• 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 10% superannuation ($22,643.76 per annum total package)
• Reports To: Director, Counselling Services
• Direct Reports: Nil
• Team: Counselling
• Key internal contacts: CBCS Counsellors, Counselling Service Managers, Director, Counselling Services
• Key external contacts: WHC staff, clients

Full Stop Australia (FSA) has a number of Counsellor CBCS positions available at the following Women’s Health Centres:

• Penrith
• Wyoming
• Lismore

Please identify in your application which location you are applying for.

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 Health Centres (WHCs) but is funded and managed by Full Stop Australia (FSA). 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 FSA.

Please note, this is not a casework position. The Counsellor CBCS’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 Counsellor CBCS’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 FSA’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.

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 FSA 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 FSA, 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 FSA Code of Ethics and the code of any professional associations of which the employee may be a member.

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.

Please note under the Public Health Order 2021 all staff are required to be fully vaccinated with an approved COVID-19 vaccine or provide evidence of an exemption.

FSA holds an exemption under the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act and only employs female workers for clinical positions.

A position description is attached.