Work in accordance with relevant legislation, professional standards and ethical frameworks.
- Maintain the highest standards of safeguarding for children, young people, families and vulnerable adults.
- Maintain accurate, secure and confidential records in accordance with organisational policies and data protection legislation.
- Promote equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice in all aspects of service delivery.
- Support the collection and completion of outcome measures and evaluation tools in line with organisational procedures.
- Contribute to service evaluation, quality improvement and reporting processes.
Professional Development
- Participate in ongoing professional and personal development.
- Engage in reflective practice and utilise supervision proactively to support safe and effective therapeutic work.
- Demonstrate commitment to practitioner wellbeing and recognise the impact of working with trauma.
- Attend line management and performance review meetings.
- Keep up to date with developments in research, therapeutic practice and relevant social policy.
- Attend team meetings and training opportunities.
- Complete all mandatory training requirements.
