Clinical Placements

Over the course of your training, you will need to gain clinical experience by attending a number of placements at which you will work with clients on a one-to-one or group basis. This experience forms an integral part of a trainee’s development as a counsellor, psychotherapist or counselling psychologist.

Internal Placement - At Metanoia, we have an in-house clinic – the Metanoia Counselling and Psychotherapy Service (MCPS) – which offers placements to our trainees and provides psychological therapy to the community in a confidential and professional setting and at a lower cost. Depending on which programme you are on, students may apply for placement within the Clinic from part way through the second or third term of their first year of training, provided they have the approval of their primary tutor. Practitioners are asked to make a commitment to work in the Clinic for one year and to see up to three clients per week.

External Placements - While most external placements require you to have a minimum level of experience before you apply (generally measured in supervised clinical hours), some placements will take practitioners with little or no prior experience.

We have several excellent resources to help you find placements:

* Two dedicated clinical placement and development officers

* Placement handbook - This provides detailed information about the range of possible placements and guidance on how to go about finding and applying for them. It also contains answers to frequently asked questions about a number of placement-related issues. (The handbook can be found under ‘Documents and Forms’ on the Placements section on Moodle).

* Placement database - This contains listings for hundreds of placements throughout the UK.

* Placement noticeboards - New placements and agencies that are currently recruiting are displayed on noticeboards at North Common Road and Gunnersbury Avenue. They are also posted on a virtual noticeboard on the Metanoia Institute website.

* Placement forums - All new placement advertisements are posted on the Latest Placements forum and the Mental Health Familiarisation forum on the Placements pages on Moodle.

* Placement notifications - All students are subscribed to the Latest Placements forum and to the Mental Health

Familiarisation forum which send automatic notifications direct to your Metanoia email address. You can manage your subscriptions via Moodle. To subscribe/unsubscribe to any forum you need to open the forum page and then modify your subscription status in the Administration box that is located on the left-hand side.

Placement monitoring process - You are required to complete a form at the start and end of each placement as this enables us to monitor the standards of professional practice and assist subsequent students in finding suitable placements. The following forms can all be found on Moodle and should be completed and submitted online:

Start of Placement Form (for completion at the commencement of each placement) available on Moodle 

End of Placement form (for completion at the conclusion of each placement) available on Moodle.