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Counsellor, Community Based Counselling Service - Albury

Full Stop Australia
  • Status: Permanent Part-Time 7.75 hours per week
  • Classification: Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry (SCHCADS) Award 2010 Level 5.3, Above Award $20,585.24 per annum plus salary packaging and 10% superannuation ($22,643.76 per annum total package)
  • Reports To: Director, Counselling Services
  • Direct Reports: Nil

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

The Community Based Counselling Service (CBCS) is a specialist counselling service for women who have experienced sexual assault in childhood. The CBCS programs offers individual clients up to two-years of free specialist counselling and therapy focusing on healing and processing the impacts of trauma.

The position operates out of Women’s Centre for Health and Wellbeing Albury-Wodonga (WHCs) but is funded and managed by Rape & Domestic Violence services Australia (RDVSA). The program is offered across 6 WHCs across NSW. The CBCS counselling team operates as part of the larger telephone, online and in-person counselling services offered by RDVSA.

Please note, this is not a casework position. The CounsellorCBCS’s core role is to provide medium to long-term intensive counselling and therapeutic support. Therefore, applicants should have appropriate experience and qualifications to undertake work of this nature and scope.

This position of trust demands the highest levels of professionalism, ethical behaviour and an awareness of multiple factors which will influence individual client’s responses to both the trauma and the counselling provided. The CBCS will provide a service that is client-centred, non-judgemental, feminist, culturally safe, supportive and responsive.

All CounsellorCBCS’s are Mandatory Reporters and are compelled by legislation to identify and respond to children and young people at risk of harm.

Counsellor CBCS’s are part of RDVSA’s broader team, and so will have opportunities to engage with our exciting policy and law reform work, our best-practice training, and our innovative projects. We ground everything we do in the diverse grassroots experience of our counsellors and case workers, and people with lived experience of sexual, domestic, and family violence.

ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT

Vision

Full Stop to sexual, domestic and family violence.

Purpose

Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia (RDVSA):

  • Provides telephone, online and face to face trauma counselling for those whose life has been impacted by sexual, domestic and/or family violence, and behaviour change counselling for those who use violence in their relationships,
  • Offers service providers training and professional services, in relation to trauma and vicarious trauma; and support the broader community in responding to sexual, domestic and family violence and the prevention of this violence,
  • Engages in individual and systems advocacy to improve services and the legal responses for those who have experienced sexual, domestic and/or family violence,
  • Promotes access to the organisation’s services,
  • Undertakes research to better understand best practice in relation to trauma, trauma recovery, vicarious trauma, and the prevention of gendered violence.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Counselling Skills

  • Provide medium to long term individual counselling and therapy to address the impacts of trauma to women who have experienced childhood sexual trauma.
  • The preferred mode of delivery is in-person. However, the Counsellor may be required to offer counselling via telephone or via videoconferencing if services are impacted by Covid-related measures, natural disasters and so on.
  • Provide, in accordance with the organisation’s Code of Ethics and contemporary professional standards, client-focused, compassionate and ethical counselling and support to RDVSA clients.
  • Conduct therapeutic planning, clinical networking, advocacy and referral for clients as needed.
  • Ensure counselling services provided are evidence-based and meet best practice standards.
  • In conjunction with management, prepare statements and reports in support of clients.
  • Work in a collaborative and collegial manner with fellow employees and interagency networks.
  • Access debrief/handover to ensure all necessary information is conveyed and to minimise the impacts of vicarious trauma on self.
  • Meet statutory obligations as Mandatory Reporters of children and young people at risk of harm
  • Ensure that work is carried out to a high standard of professionalism, efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy, timeframes are met, and client confidentiality is maintained according to policy.
  • Attend and actively participate in clinical supervision, team meetings, professional development, performance appraisals and self-care plans.
  • Comply with all policies and procedures of RDVSA, including information collection, quality improvement, risk management procedures, record keeping and administrative practices of the organisation.
  • Ensure work practices comply with the codes of the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian Association of Social.

Organisational

  • Participate in an orientation process.
  • Comply with the organisation’s policies and procedures.
  • Work in accordance with the organisation’s best practice and quality assurance framework.
  • Participate in the organisation’s projects and activities.
  • Attend and actively participate in the organisation’s meetings.
  • Maintain an awareness of socio, political and feminist issues.
  • Participate in professional development.
  • Ensure work practices are ethical and comply with the RDVSA Code of Ethics and the code of any professional associations of which the employee may be a member.

KEY CHALLENGES

  • You will be part of the 8-10 member CBCS counselling team as well as the broader RDVSA team. However, on a day-to-day basis, this is a sole practitioner position within the WHC. You will be required to work independently.
  • Maintaining client confidentiality whilst building supportive relationships with the partner WHC and RDVSA Counselling Service Manager while working remotely.
  • Managing tight time constraints.
  • Develop and maintain a keen awareness and effective management strategies for the work health and safety risk of vicarious trauma.
  • Facilitate effective communication across multiple health care disciplines to optimise positive health outcomes for clients.

DECISION MAKING

The Counsellor CBCS is professional and experienced in their vocation and is responsible for making appropriate ethical and clinical judgements in their daily work. Regular clinical supervision and 24/7 shift support is available. In consultation with the Counselling Services Manager, Counsellor CBCS will make decisions in relation to advocacy and clinical care planning for individual clients.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

  • Demonstrated:
    • Commitment to the provision of excellence in counselling service provision.
    • Ability to incorporate feminist perspectives within counselling frameworks.
    • Detailed understanding of the causes and consequences of sexual assault, family and domestic violence.
    • Demonstrated well developed communication and negotiation skills.
    • Experience in written advocacy and clinical report writing.
  • A minimum four year Bachelor degree in psychology, social work or counselling.
  • Minimum three years (full time equivalent) counselling experience. This may include face-to-face, and/or telephone, and/or online counselling.
  • Experience in working with adults who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence and related trauma in childhood and in offering medium to long term counselling to clients with complex presentation will be well regarded.
  • Computer literacy.
  • Flexibility and responsiveness to work tasks.
  • Superior emotional competence when operating in a high demand trauma environment.
  • Responsive and competent work management capacity.
  • Ability to travel to Sydney on a quarterly basis
  • Ability to provide therapeutic services in a culturally appropriate way.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

R&DVSA is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we welcome and actively encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse people, people with disabilities, people from the LGBTIQA+ community, and other diverse groups.

WORKPLACE ATTITUDE

The Counsellor CBCS will demonstrate the following positive workplace attitudes:

  • A constructive and proactive approach to work practices and tasks.
  • Non-participation in conversations which undermine the organisation or individuals within the organisation.
  • Embracement of workplace diversity and difference.
  • Willingness to learn.
  • Commitment to upholding the rights of others.
  • Recognition of shared responsibilities.
  • Use of reflective practices and taking personal responsibility for contributing to workplace problem solving.
  • Understanding that each worker is a part of the whole and that all positions and roles contribute equal value to the organisation’s overall aim of providing high quality service provision.
  • Not engaging in social media in a way that may be detrimental to the organisation.
  • Not using private communication medium e.g. mobile phone, to the detriment of the counselling service.

Please send enquiries to [email protected], using the subject line: Counsellor, Community Based Counselling Service - Albury enquiry via EthicalJobs.

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